REFT Today DIGS OUT A YOUNG CHEF, CHEF BHAWANI SHANKAR; A SPECIAL REPORT BY: REFT Today CORRESPONDENT.

A young boy who comes out of a tiny village of Rajasthan named Dhana Tehshil Bhuhana district Jhunjhunu, completes his graduation from a Government College and later does a diploma course in Food Science and Food Nutrition from Anand Institute of Management Science, Anand-Gujarat. Not having a strong background behind him, despite of that he manages to come out from there and travelled round the globe at such a tender age to grab something big someday, ONE DAY. A boy with big dreams, a boy with a vision to reach to the skies very high, a boy who begun with a single step by stepping out of his weird comfort zone, manages to fly very high is none but a budding chef coming out of all boundaries, REFT Today digs out a Young Chef, Chef Bhawani Shankar!

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Since childhood, Bhawani always loved to cook and tries to invent new and different dishes out of simple but fresh fruits and vegetables. His love for travelling helped him a lot to find ingredients from different farms in his village and nearby. His learning turned into passing and passion into creativity. The scale of his creativity began to be seen into the plate through plating a cuisine, then into it’s taste. Normally, a boy or a girl have singing, dancing etc. as their hobbies but, when asked from Young Chef Bhawani Shankar he replied by saying that, he loves to cook healthy and fresh food that too cooking differently all the time in his way. Later in his culinary career he had learnt and has worked with cuisines like: Oriental Cuisines, Indian Cuisines (Punjabi, Rajsthani, North Indian Cuisines etc.) Chinese Cuisines, Italian, Turkish, Asians, Caribbean and Europian Cuisines.

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Chef Bhawani Shankar is presently working with Royal Caribbean Cruises which passes through all seven seas and guests enjoy almost every cuisines of the world. Let’s move few years back and come to know from where this young chef begun his culinary career? Well, Bhawani was still young but, was filled with vision and enthusiasm, he started from Hotel Mansingh Palace, Jaipur as an industrial trainee. Then he did his job training from Raj Mahal Palace, which was the unit of Jaipur Palace. He worked with several hotels like Samodaya Palace, Sheraton Jaipur, Hotel Piyush Palace, Gujarat, Chowki Dhani Jaipur, Bombay Restaurant in Phucket, Thailand, Jubilee Golf Resorts, Dubai and Turkish Italian Restaurant in Dubai.

Now it’s time to show the recipe of a MUTTON LAAL MAAS of young Chef Bhawani Shankar’s own version:

INGREDIENTS:

Curry cut Lamb/Mutton…………………500gm
Mathania Mirch (paste)…………………6pcs
Mustard Oil…………………………………..50gm
Curd…………………………………………….250gm
Ginger/Garlic paste……………………….50gm
Salt………………………………………………1 tsp
Cumin powder……………………………….10gm
Coriander powder…………………………..10gm
Turmeric powder…………………………….2 tsp
Brown Onions………………..4 medium pieces
Water……………………………………………250ml

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METHOD:

Soak red chilies (both varieties, as mentioned under “Red Chilli Paste”) in hot water for half an hour.

Slice the onions.

In a wok, heat mustard oil.

Once the oil starts smoking, add the onions and fry till they turn golden brown. Separate and keep aside. Do not discard the oil.

Peel the garlic.

In a mixie, make a paste of the garlic and soaked red chilies with a pinch of salt
In the same wok where you fried the onions, add the meat pieces.

Keep the heat on medium flame and fry the meat for 15 minutes

Add red chilli paste along with fried onions and curd.

Stir briskly to avoid curd from curdling.

Cover and cook on a medium flame.

Uncover after every 5 minutes to stir in order to avoid the spices from sticking to the bottom of the wok and burning of curry. Cover and cook till done.

Add water. Bring it to a boil.

Add salt, cook covered for another 10 minutes.

Uncover and cook till the gravy reaches a semi-solid consistency.

Put off the flame. Allow it to rest for 10 minutes.

Serve hot with chapati, naan, roti.

—A report by; REFT Today correspondent.
—Picture Courtesy; Chef Bhawani Shankar.