Chef Vikram Vij served more than a savoury culinary dish at the Toronto edition of Jaipur
Literature Festival recently. He layered it with spicy yesteryear tales and garnished it with quick
wit and ready repartees.
Through a live demonstration and conversation with founder of The Depanneur, Len Senater, Vij
explored the ways in which culinary innovation and cultural heritage blend to create food that
nourishes both body and soul!
The Michelin-honoured chef, who redefined modern Indian cuisine in Canada, made the stage
at St. Lawrence Centre for his working kitchen and spiced it with stories soaked in culinary
nostalgia. All this while he was launching his new cookbook ‘My New Indian Kitchen’ which
offers bold, elegant recipes, layered with tradition and care.
While Vij takes pride in his Indian origins but says Canada is home. He’s been in love with
Canada since moving here in 1989. “I always tell people that I come from India, the largest
democracy in the world and live in Canada, the best democracy in the world, ” he said to a
cheering audience..
And, Torontonians are in for a treat with Vij announcing a new restaurant called ‘Sahmi’ opening
in Toronto soon.
Vij spoke about his journey from opening his first restaurant in West Broadway, Vancouver in
1994 to his renowned Rangoli restaurant in the City of Glass and the thirty years in between. “To
be honest, I always wanted to be a Bollywood actor. I wanted to run around trees and dance
and sing,” Vij revealed to a surprised JLF audience.
While his father shot down his ambitions of wanting to be a Bollywood hero, Vij did the next best
thing he knew. His love of food and cooking had him hop on a plane to Salzburg, Austria to
study hotel management. Here, he received his chef’s training and later became a certified
‘sommelier,’ which he explained is a term for wine steward.
Indian food is the simplest cuisine to make if you understand it. It should be flavourfully spicy
and each spice should leave the proof of its presence on your tongue. Famous for food menu
items like wine-marinated lamb popsicles in garlic fenugreek cream curry, Vij says he loves
Indian food but it can be the worst cuisine to serve in, as, when cooked, it can turn into different
shades of brown.
“So I took the art of cooking Indian cuisine and the art of presentation I learnt during my chef’s
training and blended the two.”
Vij is also a wine connoisseur, mixing Indian food with fine wine making for even finer dining. He
promotes local farmers by using wines from BC in his savoury dishes, adding, “we need to be
proud of our backyard and promote local food produce. We should not be buying cheap food but
good quality food to nourish our body and soul.”
Similar to the Alpaca biryani and Indian-flavoured tiramisu, his new cookbook includes fusion
cuisines from around the world, with a cultural breakdown behind each recipe. It is not just
about food but the accompanying headnotes with wonderful stories and travel memoirs, that
make the cookbook unique.
Vij confessed that it was his grandfather who first gave him the idea to open up a restaurant.
Calling his grandfather,”the best drunk he had ever met, “ Vij confessed that due to his
grandfather’s love for the spirits, the senior Vij wanted to be a bartender in his restaurant. “I
opened my first restaurant to honour my grandfather’s legacy.”
Vij reminisced that his welcome meal in Salzburg was a beef tongue which was so gross that he
ate pickles brought from India on bread for an entire week. When asked what he would cook for
a 19-year-old Vikram Vij if he could go back in time, Vij replied,
“I would love to make a well-spiced, Indian version of the beef tongue as my give-back gift.”
He visited a food fair recently and was surprised to find a huge demand for turmeric and
ashwagandha capsules. “Food is medicine and eating well-spiced flavourful Indian food two or
three times a week should do the trick. You don’t need to eat spices in capsules/”
According to Vij, India is the largest food democracy and Indian food like chicken curry, can be
made in 365 different ways all year round. “Indian food is so aromatic and it would be great to
photograph the smells of Indian food. Food should taste different each time, proof that it’s made
by a human hand. If you want food to taste the same, you’re better off going to Mcdonald’s,”
added Vij with humour in his voice.
India is not just Taj Mahal and Golden temple. Indian cuisine too is so diverse and each cuisine
so unique to its region. Indians were traditionally vegetarians and the Moghal influence made
Indians meat eaters. Cilantro, green chillies and tomatoes all came from Mexico but make for
great ingredients in the Indian palate today.
And, while his love for food has made Vij a chef, author and television personality, he says
simple food is the best food ever, “I would love for my last meal to be a simple yellow ‘daal’ and
a bottle of wine. That’s the way I want to leave this world.”
Spoken like a chef who truly knows his comfort food!
