'I got my first cookbook when I was 10'

Travel enthusiast

When Shaun Kenworthy first came to India, it was to give it a ‘test drive’. After a year in New Delhi, he decided to stay on and now calls Kolkata his home.

The British chef, who closely works with Bengaluru’s ‘The Biere Club’, makes sure he spends at least four to five days in the City every month, and says that it his second favourite city in India.

“I’ve been coming here every month for the last six years, ever since the idea for ‘The Biere Club’ came up. It is such a great, exciting and young city.”

He has seen the food and hospitality industry in Bengaluru (and India) evolve from something almost small and insignificant to the burgeoning beast that it is
today.

“When I first came here, I couldn’t get something as simple as an iceberg lettuce for six months of the year in Delhi. There was nothing new in any city, but the old restaurants that had been around for years. Now, everything is available from around the world — I can get anything I want within 36 hours. And Bengaluru in particular has good opportunities for foodies, from a business point of view. It has a thriving youth culture, and as most people are migrants here, they aren’t hesitant to spend their money. I know people who go out seven days a week, which is something you don’t see in other cities,” he adds.

Calling the story of his arrival in India a “long one”, he elaborates, “I spent 11 of my best years in London but I was tired at that point and wanted to get out. I had friends who were moving to Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong — to the east — so moving out was on my mind. At this point, I was working at ‘Quaglino’s’, a restaurant in London which was invited to the World Gourmet Summit in Singapore, and I met someone from the food and hospitality industry in India. Once I was back in London, he invited me to visit India for a few weeks. And after some talking, I was invited to work in Delhi for a year.”

At the end of the year, something happened that shook the world, including the culinary world — the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center that left the hospitality industry “flailing around like a wet fish”.

This is when he was offered a job with The Park and moved to Kolkata. Spending four years with them, he says, “This was a time of transition for them and for me.”

It didn’t take long for other offers to flood in. “I had offers to work in Australia, Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong, but my wife and I decided to stay back in Kolkata.” He is married to an artist from Bengal, Pinky.

“We met in Kolkata. We’d been friends for a few years but when we realised we had a lot in common, we began seeing each other. Three months later, we were married. We didn’t see any point in wasting time. She is like me, and needs a day of madness and excitement. That’s why I look out for projects where I can create something
interesting.”

He also has two kids from a previous relationship — a 23-year-old daughter and an 18-year-old son. He insists that his basecamp, Kolkata, is a convenient place to live in because “it’s two hours from everything”. “Within my first week in Kolkata, I felt like I was at home.” For him, home is Manchester.

“The first year in Delhi was awkward because there was nothing happening back then, unlike the incredibly aggressive city it has become now. I wasn’t overly fond of it because it’s a cold place (as in, the people). In Manchester, everyone is quite simple and no one wants to get anything out of anyone.”

 He finds a similarity between the English city and Kolkata. “The people are very warm there; it’s such an old and beautiful city (Kolkata). It reminded me of Manchester and I felt like I was home.”

It was in Manchester that his career as a chef began. “I enjoyed cooking from a young age. My gran was a great cook and I spent a lot of time with her. I got my first cookbook when I was 10! At first, I didn’t understand what being a chef was; I just enjoyed cooking.” As he was never academically inclined, he quit school to take up cooking at the
age of 16. With hard workand motivation, he has reached far.

His advice to up-and-coming chefs is, “The industry is booming and the world is
your oyster. A few years ago, major cities in India didn’t have much else but hotels. Now, they are full of restaurants.”