is love for Indian food is not unknown to the world, so is his fierce passion for motorcycles and exploring the world. t2oS sat down for a long and lazy chat at the busy Promenade Lounge in Taj Bengal, with chef Gary Mehigan of MasterChef Australia fame, on pushing culinary boundaries, his best memories, and living a blessed life.
What’s it like coming back to Calcutta?
(Chuckles) Haha! I have lost count. I guess this is the third or fourth visit. People keep asking me the number of visits... I have lost all count. I have been back so many times.
What are yourmust-dos in the city?
I think if I redirect the question to what has been my lasting impression, then it would be of the time when we were filming here last year during Durga Puja. We were taking the goddess Durga and submerging her in the river, and it’s a memory of that emotion, and the sun setting on the Hooghly river. While we were filming, all the ladies were in one truck and the men were in the other one and there was incense and smoke; it made the city very sensual and mysterious and magical. That’s an experience that as a tourist you miss, being here with the locals you get the authentic experience. You have context to what’s going on. Post filming, my guys were like you can get down from the truck, but I was like, ‘No, I’m good here’, and I am watching people pay their respects to the idol.
So, it was more of a quintessential Durga Puja experience, if I may say so. Also Gary, now that MasterChef is done for you, what’s your path looking like?
People say, ‘Oh! You’re living a blessed life’, I feel like yes I am, because you know as MasterChef finished it was a strange period, as we entered into lockdown. Melbourne had around six lockdowns. As things started to open back up, a new path emerged. Matt Preston, he’s a wise man, and I have always asked him the secret to his success, and he always talks about taking the road less travelled, the unknown. I know it’s an often-used cliché, but it’s right. We have all taken up different paths for ourselves and we’re enjoying doing that, and for me it has been about travel, and coming back to India because I am so fascinated by it. I am doing a small project at the Melbourne airport, and also a small project in Sydney. Conosh (a culinary experience, learning and event platform), obviously, is keeping me busy for the major part of the year. The introduction with Conosh was a gentle one during lockdown doing education classes online for foodies, but over the years it has just grown.
So, what has beenyour most memorable MasterChef Australia moment?
Ooh! Jeez, I think the lasting memory for me is the unique and one-off experiences that we had with each and every contestant. So many of them are on my phone. There’s Poh and there’s Andre Ursini, Julie Goodwin, and all. They always ring, and so it’s these kinds of enduring relationships that kind of stick with you. Then, of course, there’s the relationship with the boys. So, it’s not about what people think, it’s not the glitz and the glamour, it’s the real and raw connections that you make.
Speaking of the boys, what does a typical reunion between Matt (Preston), George (Colombaris) and you look like?
Well food obviously. The last time we got together was probably a few weeks before my India visit, and we all went to... Mahob by Amok, a local Cambodian restaurant. We know the chef, and we got together over some glasses of Chardonnay and great Cambodian food (laughs).
2024 looks promising for you with regards to the Great Australian Culinary Voyage, what’s that all about? It looked pretty interesting on your Instagram bio...
Yeah, well, it’s more travel. I am saying yes a lot to local regional food festivals, particularly in Australia. I tap into areas that I normally don’t go to. I just did the Taste Great Southern, in Albany, Western Australia. It’s very quiet, they do not get a lot of foodie tourism down there, but it’s a great undiscovered place. In October, I will be doing the Cheese Fest, which is another great artisanal event. Small and unique. I did Festivali in Tasmania as well. So, the Great Australian Culinary Voyage is a fun food space, it’s being
headlined by Karen Martini, she’s a very dear friend, and Darren Purchese, a well-known pastry chef as well as a good friend.
We’ve seen you a lot more in India over the past year or so, and you are especially involved in big Indian festivities. How has that impacted you culturally, considering it was a whole lot to imbibe?
I feel very privileged, I am in this unique position now where I feel that I have only learnt a little. In terms of a 5,000-year-old history and a 76-year-old country, there’s so much more to assimilate and experience. It amazes me that India functions so well with so many people that are so diverse. You know, like the 17 tribes in Nagaland have only one thing in common, that they are Indian, other than that, they are so diverse, and culturally rich. It’s an endless source of fascination. I am in this unique space where many times my Indian friends speak to me regarding a festival or event that I have attended in India, and they go on to tell me what it’s about and I’m like, no, that’s not completely authentic. Haha! In a way, I feel like I have learnt more than what a lot of Indians themselves know. It could be something like the experience of Holi, which in Rajbhoomi is for 40 days where they treat Radha and Krishna like members of their family, and yet most people experience it as just a celebration of colours. We really dug into that spiritually or culturally, and so I walk away with a very different view than what most tourists in say a Vrindavan, walking in to party, play Holi and just drink some bhaang.
Talking of tourists, many times you have described yourself as a ‘food tourist’. How has the food from your travels evolved your cooking?
India is fascinating to me because of the food, I love Indian food. When I say Indian, I mean it can be anything ranging from Naga to Andhra to Jain to Kashmiri. Over the years I have collected many recipes and gathered a lot of perspectives. It’s just so difficult to narrow it down. Like Ladakh, for example, Leh Ladakh is the land of high passes, the food is influenced a lot by China, so lots of noodles, momos, and soups, little spices. Because of climate, the necessity to dry and preserve food, lots of apricot oil, apples, seabuckthorn juice, and so many more unique ingredients and ideas came to perspective. Thukpah, their simple noodle dish, I had so many different versions of it. Say for Nagaland, it was all about the discovery of foraged, smoked, preserved and hot. For a chef, roaming around in Kohima and seeing things like preserved mustard grains, tasting umami marmite-y, bamboo shoot, chillies, beansprouts, or salted and smoked fish, cured openly without refrigeration, is just so much learning. Ever since I was young, as a chef, I always felt that one of the most vital things that you must do is travel. Just when you think you’ve learnt, you realise there’s so much more to learn.
Speaking of Ladakh, we know you’re a motorbike enthusiast, did you get to ride through the mountains?
Did a lot of white water rafting adventures along the Zanskar River, at the confluence, which was a thrill. We followed the story of the nomadic tribe Changpa, which collects the Pashmina wool, and yeah, rode a few motorbikes. I have just got a Royal Enfield in Australia. I was at a display in Nagaland and I sat on a chrome Royal Enfield Interceptor, and then I went back and could not stop thinking about it, so yeah, now I have got one. I have been wanting to come back and do the Manali and Leh ride. I’ve met so many motorcyclists on my travels. We went to the 12th Annual North Eastern Biker’s Meet; it had over 2,000 Royal Enfields, and so many bikers gifted me their badge, so now I have a big collection. In motorcycle terms, I love that in
India, for people who love motorcycles, Royal Enfield is a part of their blood. They buy one and they fix it and maintain it. There’s a comment that you may buy a BMW motorcycle, it’s expensive, but it doesn’t have a soul. Every scratch is painful.
We’ve also seen you interact with a lot of celebrated Indian chefs during your travel here. What has that bonding been like?
I mention them all the time because they have become a part of my friendship group because of recent travels and interactions; some of them are not on Instagram. In Madurai, I was fascinated by the guy making parottas, and the skills that he had, even as a chef, I know I can make parottas, but not like how he made them. He was smiling, throwing them in the air and not even looking. He’s made millions of them in his life. It’s not just chefs that I admire, but also the massive foundation of street food and skills. There’s Prateek Sadhu who used to be at Masque, now he’s up in the Himalayas, foraging. Thomas Zacharias of The Bombay Canteen, he’s now doing The Locavore. Avanish Martins at Cavatina in Goa. And now a new generation like Varun Totlani of Masque who is now carrying the baton forward, and then there is Hussain at The Bombay Canteen, these guys are doing some marvellous food. These are the guys I talk to and text for recipes. Recently when I was trying to make medu vadas and it wasn’t coming out well, I texted my guys like Ranveer Brar, Thomas Zacharias to send me a recipe, and they’re all different. So, I just take them, play with them and then serve them to my wife to taste.
So is your wife your taster?
(Chuckles) For the vadas, she was the crunch taster, but yes, she does tell me that this one’s right and that one not so much.
Does she travelwith you often?
Not as much as I would like her to. But she’s coming to India in November. Conosh is bringing in the boys, Matt and George along with me for a few pop-ups. It’s going to be a long time since we got together, so it’s going to be a special experience.
Last year, you launched your cookbook, Eat Good Food Everyday. What’s the inspiration behind it?
It’s a funny story actually; during the first lockdown, my agent reached out to me with regards to a cookbook. I refused because for me even though it was a forced break, it was the longest that I had ever been home at a stretch, so I wanted to enjoy it. It was in the second lockdown when it really hit us that it was life and world-changing, I said, ‘You know what, I am going to write that book, and it’s going to be a compendium of everyday recipes’. It’s about 300 odd recipes, it’s all tried by me and my family, some of them for over decades, and the other thing that we decided with the photographer was, no photographs. If you look at old-school cookbooks and recipes, they didn’t have a picture. It took a lot of pressure off me to photograph the dish; I also figured that it’s taken a lot of pressure off people to replicate it by looking at perfectly shot images. It’s quite liberating. My wife and daughter use a lot of my recipes from the cookbook. The other night my daughter called me asking for the recipe for Char Kway Teow, Malaysian rice noodle stir-fry, and I said, ‘Oh! it’s in the book’, and she made it and my wife texted me a thumbs-up, which I’m guessing means it was nice. Hahaha!
So, is your wife yourmain critique?
I would say that not just her, but a network of people. Over the years, I have heavily relied on Matt and George for feedback, on my restaurants when I had them, and my recipes. It’s going to be interesting to see how we navigate our preferences when it comes to planning the menu for November event.
My wife and I have been together for a really long time and sometimes when I ask her for her feedback, she goes like, ‘It’s nice’, and I am like is that all I’m gonna get? Hahaha.
Apart from travel, what else is on the cards in the near future?
Next year, we have more India visits with Conosh. In December, I am doing a pop-up in Dubai; we’re going to Sri Lanka for a few pop-ups with Cinnamon Hotels, and tag along for a holiday. I have never been to Sri Lanka so I am excited about it. There has to be a family holiday at some time, but I’d love to go back to visit Portugal again at some point. As mentioned earlier, I have a small project at the Melbourne airport, easy Asian food scene vibe, I am going to call it the Big Bombay, as I intend to do the Bombay sandwich but with a lot more cheese. Australians love their gooey cheese. I have two more NatGeo episodes for Indian Mega Festivals to shoot during Dussehra and Diwali.
In today’s digital age, for a chef to be successful you also need to put yourself out there on social and digital platforms. What’s your strategy?
I do not have a strategy. I keep getting told off by people to monetise my social media platforms, but I do not want to do it. Sometimes I cook at home, I think that I should have filmed it, but it actually distracts me from actually trying to convert my energy more towards reading, being more mindful and soaking in moments that don’t require a photographic memory. Social media is a wonderful medium, but it can also be overpowering.
What’s comfortfood for you?
It can be anything. When we talk of comfort food, it should be beyond delicious, sometimes it should give you goosebumps; it could remind you of your mum. My go-to stuff would be something like a Roast Chicken with all the trimmings, eating dal chawal. I have travelled a lot in India now, and it’s reliable and delicious, don’t need to look at the menu.
What’s your family’s favourite recipe?
They love spicy, so it can be any number of Indian dishes. We do a couple of different fries from Kerala, Fish Moilee is a family fave, so is the Coriander and Mint Chicken with Cashews. A Black Pepper Chicken recipe with lots of turmeric is also loved by them. We also love South East Asian, so my daughter loves Dan Dan Noodles, Mee Goreng. My daughter and I make Dan Dan Noodles at least twice a month. My wife begs us for an Italian dish.
“I am in this unique space where many times my Indian friends speak to me regarding a festival or event that I have attended in India, and they go on to tell me what it’s about and I’m like, no, that’s not completely authentic. Haha! In a way, I feel like I have learnt more than what a lot of Indians themselves know. It could be something like the experience of Holi, which in Rajbhoomi is for 40 days where they treat Radha and Krishna like members of their family, and yet most people experience it as just a celebration of colours. We really dug into that spiritually or culturally, and so I walk away with a very different view than what most tourists say in Vrindavan walking in to party, play Holi and just drink some bhang.” Gary strikes a pose at a Holi celebration in Mathura.
Gary in chef mode at the Cal 27 kitchen at Taj Bengal