Celebrity chef, Anil Kumar, who has cooked for celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Eddie Murphy, The Bacchans, and Sonia Gandhi, among others, wowed the audience at the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) yesterday (Wednesday) taking place at the Expo Centre, by cutting up live lobsters. He showed how to do this humanely, so the lobster doesn’t suffer, even though he first cheekily named them “Amar, Akbar, Anthony” after the famous characters from an old Hindi movie.The celebrity chef is well known for experimental Indian cuisine with a modern and healthy twist. Introducing the recipe Anil said: “Seafood is the food of the new millennium; it is filled with good fat and is nutrient rich.” The chef demonstrated the West Bengali entrée Lobster “Shorshe Bata” made with mustard, turmeric, onion and lobster, sautéed in a small amount of olive oil and a bit of salt to taste. The lobster was cooked for two minutes and is served with a puree made of green chillies, mustard and watermelon seed. Kumar made the whole thing look easy and when plating the dish he warned the audience about he called “the white devils”, salt and sugar, saying to use them wisely whenever you are cooking.
Quickly moving on to the next dish of pan fried scallops on puréed green peas made with an Indian touch by adding madras curry powder, cumin, and salt, Kumar said: “Remember you fry the scallop for only two minutes, any good seafood is always cooked in that span of time. And do not worry about where to find the Madras curry powder, though the name has Madras, this spice is available globally in any supermarket. You probably won’t be surprised when I say Madras curry powder was invented and named by the British.” The final dish was dressed with chilli oil and looked delicious. The highly organised and charming chef also answered questions from the audience and conducted a quick quiz, giving away one of the live lobsters, Akbar, as a prize to the winner, an Indian audience member called Shamla.
However Kumar also had a serious message for the assembled crowd, he said: “I request you all choose your food wisely, please do not buy, cook or eat Hamour, Sherry and King Fish as these breeds are facing extinction. If we stop eating endangered species of fish, it won’t be caught. There are other varieties of tasty sea creatures. We serve almost 600 varieties at our restaurant.”Chef Kumar is the Culinary Director of Food Wise, a Senior Member of the Emirates Culinary Guild and a Founder Member of the Asian Chefs in UAE forum. He has spent more than two decades in International Culinary Practices and he advocates for using fresh ingredients with minimum oil. Speaking about SIBF Anil said: “It is at these kinds of events that chefs like me get a chance to have interaction outside our kitchen. If I write a book in the future I would love to launch it at SIBF.”