New Delhi: The chefs who cook for the world’s leaders usually keep a low profile, leaving the limelight to their bosses. But once a year it is their turn to be wined and dined and treated as honoured guests in a foreign country.
Billed as the world’s most exclusive gastronomic society, the Club des Chefs des Chefs brings together the men and women who cook for heads of state to exchange ideas and — presumably — insider information on their bosses’ tastes.
They have met annually since the club was first established in Paris in 1977 and this year for the first time they are doing so in India, hosted by the president’s personal chef, Montu Saini.
“The presidents all meet each other. I thought it was a good idea to make a sort of G20 of the chefs,” the club’s founder, Gilles Bragard, told journalists in Delhi.
If politics divides men, a good table will unite them. Naturally, the tradition involves trying out local delicacies. But Mr Saini has left little to chance when it comes to the Indian capital’s most notorious complaint.
Rather than subjecting the chefs to Delhi street food, he has had the kitchen of their five-star hotel recreate golgappas and aloo tikkis — popular fried snacks made of wheat flour and potato and served with sweet and spicy chutneys.
“I can’t take them to the street because they are foreigners. Their tummies are too sensitive,” said Mr Saini. “So I am creating a replica in the hotels.” Arriving in their immaculate chef’s whites at Old Delhi’s chaotic spice market, even more crowded than usual ahead of the Diwali festival, they were showered with pink rose petals and garlanded with jasmine.
“This is fantastic,” said Bernard Vaussion, who cooked for six French presidents before he retired, as he pushed his way through the market’s packed alleyways.
“I mean it’s dirty and noisy, but who cares. It’s such an experience. India takes its toll though. By day three one of the visiting chefs has fallen ill, while another is feeling the effects of Indian cuisine. “After four days of eating spicy (food), you feel it,” said Fabrizio Boca, chef to the Italian president. Like most of the visiting chefs — 16 men and one woman, America’s Cristeta Comerford — Boca is eager to learn more about India’s vast range of spices. Comerford, a Filipino-American, said she saw parallels with the cuisine of the Philippines. “It’s not a recipe driven food, it’s more of a philosophy,” she told this newspaper.
