Exclusive Interview | Chef Akshay Bhardwaj, Cluster Executive Chef, Atmosphere Hotels & Resorts, Maldives
/“Eating butter out of my grandma’s hands while she churned home made white butter every morning for breakfast. Having that when I was three, I clearly remember it. The love had a lot of flavour, better than the ingredients.”
How did it all start? Share your culinary journey with us.
Well it had started way before I joined college. Growing up in a household where everything was organised from scratch may it be for kids parties or gatherings, mom and dad cooking there own things for the guest. Mom loved to bake and my father is more into savoury food. Slowly coming for few hours to my father’s take away kitchen in the 1998 time and spending time. Slowly and slowly the roots built up and for me being a non medical back ground I didn’t want to settle by engineering I wanted more and more.
Dreamt of getting in defence or pursue cooking which then slowly harnessed in IHM Gurdaspur under amazing leadership of Mr CM Bhan, Mr Navdeep Sharma and Mr Ashwini Kachroo.
Hence my journey started being a Trainee in wild flower oberois to management trainee in ISTA Hyderabad. Going ahead doing my MBA in France and working under a 2 michelin star restaurant ,boutique hotel in Belgium.
Passion driven and travel stung I joined cruises and was lucky to travel all over south America and north of Africa.
Coming back to India with Pullman hotels under the mentor ship of Chef Tanveer Kwatra now GM W Goa. Going Ahead I worked in Canada with a resort property and a standalone fine dining Italian restaurant, then working with the best restaurants in the world under the guidance of Chef Rene Redzepi in 2016.
Post that I joined and opened one of the iconic restaurants in India ‘Whisky Samba’ and then opening and relaunching other brands with the same company. Going ahead I joined ITC Maurya New Delhi under the supreme guidance of Chef Rajdeep Kapoor and Chef Manisha.
Post that I was the head chef for Hyatt Andaz new delhi a flagship hotel and now today holding a position of Executive Chef with Atmosphere hotels in Maldives with one there biggest Unit of 2 concept resorts combined with one of the largest inventories in Maldives .
What are your earliest memories of the kitchens you worked in?
Eating butter out of my grandmas hands while she churned home made white butter every morning for breakfast. Having that when I was three, I clearly remember it and then was having my moms house made apple cake in winters fresh and warm out of the oven. Trust me the love hold a lot of flavour better than the ingredients.
A dish your patrons/guest love
I can vouch to make a killer mushroom risotto. We discovered a new technique to make the risotto more flavour full and more intense with less of cheese in my ITC days .
A dish that you love but do not have on your menu
Vanilla canadian Scallops and pistachio its not there on the menu but coming soon.
What according to you does it take to become a successful chef?
Persistent
Progressiveness and
Discipline
What advice would you give to a young culinary student?
I would just say the same thing, believe in your dream, be persistent.
But when one starts, listen, observe how things are and why things are and how and why what happens. Once you get the habit of why one starts getting all answers in place and solutions in place.
If food could talk, which dish in your menu would have the most interesting story to tell?
Well presently the menu is in a change phase to where I am but the menu does have a cucumber and broccoli stem salad which has story of conserving all the leftovers and using the produce wisely.
As an Executive Chef, have you ever had any funny or bizarre requests from guests that you managed to fulfill?
Funny and bizzare yes “I am vegan but I am allowed to have cheese in my pasta“ or “I cannot have shrimps as I am allergic but prawns are good for me“.
If you were a vegetable, which one would you be, and why?
I would rather be a fungus be a mushroom.
Can you share a wacky kitchen mishap or memorable culinary disaster that you turned into a hilarious learning experience?
Well this was in the kitchen in one of the restaurants where the cleaners were working and the chef was on duty. Somehow while balancing the tall broom the cleaners touched the emergency fire extinguisher system and the whole kitchen was loaded in the fire extinguishing foam, as per cctv it was hilarious how the commie reacted. That’s how we learned one needs to train both segments from basics how to commence cleaning in early morning in kitchens and how emergency like these should be handled in a restaurant.
As an Executive Chef, have you ever encountered any culinary superstitions or quirky traditions in the kitchen?
Not as such but yes when in india kitchens are opened and specially if there is a tandoor rum is poured in offering to god before anything is cooked in it .
Can you describe a bizarre food trend or fad that you've observed or experienced throughout your culinary career?
I truly don’t respect tik tok or reel hacks with processed food playing with good food using things like Cheetos or making a pakora of maggi or chole bhature ice cream. why would someone do that? I just don’t look into it. Some hacks done by chefs are really good though but most are not.
