High on Herbs

Namastay! Welcome to Mughlai Indian cuisine, a popular Indian restaurant in Hells Kitchen with an all male staff in the kitchen- here I am on my first day, early in the morning trying to get my work done before the staff gets in- after all I plan to use this kitchen as the virtual kitchen for my brand from now on- at least once a week.

I’d been a home cook for almost 20 years cooking by then, making daily spreads for my husband’s large family of omnivores all of whom had very different palettes. My recent interest in food had brought me to some back of the house training after which I felt confident enough to make my homestyle Indian food in this new kitchen.

So here I was with my apron in hand standing at the entrance of the restaurant at 7 AM on a quiet morning in NYC in the midst of the pandemic! I took a deep breath and prepared to unlock and step in to start cooking my food.

One thing made it s little easier, my husband was the owner of this restaurant and even though he was asleep in our house in Queens, he had enlisted one helper to facilitate my venture!

My lack of experience in a commercial kitchen did not deter me from my mission of wanting to feed healthy, vegetarian homestyle meals to my neighborhood in the middle of the pandemic- so I was required to go into the kitchen, finish all my cooking and get out of the way before the kitchen staff arrived at 10 AM.

The neat rows of my boxes of Cauliflower stir fry (aloo gobhi) and Amritsari Chholay (chickpea curry), handmade rotis and basmati rice would be lined up for photography and content creation – the aromas were quite different from the typical dishes in a curry house kitchen and most of the staff who has been living away from their families in India relished the extra portions and the memories of home that my food brought on! They were my first Quality Control team!

Apart from the Front of house Indian guys, our cleaning and delivery boys consisted of “amigos” and “chiquitos” who gave me confused looks as I wasn’t the chef they were accustomed to seeing everyday.

The most hilarious reactions were when I needed to stock up on “Kasuri Methi” a greyish green dried fenugreek herb, which I used a lot but didn’t know the Spanish name for it. I pleaded one of my bi-lingual managers Sam, to arrange it a day ahead so it would be on the spice ledge when I needed to cook my meals.

Sam called the “chiquito” and told him to bring “marijuana for mamacita for manana”- heck he even signaled the joint signal so chiquito would understand it better! If I could put into words the look on “chicquito’s” face when he couldn’t imagine why the boss’ wife wanted to come to the restaurant at 7 AM and smoke Marijuana!!! He looked at me and then looked right into the ground and most obediently brought the herb for me and set it upon the ledge in a deli container.

I have never felt so misunderstood in my adult life EVER!

My Spanish and their expectations of me have gotten a lot better since those early days and after leading several on site and off site caterings, such misunderstandings are quite a thing of the past.

In case you’re dying to know Kasuri Methi is called “Hojas secas de fenogreco ” in Spanish….please remember this if you plan on cooking Indian food in a restaurant at 7AM!