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People: No drama down under
Australian chef Adam D’Sylva, 44, is all for modern takes on real good food that’s existed for years and years
“When I first came to India about 10 years ago, it was to Mumbai. The funny thing is—I tell this story often and it’s one of the best stories as I’m half-Italian and half-Indian—the first thing I ever ate in India was a pizza with Parma ham and buffalo mozzarella paired with Chianti wine!” says Melbourne-born and bred chef Adam D’Sylva, 44. A popular face who’s often seen on MasterChef Australia, the chef is the owner of award-winning restaurant Tonka in Melbourne, where the lamb curry (the signature dish) rubs shoulders with mushroom biryani these days. “However, the first Indian dish I had in Mumbai was a masala dosa. It was nice and crispy with the sauce and potatoes. I love Indian food and when I’m in India, I always have dosa for breakfast,” Adam adds.
The chef-restaurateur did a 10-episode cooking show last year called India Unplated, covering 10 different regions ranging from Rajasthan to Kerala. Also, he’s had One Hat or Chef Hat Awards for both his restaurants since they’ve been around: Tonka for 10 years and Coda for 13.
“The tradition of Michelin stars is great. We’ve got Hats in Australia. Though I think some of the best restaurants in the world are without Michelin stars. These restaurants have existed for years doing the same food properly; food that’s unique to them. This is a standard you need to keep,” says the chef.
In the face of things
Adam’s just flown to Delhi to attend a wedding, having spent three weeks in the north of Italy. “My mother is Italian, and dad is an Anglo-Indian from Chennai, and this tour ties together my Indo-Italian heritage within the same month,” observes Adam who is visiting the country after five years.
During his debut trip, Adam did Asia’s longest lunch, with 500 people, outside the Hyatt in Mumbai.“We did one continuous long table and two years later I was in Delhi and Mumbai again for Trade India and cooked at the Australian High Commission. And in 2017, I cooked for Zubin Mehta in Chennai at the Australian World Orchestra,” he says excitedly. “I’ve been lucky enough to have lived in Italy, cooked in India, New York and Hong Kong numerous times, and then travelled and cooked throughout Asia, Australia and New Zealand for different restaurants and food festivals, which is fantastic.”
What struck him most about India? “It kind of hits you in the face—the heat, the smells, the culture, just hearing different things. Delhi is beautiful, Agra is amazing and Mumbai has more hustle and bustle—organised chaos, I’d say,” he sums up.
His love affair with food started at home. “There was always a bowl of pasta, and one of curry and rice on the table, which has transcended to me cooking so many different kinds of cuisines and understanding and loving them. My mother, being Italian, wouldn’t use ghee in the curry. She used olive oil and that’s the same thing I’ve taken to my Indian restaurant, Tonka. We call it a ‘ghee-free kitchen’; it’s much lighter, fresher,” laughs Adam.
The melting pot
While his comfort food is a bowl of pasta, Adam loves spicy Indian, Asian, Japanese, Chinese and Thai food, too. “My favourite Indian dish is a chicken biryani and I like pakoras, too. At Tonka, we do tandoori ocean trout and spatchcock or confit chickens, chicken tikka and I love a great prawn curry or crab curry. There’s much to choose from,” he says.
He describes his Indian cuisine as Australian-Indian because he uses Australian produce with traditional Indian flavours and techniques, and serves it in a modern environment.
Adam learnt various culinary techniques through his travels around the world. “Australian cuisine cannot be defined,” he says. “It is a bit of everything. Melbourne, especially, is like a melting pot of different cultures and cuisines, with Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Italian doing very well. As a chef, I got to learn from traditional French and German chefs and I also worked with chefs who started the modern Asian movement in Melbourne, which is alive and kicking. We have the best modern Asian cuisine in the world. Sometimes it’s hard to be unbiased towards Australia,” he jokes.
Having grown up attending family get-togethers where there would be one table full of Italian food and another full of Indian food, Adam fell in love with food. Food, he says, was part of life, though he didn’t understand what that meant.
“I baked and started cooking pasta when I was six or seven, as a helping hand at home, taught and involved in food by my aunty and grandma, just as I get all my three young kids involved in cooking with me,” says Adam. “They are half-Italian, quarter-Indian and quarter-Polish—my wife is half-Italian and half-Polish. As I got to about 10 years of age, I thought I might be a chef and as I got older, I started working in restaurants, just doing jobs here and there, and loved it. So, I continued with it after finishing school and gradually fell into it. It was more the love of cooking than the desire to be a chef for me.”
From HT Brunch, May 7, 2022
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