Leaving an indelible mark

Culinary sojourn

He owns a one Michelin star restaurant in Cambridge, has four AA rosettes to his credit and recently appeared in the BBC series of Great British Menu.
      
Even with all these accolades, chef Mark Poynton very humbly puts it that coming to places like Bengaluru makes him realise he’s known very little about food and spices.
     
It has taken him 20 years to get where he is now and he is still learning each day, absorbing valuable culinary lessons from each place he visits.

The congenial chef, who is in the city for the ‘Taste of Britain Curry Festival’, took time off for a  chat with Anushree Agarwal about all things food.

Tell us about your restaurant in England.

It’s called Alimentum (Latin for ‘food’). We serve really well-sourced British produce and endeavour to showcase authentic, flavourful British food to the best of our ability. It’s fine-dining fare and involves a lot of technique to create.

Your inspiration to be a chef.

For me, it’s the best industry in the world because you get to travel, see places and meet people. It’s being inspired by something that everybody loves — eating food. It’s a no-brainer — you want to eat good food, so if you serve good food, you also have a job.

How do you find Indian food?

This is my third time in India. I have earlier been to Chennai, Chandigarh and Delhi. The food is very regional here. In Chennai, it’s quite nicely spiced with pepper, there’s lots of fish and vegetarian food as well which is more suited to the English palate. In Chandigarh, it was really spicy and too hot for me. There was lots of salt and fat; for instance, in butter chicken. In Bengaluru, I am hoping to have less spicy stuff so the flavours will come through better for me.

You’ve cooked any?

Since I visited Chennai, I’ve introduced a fish curry at ‘Alimentum’. It has king scallops in rogan josh style sauce with apples, yogurt and coriander. It’s been on the menu for a year and has done very well. In fact, my business partner and I are looking to open another restaurant next year. I am going to use this trip to find some more ideas and it will have a couple of spicy dishes (not too hot) taken from the travel.

Which cuisines do you appreciate?

I like French, Japanese and Portuguese. When I taste a dish, I like to taste each individual spice and I like the way the Portuguese work with spices. The ‘vindaloo’ curry (Portuguese) is very popular in England and I like ‘pork vindaloo’.

If you had to cook a 4-course meal in a jiffy...

I’d start with a simple yet classic onion and cheese soup followed by a nice chicken salad with a creamy dressing and a little bit of spice, a fish based main course and strawberries, raspberries and apples for dessert.

A three-ingredient dish you’d create anytime.

Roast chicken on top of potatoes with lots of garlic.

One ingredient that puts you off.

Honey. I don’t cook with it either.

Three essential skills any cook should possess.

Ability to taste, knife (cutting) skills and being able to see good produce.

A compliment you’ll never forget.

The Michelin star (smiles).

When not in the kitchen...

I like spending time with my wife and children and watching soccer.