00:00Have you ever thrown a knife at any of your staff members?
00:03You don't seem to be the kind but have you ever pulled off a Gordon Ramsay on them?
00:07No, never!
00:11Hi, this is Manjusha Radhakrishnan from Gulf News Tabloid
00:14and I have a fun assignment today
00:16where I meet the celebrated Indian chef Hemant Oberoi
00:20We are in front of his restaurant in Abu Dhabi at the Emirates Palace called the Martaban
00:25Come on in and let's see
00:27We are going to meet the Shanghai chef
00:29Hi, nice meeting you
00:30Thank you so much for meeting us
00:32and this is your new restaurant
00:34So now we'll do something a bit different
00:36We'll do a rapid fire with you
00:37I know it's a very steamy day for you since it's the opening
00:41but before we let you go, can you answer a few questions for us?
00:45Yeah, tell me
00:46What did you have for dinner last night?
00:49Last night we were doing some trials
00:52for today's and we have a dinner for the king of Malaysia actually
00:59and we are making the preparations for that
01:01so we were doing some trials for that
01:03And what's the most expensive ingredient in this kitchen that we are going to see?
01:09We still use truffles in Indian food
01:12But they are expensive
01:13They are expensive
01:14Everything good in life is expensive
01:16We have used the best of the crockery, best of the cutlery in this restaurant
01:20Oh, I see
01:21and best of the glassware
01:22I mean, we have not left any corners to be a very, very fine dining Indian eating
01:29So people must have the experience from the show plate, from the time they sit down
01:35from the quality of the cutlery
01:39We have used the air-cui, we have used the crystal
01:43and that's a short sizzle, there's a glassware
01:47Okay, so best from the world
01:49The Bernadotte, Reynard, every type of good crockery we have used
01:53And which Indian dish do you think is the most bastardised and shouldn't be?
01:59Chicken Tikka Masala in London
02:02I knew you were getting at that
02:04I was thinking that should be our answer
02:06Why so?
02:07It's got no relevance to what we serve in India
02:10Fair enough, I can't agree with you more
02:13Food that you are yet to master but want to, it's still a work in progress
02:18Life is about learning
02:20You keep on learning, it's a never-ending process
02:24So you keep on learning new things
02:27and I see all the youngsters doing molecular food and every food
02:34And I did the molecular food about 20 years back
02:37and I thought the liquid nitrogen doesn't cook food
02:43And even in your mouth it doesn't do much
02:45It doesn't do anything
02:46Okay, there's no taste to it
02:47There's nothing
02:48Have you ever thrown a knife at any of your staff members?
02:52You don't seem to be the kind
02:53Never
02:54Have you ever pulled off a Gordon Ramsay on them?
02:56Never
02:57Fair enough, that's very good to know
02:59It's good to be under your staff of course
03:01And what do you think is your favourite Indian spice that you use a lot perhaps?
03:07You see cumin is the base for most of the things
03:12But what we do is we make homemade garam masala
03:16All the spices are being roasted to different degrees
03:20And for various things it's a different kind of a garam masala we use
03:24For the lamb curries it's a different one
03:27For the chicken and the biryani it's a different one
03:30So to what degree the roasting has to be done and pounding has to be done
03:35It's a slow roasting process which we do
03:38Right, and one thing that you'll never cook
03:41It could be a shark fin soup or anything controversial
03:49I will never eat monkey brain
03:52I don't think anybody will
03:53But okay, is that a delicacy? Where is it?
03:55It was a delicacy in China and in Hong Kong till about 2025
03:59I will never do it
04:00So monkey brain doesn't rock the world
04:02And even the grasshoppers I will never
04:04Never try
04:05Okay, that's good
04:06Okay, last question
04:07What's the craziest thing that you have eaten perhaps?
04:13And you come back smiling thinking
04:15Wow, I tried it and it's good
04:19I can't even recollect
04:21But there are a lot of things I've eaten
04:24I've eaten even black ants
04:30Was it a stir fry?
04:31It was crispy fried
04:33Anything crispy fried goes I guess
04:35Yeah, so
04:39Till the time I was told I didn't realise that it was
04:43I see
04:44Brilliant, thank you so much
04:45Thank you
04:46And what's one celebrity that you enjoyed cooking for?
04:49You can name and glorify them as much as you want
04:52I think President Obama
04:54Was he gracious?
04:55Very, very, very gracious
04:57The couple was absolutely gracious
05:00What did you cook for him out of curiosity?
05:02It was about a seven course meal
05:04We had a warki crab which is on our menu here
05:07It's a South Indian one?
05:08Yes
05:09Oh, the Malayali in me is very happy
05:12It's an off take from there
05:15It's what curry crab you eat on the roadside with the shell on
05:18Of course
05:19I have taken out the meat from there
05:21And we serve it in the milf of the phyllo sheets
05:26And we reduce the balsamic with the cumin
05:30And we put it all around and we serve it
05:33Amazing
05:34He's actually given a Malayali delicacy twist
05:36We have meen porichatu on the menu
05:38Meen?
05:39Porichatu
05:40Oh, porichatu
05:41Fantastic
05:42I'm telling you there are so many Malayalis in this region
05:45I'm sure they'll be happy
05:46They have just skipped a bit
05:47We have alappey curry also on the menu
05:51The world is on a plate
05:52Yes
05:53Thank you so much for your time
05:54Thank you, thank you for being here
05:55Thank you
06:02You
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