Living in the times of coronavirus: Here’s what is keeping the chefs busy during lockdown

Living in the times of coronavirus: While most of the universal population is on lockdown to flatten the curve, we talk to a few chefs across the country on what’s keeping them busy during quarantine.

From taking charge of home kitchens to spending quality time with families, from recipe development to planning their personal diet regimes, from working towards new trends most chefs keep busy when their restaurants are shut. And the ones who are still in their workplace are on a roll at any given time. One thing is sure that these chefs are ensuring their creative juices to flow... let’s dig deeper!

Chef Dhruv Oberoi

Dhruv Oberoi, Head Chef, Olive Qutub, New Delhi

An early riser Dhruv wakes up at 6 and begins his day with yoga and meditation. He has been eating on time & is on intermittent fasting (15 hours) and strictly no caffeine. “I cook once a day as I am all by myself here in my bachelor pad, I am eating only seasonal vegetables with the right amount of carbohydrates aka whole wheat to Bengal gram flour on alternate days. Yes, I do experiments like house fermented aata pancake or use leftover bharta as a dip with chilli yoghurt and masala papad cracker. I am fond spicy and “chat pata” so made a Bhel with leftovers. For dinner, as I have a sweet tooth I only eat dessert like besan panjiri with broken bitter chocolate or make a sweet version of bhel. In between work from home mode, I attend group calls with the team heads and discuss upcoming menus and trends. For budding chefs in our team, there are fun assignments and they come and explain the same to the rest of the team. Apart from talking to my oldest of the friends to cousins & family with whom I haven’t spoken for ages, I do spend time by watching the common series and I am still learning how to utilize this time”, shares Dhruv.

Chef Vikas Singh

Since Vikas is stationed at the hotel itself, he is quite engaged with aligning operations, “We have initiated some new alternate culinary experiences for our guests. Food Delivery while maintaining the highest level of hygiene, overseeing food safety and packing. We have also started delivering the Weekend Brunch at home for the family, to make sure our guests enjoy every meal while they are at their home. We have also launched Cook like a Pro wherein we deliver our signature recipes ingredients in a box with a recipe card and a virtual recipe video for guests to cook with our master chefs. When not in the kitchen I love to play the guitar and ride a bullet in the periphery of the hotel”, says Vikas.

Chef Kunal Kapur

Kunal Kapur, TV Host, Author, Restaurateur

In the times of lockdown, Kunal has been catching up on reading and researching on regional cuisines of India. “At the same time cooking in the kitchen esp. for my next cookbook is something that is taking a lot of my time. Light workout and little TV through the day keeps me busy”, he adds.

Food expert Bakshish Dean

Bakshish Dean, Food Consultant & Culinary Academician

Bakshish shows you how to cook and eat well, even during this unprecedented time where we are advised to stay home. He’s taken over the kitchen at home and is ensuring his family eats well and healthy. “I have been sharing easy to cook daily home recipes with ingredients easily available on my Instagram and otherwise to many people and some of my chef students on the phone. I am also using this time to document these recipes. Apart from this, I am working on a futuristic food project with a friend based on nutrition and immunity-boosting. The rest of my time, I am catching up on my reading, have enrolled myself on some online culinary courses, watching movies at times and spending quality time with the family”, he says.

Chef Abhishek Basu

Abhishek Basu, Executive Chef, JW Marriott Juhu, Mumbai

Apart from reading up on everything, Abhishek can lay his hands on especially as there’s a good collection at the Hotel’s lounge coffee shop Bombay Baking Company, his time flies by each day in the kitchen with his team. “Brainstorming on the upcoming food trends and fun menus we can work on. Speaking to experts in sustainable farming to see how we can incorporate environment-friendly practices through our methods to ensure our guests get the best. Training sessions and motivating chats, to keep the spirits high! Not a single day goes by without the action in the kitchens. We are on a roll all the time, creating food memories and getting set to create many more for our guests”, he smiles.

Chef Apoorva Kunte

Apoorva Kunte, Executive Sous Chef, Marriott International, Australia

Apoorva has been helping in cooking some free take away meals for the needy and underprivileged especially young students who have lost their jobs and livelihood because of the shutdown. He has also been busy baking “trying out recipes taking inspirations from books that I have collected during my travels to Srilanka, Asia and Europe is a big stress buster. I am doing a lot of stationary jogs- of up to 10 km while binging on my favourite Netflix series and movies like ‘Suits’, Chef’s table etc. and have been connecting with family back in India and bonding over virtual food they are cooking for themselves”, he shares.

Rupali Dean is a lifestyle and food columnist based in Gurgaon.

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