Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Playing with it bite size
|
Donald Bleau talks about being a cook for over 40 years
|
He started cooking to get time with his French girlfriend. That was back in the 1960s. Donald Bleau was just an American teenager then. He would be made to share a cigar and a wine with his girlfriend’s father, while mother and daughter cooked
up a French feast. He enjoyed the cigar and the wine. But he preferred to be in the kitchen with the women. Before he knew it he had completed his Culinary Training at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Today he is the President and CEO of Eggspectation Restaurants.
A celebration of the food and art of New York at Eggspectation’s Jaypee Vasant Continental and Jaypee Siddharth branches brings him to the Capital. Being the CEO has not kept him away from the kitchen. He enters the restaurant with a big smile and American gregariousness. 40 years ago a chef was seen as a “domestic worker” in America. To ease the offence, he did an MBA in Finance and Marketing. So, he knows how to cook and how to count. He orders a plate of coconut fried shrimp from the “New York-New York” menu. “There’s nothing like American food, unless it’s American Indian,” he adds, “it’s all fusion.” The lightly crunchy prawns are of Jamaican origin, for example.
American food is essentially whitened cuisines from across the world. The New York-New York menu thus has everything from teriyaki chicken wings to creamy polenta to grilled rack of lamb — Chinatown style. The world’s dishes are New York’s dishes. But isn’t there a signature American dish? “Double dip fried chicken, it would have to be,” he answers.
Bleau has been in Delhi training the cooks at Jaypee over the last week. But he is quick to point out that chefs should never put their signature to dishes. The brand is more important than the individual chef. Irrespective of who is in the kitchen, the food should taste the same. He adds, “If I see a chef putting his signature to dishes, then I need to beware.”
He might not autograph dishes, but he has had signature television programmes and newspaper columns. “Cooking with the Butler’s Pantry” (1987) was one of the first cable cookery shows. It was hard work and took a week’s preparation for a single show. He even wrote a weekly food and wine column — though he “hated” writing it. He even ghost-wrote an entire cookery book. “It was for a famous lady television celebrity,” he says with a wink, adding, “That was even harder to write since I had to write it like she would write it!”
Preferring to be a cook to a chef, he loves cooking at home too. But his lone bane is baking. “I need to play with it to make it happen. I hate measuring out one cup and half a teaspoon. That’s not for me,” he asserts.
BITE SIZE
Restaurant
Eggspectation, Jaypee Hotels, Vasant Vihar
and Rajendra Place
Festival
New York Festival
Duration
Until April 6
Meal for two
Rs. 2000 (plus taxes)
Reservations
Jaypee Siddharth
011-25760000
Jaypee Vasant Continental
011-26148800
NANDINI NAIR
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
