All things spicy

Celebrity chef Maria Goretti says she is “happy to see that the world has finally woken up to Indian tastes”. She adds, “We are this melting pot of various cuisines, various tastes, and various flavours and the world has not yet seen all that India has to offer.”

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Goretti recently collaborated with The Doers Club by Dewar’s to co-curate a gourmet food and drinks experience called East India Bottle Masala and Double Aged Scotch.

Tell us more about your collaboration with Dewar’s.

I have been talking with Dewar’s about the dinner for quite some time. We started the conversation when I came back from Paris in 2018 but the entire year I was travelling. And, I always feel that there is a perfect time for everything and everything does fall into place and I guess this was the perfect time and finally Dewar’s, me being the East Indian and my East-Indian bottle masala found a place to cook for The Doers Club at the sidecar. So, me and my team – the travelling chefs, we had the most amazing time being part of this association.

How did you get into cooking?

I never thought I would be doing what I am doing right now. Because I had to feed my kids (laughs), so I had to learn how to cook. I had to learn from basic how-to boil rice, how to make roti, a French toast, perfectly boiled eggs along with many other things and somewhere down the line I found cooking so interesting that in 2010, I joined Sapphires and did 1 year of baking with them. Then I joined Tante Marie Woking in London. I spent a complete year in travelling from Mumbai to Paris and Mumbai to London.

I am a certified pastry chef from Le Cordon Bleu, Paris and London.

How would you define your love for cooking?

It’s passion…

What are the three ingredients that are a must in your kitchen?

Three ingredients must in kitchen are garlic, butter and my East Indian bottle masala.

What’s your favourite food/dish?

My favourite cuisines are Kerala cuisine, Bengali cuisine, Kashmiri food, Thai, Ethiopian and Hungarian cuisine. So basically, I love food and it’s very difficult to choose.

How do you manage to combine nutrition and taste in a dish?

It’s difficult to combine nutrition and taste in a dish, but most of the time I am very clear what I want to eat. I am not somebody who eats terribly unhealthy. I keep my food very simple. As I have a big sweet tooth, if I am eating sweets, then I try to eat simple food nothing heavy.

What food trends do you see in 2020?

It will be very difficult for me to answer because I don’t know what food trends are but what I see is getting a little healthier, people are more conscious about ketogenic, gluten-free, vegan food. —IANS