Eat healthy........Stay fit........!!!

The term healthy food generally means light food, food with nutritional value- beneficial for human body,that keeps extra kilos away , helps you to stay healthy, slim, fit and so on….. All these are beyond a normal healthy diet required for human nutrition.

'Healthy food' is sometimes also called natural food, organic food, and wholesome food. 'Healthy food' may also refer to functional food: food for which a specific claim of health benefit is made, such as that consumption of a certain food that may prevent some disease.

In today’s life lot of us have become very health conscious and people who are very critical about their fitness and wellness  love to eat healthy food, and that becomes a comfort food for them e.g. sandwiches, salad, soups, fruits, steamed food and less fatty food.

In general all the comfort foods are flavorful having soft consistencies.

Eating light and healthy food keeps you fit and charged up, when ever we talk about any kind of food people look up to Chefs.So here's a Chef's point of view on this:
I love to cook healthy food or food which has some benefits to human body, because of our ancient secrets of healthy food and medicines...'Ayurveda'. As per Ayurveda, every ingredient has its own medicinal value, as long as we cook it properly, and at the correct time of the season.

These days searching for such food is very difficult and there are very few Chefs with that kind of in- depth knowledge of Ayurveda and Vedic food.

The easiest way to get healthy food these days are sandwiches, salads, soups and so on, all these food is available in all the five star hotels and good restaurants.

You can eat any thing you wish to as long as its eaten in a specific quantity, anything in excess is bad for human body in some way or other.

Some of my personal favorites are:
-Chicken clear soup or consommés with vegetables
-Fresh greens and raw vegetables with any kind of vinaigrette
-A wholesome sandwich with crisp lettuce, veggies and topped-up with some smoked poultry fillets
-Steamed fish with roasted garlic chips, ginger and light soy sauce
-Pan seared pomfret with fresh basil, garlic and olives
-Roasted chicken with steamed vegetables and light jus

Stay healthy, be fit and let the good days roll in our lives

Food to make your winter cozy

Seasonality of food refers to the time of year when a specific type food is at its peak, either in terms of harvest or its flavor. This is usually the time when the item is the freshest in the market. The food's peak time in terms of harvest usually coincides with when its flavor is at its best. There are some exceptions also, an example being sweet potatoes which are best eaten quite a while after harvest.

What factors have to be kept in mind while making winter menus!
Pick the vegetables & fruits which are grown during winters to get the best flavors, the vegetable and fruit grown in the winter season will give positive effect to your body.
Use ingredients which have the quality to keep you warm.
Eat low fat and high carbohydrate, food such as pasta, breads etc.
Add vitamin C to your menus.

What are the essential elements of a winter menu!
Consume food with a lot of carbohydrate.
Vegetables like beet root, carrots, red cabbage, brussel sprouts, methi leaves etc should be included in your menus.
Meats - mutton, pork, beef and duck meat cooked with spices or roast is a very good option.
Spices - use cinnamon and clove in your food.
Hot beverages - Tulsi and ginger tea concoction is one of the best beverages to keep you warm.
Usage of jaggery during winter is also good option instead of regular sugar.
Live barbeque is a very interesting option

Dos and don’ts while crafting your menus..
Eat fresh greens like spinach,etc.
Balanced intake of food with carbohydrates.
Balance your menus with peanuts and other nuts.
Red meats and game are good options during winters.
Make your food little spicy.
Don’t eat too much of light or fatty food.
Don’t drink too much of liquids – Hot and cold.
Don’t consume icy drinks and desserts.
Don’t stay hungry for long.

Let’s enjoy the chillness of winter with some good culinary feast

For the love of SPICES

Peep into my profound nostalgia and you will find a modest household in Kerala reeking with the waft of rich cardamom, subtle cinnamon and feisty black pepper. Yes, I, like everyone of us, had a childhood remarkably scented by the fresh spices from my mother’s kitchen!!

Spices often defined as ‘strongly flavored aromatic dried seeds, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance’ are the most generously used ingredient in the sub-tropical regions like India. (Not that I would discount its character globally, because if we were to go back in the history, Spices have the most vivid evolution from the home kitchens to the mummified Pharaoh’s tomb!!)

India better known as the Land of Spices,can impart magic to any bland dish with the versatility of its Spices. I think of this sometimes when I’m reading the unconventional or modern cooking methods recommended by our pioneering gastronomists , depicting rich spices as a potential health hazard. And I think why we are propagating a bland, tasteless lifestyle which is so contrary to our natural genomes. How is it that we tolerate a lack of flavor?

I as a Chef strongly believe that Spices when used in right proportions compliment the texture of food and enhance the flavor without masking the original ingredients in the preparation. My piece of advice to fellow Chefs remains ‘choose your spices carefully and use them in right proportion to achieve desired flavor and color’.      

For any Indian meal, spices are used for its characteristic requirements, For instance it can be used as a flavor enhancer to the curries or a coloring agent in 'Dastarkhwan' (when used in checked quantity) or for the medicinal values to heal  ailments.

With the country as vast and diverse like India ,the cuisine changes in every 100 km and the major change are the spices. Every state and its cuisine have its own distinct nature of spices that also defines their food, For instance Lucknowi and Awadhi food uses lot of sweet spices making the cuisine rich on palate. But in states like Tamil Nadu spices used are sharper, giving the cuisine a distinct feisty character. However in few regions like Rajasthan and Gujarat one can observe the usage of milder spices like cumin, fennel, coriander because of less meat in local food habits and soaring climatic conditions, making the cuisine light and healthy for digestion. 

Indian spices have amazing medicinal properties, and the popular ancient Indian medicinal practice Ayurveda employs these wonder spices for various kinds of healing, with no side effects! For instance, researches have proved now that turmeric (active ingredient: curcumin) has anti-cancer, anti-arthritic and anti-inflammatory properties. Warm turmeric-milk is extremely effective against indigestion and sore throat.

Similarly, cloves have healing properties for toothache, gum decay, asthma and acidity. Fenugreek seeds help in easing any kind of pain and are given in plenty to women after child delivery. Ginger is very effective against cough and colds. On the other hand, cumin is known for its healing properties against indigestion and other stomach problems. Other Spices like peppercorn, dry ginger, cinnamon, anise, mustard etc are the suggested ingredients in  winter food.

And if you are on a quest to find that perfect spice for your recipe, my cue to you is ‘Easily available seasonal spices are fresh and aromatic and they will enhance as well as compliment your food preparation to the desired outcome.’

 Enjoy cooking seasonal food with seasonal spices, it will keep you healthy and fit

Its Highway.......All the way........!!!

National Highways form the economic backbone of the country and have often facilitated development along their routes. Along the countries expansion and development, many new towns have sprung up along major Highways.

Highways- the hot-spot to the increasing numbers of small restaurants and inns (known as dhabas) along their length, offer the ultimate gastronomic experience. They serve a melange of the popular local cuisine generally found at the truck repair shops, tea kiosks or dhabhas in villages, 'bandis' at the railway crossing and many more hidden treasures like these.

I was a cyclist during my school days and usually took to different highways during my practice sessions and competitions. During every Highway visit, I was presented with myriad of culinary treasure, which I would keep recording for my reference. Till date, the rustic charm of Highways and my love for my Royal Enfield has kept me on National Highways long after I stopped cycling.

My vocation as a Chef has complemented my acquired passion for the Highways as now when I taste the food along these highways, I try and transpire its rustic cooking style to the concepts of the refined five star hotels and try to present the novelty to my guest.

During my Highway trips I have experienced some of the best Tea, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner - Well I would definitely not discount my Bike for making any remote destination more easily accessible to me. A peace of advice to all the fellow bikers & Chefs- If you have time try and talk to the locals, try to taste and explore  the traditional food available.

While driving on these Highways I often pick-up lot of new dishes which a Chef would never try in his kitchens. On one of my recent trips while driving back to Hyderabad from Kanyakumari, about 20 kms from Coimbatore (Towards Mysore) in a small village with just some 70 households on the way, our convoy was forced to stop because my friend's bike got punctured. While we were repairing it, we saw a small shack with a broken table, chipped old chairs, few benches and lot of smoke coming out.

We got tempted with the thought of freshly cooked food and decided to have a glass of tea. However the owners (a husband -wife team) courteously offered us some breakfast and we all agreed. The treat started on a banana leaf, where the lady served us steaming Idlys to start with, the Idlys were so hot that we couldn’t touch them with our hands, accompanied by thin slices of coconut and ginger chutney.

The preparation which was so basic yet so mouth-watering and cooked to perfection!!! Trust me it is still very difficult to pen down the complete experience in words, I will definitely not forget the sambhar (Steaming broth of all the seasonal vegetables most outstanding were drumsticks) that complemented the breakfast so well.

We were sore because of riding around continuously and our appetite just increased  with every morsel of the freshly cooked Idly, we ate so much that they ran out of Idlys, and when she realized that we are looking for more she apologized and offered us Uttappams. To our surprise she was making Dosas and Uttappams on wood- fire on an iron sheet!!! (I won’t even call it a Tawa)

For thorough bred Chefs like me Tawa (Hot Plate) and its temperature is so important that we dare not cook anything without the pre-requisite temperature and with such a fearsome notion of right temperature and right ingredients when we saw the lady cooking Dosas without any glitch,I really felt a wave of gratification for her ...agreeing that she is a Real Chef.

Undoubtedly this was one of the best breakfasts which I ate outside my home (Being Chef by nature). Even today when I recall the taste of that hot Idly with thin coconut slices and Dosa cooked over wood-fire on the iron sheet,my craving for simplicity and perfection drives me to discover many more hidden Highway treasures like these.

Though my journey along the highways has made me experience many such unique food concepts and but my hunger to know more (Well I have such travelled 4 Highways and there are approximately 45 more to go) makes me gear up for another trip.

“As after every 100 kilometers the food tends to change, these drives will never end because I can’t live without eating and cooking, learning new things and tasting new and different food all the time”

My search for the undiscovered food will keep encouraging me to kick-start my Royal Enfield and take yet another voyage to gastronomic nirvana!!

Good bye, make merry and set the wheel rolling to a new destination.

Trainee - Commis, the start of my journey in kitchen....

Girish Krishnan,aged 20,joining the Hotel Industry as a Trainee Commis,had never dreamt beyond Master Chef level and when I look back at that dream today,I can't help but smile at all the hardships and learning that came along with that dream.I remember that we were referred to as Cooks and not Chefs,because being called a Chef had to be earned!!!So there I was at Rajputana Palace Sheraton,Jaipur at the start of this journey,peeling onions and potatoes,cleaning vegetables,cleaning the Kitchen and wondering when I would get to actually COOK!!


It was not easy to gain the confidence of the well-experienced Chefs and after many many MANY months of Misc-en-place,I got to work on the range!!!THRILL is what I felt and after 17 years of experience,every time I work on the range I still feel the same Thrill...


My earliest memories of cooking are mostly trying to understand the cooking style of the experienced Chefs and collecting recipes of the famous dishes.I also remember the urge to experiment and innovate with what was considered a Standard Recipe.Of course,there were many hits and misses and with each came a new understanding of my craft.
Looonnggg working hours,tiresome everyday chores eventually paid off when I was chosen to be part of the opening team for the legendary Peshawari serving North West Frontier Cuisine....

My first day in the kitchen

Sixteen years back when I wore my first white chef jacket and stepped into the hotel, and worked from morning 8am to next day early morning 2am. The thrill was unexplainable!!

Joined the hotel on a very busy day peeled tons of onions and kept crying all the time, eyes got some relief when my chef assigned me to peel some apples for the salad.

Worked whole day without eating, I was on top of the world after wearing the chef jacket and getting the opportunity to hold that sharp 10” knife in my hand.

Today after so many years when I look back, feel satisfied, what a journey it was, a journey full of flavors, aromas, mouth watering food, amazing array of ingredients from around the world, extremely hot kitchens, opportunity to create and re create, chance to be innovative with every special menus.

It’s a great pleasure when you see your guest enjoying and relishing the plate crafted by you.

What each one of us needs the most… is nothing but … Tasty Food… Isn’t it?!

With this blog my tryst would be to reach out to you with my experiences in the kitchen and some of my favorite recipes. So watch out….