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September 16, 2015 03:30 pm | Updated 08:54 pm IST – kochi
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Executive Chef Anthony En Yuan Huang
At an eatery in the city, looking for a quick bite, Anthony En Yuan Huang ordered beef roast and ghee rice. Eating just about anything in the name of food doesn’t sit well with Huang who is executive chef Kochi Marriott. He wanted ghee rice with his beef roast. Instead he was offered ‘fried rice’. With that Anthony underlines the point about how entrenched Chinese food is in the Indian psyche. “It’s okay if the local food isn’t there; fried rice has to be there as also noodles and chilli chicken. No eatery that serves non-vegetarian will say they don’t have chilli chicken.”
We are at Kochi Marriott, talking Chinese food with the chef who specialises in Asian cuisine. With around 18 years of experience – he has worked with the Oberoi group (he opened Ban Thai in Kolkata, introduced the dim sum lunch at Taipan at the Delhi property, revamped Bengaluru’s Sichuan Court besides working at Mumbai’s India Jones), the Hyatt group and now the Marriott, besides a stint abroad. He attributes the many moves to his inherent restlessness.
So when he hosts a Chinese food promotion, it rides great expectations. For one there is the promise of ‘authentic’ Chinese. He travelled extensively in China researching, eating food. Driven by a cooking philosophy that spells keeping cooking styles close to the original, he will deliver not the usual restaurant style Chinese. Chinese food in India, or Indian-Chinese as the purists call it, is a religion. For some chilli chicken, chicken noodles, fried rice and of course, the evergreen gobi Manchurian (or Manjurian or Manjoori), are the ultimate comfort food.
“That is the beauty of the cuisine. It can be adapted by anybody and claimed as one’s own. It is versatile, it can adapt to a personal touch like curry from the day before or beef masala as I do. Chinese or ‘Chinees’ is the great unifier when it comes to eateries in any part of the country – from a Malabar restaurant to a Shanthi Sagar outlet in Bengaluru to a Punjabi dhaba in the North.”
The adaptability comes from its relative simplicity, and therefore accessibility, of cooking. “Chinese cooking is all about technique – textures and flavours – what ingredient goes in when. There are no hidden masalas…we don’t hide anything.” As a result it has been adapted and owned by foreigners; just like there is Indian-Chinese there is American-Chinese which, incidentally, is a tad on the sweeter side thanks to the sweeter sauces. It is different in Singapore; Hong Kong presents a different interpretation and it would be drastically different on mainland China and its different parts.
The most popular variety of Chinese in other parts such as the US and Canada is, he says, the Indian take.
At the promotion he is presenting food from Sichuan, Hunan and Yunan, places which are close to his region of origin Mei Xian in the Guangdong province. China too boasts a variety of cuisines as in India, he says, and rather than dilute the essence with too wide a menu he decided on a selection from these provinces. When we meet he is readying for the promotion – cooking and sampling. “The tastings are on; the temperature (spice) of the food is high.” There will be no compromises on the authentic flavour, he says. A purist, he doesn’t believe in ‘tweaking’ recipes just to make them ‘market friendly’.
One rarely hears of Chinese desserts, and fried noodles and ice cream does not count. Chinese don’t eat too many sweets and what they do, we in India are not ready for, they are “very different,” he says.
Food, he says, is in his genes. A second generation Chinese in India, brought up in Bengaluru, he calls himself “a third generation chef.” His grandmothers, on his paternal and maternal sides, were renowned for their culinary skills back home in Mei Xian. While one was among the largest caterers in the area, the other was known for her barbecues.
His father too was a chef; Anthony counts eight chefs in his family. “So it has to be there in the blood.” Growing up he wanted to be like Nelson Wang, also the son of Chinese immigrants, who set up China Garden, at one time one among the country’s best Chinese restaurants. He invented, what has come to epitomise Indian-Chinese – chicken Manchurian.
The love of food, and of course his genes, led Anthony to hotel management and his career. If not food, he would have been a veterinary doctor.
“Food drives me…it is the only thing that drives me. I will travel distances to eat food,” he explains his motivation and his time spent in China, the US and Canada. He is one for the food experiences. Eating at Mullapanthal is an experience he enjoys. “Eating at those small tables where it is casual and the pot-bellied chef comes around to see…it is about the whole experience and not just about eating.”
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food and dining (general) / The Hindu MetroPlus
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