Former chef for Indian presidents cooks at Hilton
Chef Machindra Kasture
By Kim Se-jeong
Above is gulnar biryani, a rice and vegetable dish that is cooked halfway through and then baked. Below is beef vindaloo made of beef cooked with spices blended in vinegar. /Courtesy of the Millennium Seoul Hilton
This year’s Indian Food Festival at the Millennium Seoul Hilton is unlike previous ones.
The festival is open until Sunday at Cafe 395, the hotel’s buffet restaurant at the lobby.
Machindra Kasture is the festival’s main chef. Kasture had served two Indian presidents for eight years and brings the best of Indian cuisine.
The chef said a jewel of Indian cuisine is the diverse range of dishes.
“Every state (in India) has its own dishes,” Kasture said during an interview on Tuesday. “In the North where the weather is really cold, you see dishes using lamb fat. Down in the south like in Bangalore, you see many seafood (dishes) and in Goa many types of coconut-based gravy.”
At the festival, he wants to showcase a little bit of everything to the Korean guests.
The festival menu includes pork sarpotal, a dish from the southern Goa region and made of pork marinated in garlic, ginger and other spices; beef vindaloo, another Goan dish made of beef cooked with spices blended in vinegar; and Northern dishes, including tandoori chicken, butter chiken, tofu makhani (cottage cheese), chingri malai curry, curry from west Bengal, and gulnar biryani, a rice and vegetable dish that is cooked halfway through and then baked.
The chef, who is visiting Korea for the first time, said he found Korean cuisine amazingly different from Indian cuisine.
“It’s very light, with not so much fat and oil. It’s very lightly cooked,” he said. “It is very healthy. You have a variety of seafood. We have similarities between Korea and India, but when it comes to food, I think we are quite different.”
With his rich culinary experience, however, finding a culinary bridge between the two countries will be only a matter of time for him.
He has traveled the world extensively while serving two former Indian presidents — Pratibha Patil, who was in office from 2007 to 2012, and Pranab Mukherjee, who has been in office since 2012. Kasture left the Presidential palace in 2015.
He mainly cooked Indian cuisine during these travels with the two presidents, but along the way, he got new culinary ideas. For example, in Mexico, he made salad and curry using cactus leaves.
During the eight years, his main responsibility was preparing official meals for the presidents, their families and their guests during their visits to the palace and at banquets.
“It is a great honor to cook for your head of your state,” he recalled. “I was so proud. My family was so proud of me, and so was my community.”
Kasture now works for the Indian Tourism Development Cooperation. His focus is on food production and promoting Indian cuisine around the world, which was how he was invited to headline the food festival in Seoul.
He said he doesn’t cook at his home in New Delhi, but wife, a radio-broadcast journalist, does for him.
His 16-year-old son, Vaishnav, also has an interest in cooking. “He cooks home sometimes, and he teaches me things,” he said with a smile.
The dishes are available at the festival during lunch and dinner. For more information and reservations, call Cafe 395 at (02) 753-7788.