My day at the Vermillion Cook Off

Vermillion Cook off, was a cooking competition held to select the best chef in India to run famous restauranteur Rohini Dey's 'Vermillion' in Chicago and New York.
I first read about Cook off in HT City sometime back, when I ignored it, doubting my capabilities. This was followed by the newspaper's online link in my inbox, sent by my husband, Moksh,  when I reached office. I left this mail as unread, till the last date to apply, arrived. After a lot of contemplation and discussion, I finally submitted a Broccoli Spears recipe, just to get rid of that 'Unread e-mail' in my inbox. Since we were supposed to submit an Indo-latin recipe, I chose broccoli as it is a universal ingredient.

Then on last Saturday, I got a call from Rohini's team. The lady was very enthusiastic and congratulating me for being selected among 9 participants in Mumbai. I had no hope of getting selected as I was nowhere close to meeting the criteria of a diploma in 'Hotel Management'. I was thrilled, when I got the news and immediately shared it with Moksh. He was also excited about it and all credit goes to him for encouraging me to participate. Now my few apprehensions were, I do not have a culinary diploma and worse was that I had to wake up at 4.00 am as the Cook off started at 6.00 am on Tuesday.

A day before, I made all the preparations. Got stuff from the market, packed my bags and most importantly tried the recipe at home as it was the first time that I was making it. Sounds absurd, that I had sent a recipe, which I had not even tried for such a big event. Anyways, the recipe came out nice, but with everybody's opinion we decided to add cheese to it for the finale. Everybody at home seemed to be excited about the big event. My mother-in-law gave me a beautiful broach and earrings to wear on the event day. After packing my bags, ironing my red dress and putting my alarm for 4.30 am for the next day, I dozed off early.

I woke up in the morning, all set and prepared. Quickly took a bath and rushed out of the house. Moksh dropped me at the event place, where we were welcomed by 3 beautiful cats :).  After waiting for sometime outside with other participants, the doors opened for us to enter. Everybody started introducing themselves as chefs of so and so restaurants and hotels and when I was to speak, I could only tell about my hands on training and experience and no certificates for the same. We prepared for our dishes in the big restaurant kitchen with all professional equipments. It was a 'WOW' experience. Since my dish was not very complicated, I quickly did my initial preparation and stepped out along with another participant.
Her name was Sandhya and an amazingly passionate person about food. Both of us were interviewed one by one by Rohini Dey. I was asked during my interview about the latin touch in my food, which I had not thought of probably because I was not taking it too seriously. After the interview, I thought of making Pineapple salsa with my dish, for which I sourced recipe from all over. Now we had time till 3, when we were suppose to complete our dishes and present them to the judges.

It was 9.30 am and both of us were pretty hungry too, we went to a nearby South Indian joint called 'Kamat' and had an awesome Palak Dosa with filter coffee. Post our sumptuous breakfast, we bought the ingredients for the salsa and did a little bit of fashion shopping. The shopping was enough to make me rush to the ATM to withdraw money. Luckily Sandhya was very good at bargaining and I thoroughly enjoyed roaming in the  streets. We headed back to the restaurant to check on the status and rest our tired legs for sometime. The clock struck 2 and to avoid the panic attack, we decided to go out again and get some lunch. We had the most awesome Pasta at the Leopold Cafe and by 2.45 pm we were back in the restaurant. Now I got another shock, we were told that we had to plate it in 10 portions and I was carrying only one big platter to serve. I managed it, by borrowing 10 platters from the very helpful chefs at the restaurant.

Now it was time for us to complete our dishes and thankfully I was the first one to go. This reduced my time of nervousness. We all barged into the kitchen once again and I started with making the Pineapple Salsa. In a hurry I had forgotten to add the onions to the salsa. After putting it in the fridge for it to absorb all flavors, I put my broccoli in the large beastly oven for 10 minutes. Thankfully I checked it just after 5 minutes of putting it there and it was already done. My bakery background helped me here and I got a brainwave that professional ovens take less time than our ovens at home. I tried arranging my platters, the best way I could and was finally out there in front of the judges, media and the brilliant chefs. All the judges were big chefs themselves except for Shabana Azmi. The other judges were Nikhil Chib, Rahul Akerkar (the Indigo restaurant owner, where the event was being held), Rohini Dey, Kunal Vijaykar and Rushina Ghidliyal. I stood before the crowd very confidently and spoke about myself and my dish for which I got mixed remarks from the judges. The broccoli was cooked perfectly well and the marinade made it delicious however, salt was a little in excess and the pretty Shabana Azmi did not approve of the cheese, which was an additional ingredient. I was also told that the presentation could have been better.

After everybody presented their dishes, one winner was announced, who was an assistant chef at the Taj Mahal Hotel. All other participants were disappointed, except for me. I loved the experience and thank Moksh for encouraging me to be a part of it.

Now for all those who would like to try the 'Broccoli Spears', here is the recipe

Broccoli Spears

500 gm (2 medium heads) broccoli - cut into medium sized florets with long stalks

2 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar

1ST MARINADE

juice of 1 lemon (3-4 tsp)

¾ tsp carom seeds (ajwain)

1 tsp salt and ½ tsp red chilli powder

2ND MARINADE

1 cup thick yogurt - hung for 15 minutes or more

½ cup thick cream

2 tsp ginger paste

½ tsp red chilli paste, optional

¾ tsp salt, 1 tsp tandoori masala

 Broccoli Spears

Broccoli florets with long stalks are flavoured with carom seeds and barbecued.

1. Boil 5-6 cups of water in a large pan. Add 2 tsp salt and 1 tsp sugar to the

water. Add broccoli pieces to the boiling water. Boil. Keep on boiling for

2 minutes. Drain. Wipe the pieces well with a clean kitchen towel till well

dried.

2. Spread the broccoli on a flat plate and sprinkle the ingredients of the 1st

marinade. Marinate the broccoli for 15 minutes.

3. Drain the broccoli of any excess liquid. Mix all the ingredients of the 2nd

marinade. Add the broccoli to it and mix well. Check the salt and add more

if needed. Keep in the refrigerator till the time of serving.

4. Brush the grill of the oven or gas tandoor with some oil. Place the broccoli

spears on it and barbecue them in a gas oven for 10 minutes or grill in a

preheated electric oven only for 10 minutes. Do not over grill it, turns too dry.

Serve hot as a side dish.