Chef Alfred Prasad’s key to happiness

What is happiness? It probably means different things to people. Chef Alfred Prasad, a Michelin-starred Indian chef, has fervently pursued his philosophy of Heritage, Health and Happiness in his cooking and his life. Has he found happiness?

Chef Alfred Prasad at OMYA restaurant at The Oberoi in New Delhi

Success came early for Chef Prasad. In 2002, aged 29, he was the youngest Indian chef to have secured a Michelin star. He retained the accolade throughout his 13-year tenure as the Executive Chef at the fine-dining Indian restaurant, Tamarind, in Mayfair, London. But, was he happy, satisfied? His deep desire to realise his dream of having his own restaurant has reportedly propelled him to leave the comfort zone of Tamarind in 2015. Timing could have been better. With free movement of workers imminently to be curtailed following the Referendum result in 2016, he foresaw insurmountable staffing issues in restaurants. While his restaurant plans are put on ice, he and his wife, Sunita Panjabi, have been doing a mélange of impressive consultancies in the last few years.

One of his current consultancies include the high-end Indian restaurant, OMYA at The Oberoi Hotel in New Delhi, India. Having spent nearly 20 years in England, Chef Prasad had to prove himself as a force to be reckoned with as an Indian chef back in India. He moved from London to India for 3 months to conduct research in the competitive fine-dining arena. He continued to elevate Indian cuisine as high as Mount Everest in this venture. His efforts were quickly recognised by OMYA restaurant being awarded Best Restaurant in a 5-star hotel, North India by BBC Good Food in 2019.

Omya chaat at OMYA restaurant at The Oberoi, New Delhi

In his next challenge, he boldly entered the “premium casual” (namely, priced between high-end and casual) dining space at Doolally, a colossal 220-seat Indian restaurant in Dublin, a first of its kind and size in Ireland. The menu that he created is inspired by Indian street food, focussing on regional dishes. Within months of opening, it became the winner of Best World Cuisine Restaurant category in the National Hospitality Awards 2020.

Because of lockdown during Covid-19 pandemic, much of Chef Prasad’s work throughout the world has jolted to a series of sudden pauses, like many others in hospitality. Restaurants have been opening and shutting like cuckoo clocks due to lockdown restrictions. Chef Prasad philosophically said: “The most important thing is to be healthy and have a positive frame of mind. Something that we all have to accept and get used to. A big positive for all of us has been to have had the time to reflect. Extensive reflection probably leads to crystallising what are the 3, 4, 5 most important things to me. It allows you to give those things time.”

To nourish his body and mind, he has been “cooking and creating recipes. That has probably been the best bit of lockdown for us.” Before lockdown, he had started to work on his first recipe book, but “it has been a slow burner and taken a bit of a back seat.” I was about to say to him as politely as possible, Please get on with it, when he said: “Spending that much more time cooking recipes at home has re-energised me into the kind of food that people would look for.”

Leaving school, Chef Prasad had dreamt of becoming an Indian air force fighter pilot. That must have been a terrifying prospect for the mother. No way, she thought. One day, unbeknown to him, she decided, on his behalf, to enrol him on a hotel management course, having looked into the course. Mothers know best, as he was instantly drawn to the cooking side of the course.

Since the age of 10 or so, he and his siblings had been helping his mother in the kitchen. “I was mummy’s commis.” He recalls fondly that his mother, a teacher and the youngest of 13 children, somehow knew that the hospitality course would suit him, even though in those days, it was a fairly new career path. He says: “What really steered me to being a chef was my mum’s absolute bloody-mindedness and foresight.” You can just imagine a mother arguing with a stubborn teenager and finally bringing him round to the idea.

Chef Alfred Prasad on the left, his mother and his younger brother

At one point, Chef Prasad decided to ask his mother for the recipes of his favourite dishes that he and his siblings grew up with. Unfortunately, she had by then started to manifest early signs of dementia. She couldn’t recall them accurately. He resorted to his memory of their flavour profile. Thanks to his skills and knowledge of ingredients as a chef, he managed to reverse-engineer her recipes. He beamed with joy when his siblings announced, after tasting his versions: “Wow, this is pretty close.” High praise indeed, as nothing beats food cooked by a mother, infused with love.

Nurturing young chefs is something that is close to Chef Prasad’s heart. He has given talks to hospitality students over the years and since the Covid-19 pandemic, to students of Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration in India (www.manipal.edu), including those who were due to graduate in the coming months amidst the Covid-19 climate. With the hospitality industry bearing the brunt of the effects of global Covid-19 pandemic, he encouraged the future graduates to look beyond the conventional avenues. Armed with transferable skills from the hospitality education, he counselled them to be innovative and think outside the box. We all need a Mr Motivator (from GMTV) in our lives to stretch our imagination and stay positive.

Chef Prasad has certainly practised what he has preached. After leaving Tamarind, he took on the consultancy for a Greek restaurant, Suvlaki in Soho, London and applied his grilling techniques that he employed at Tamarind. Suvlaki wanted his skills in grilling, his mastery of fire, smoke, aromas and flavours. Who would have thought that an Indian chef would become the Executive Chef at a Greek restaurant? Suvlaki owners saw in him something that he himself couldn’t initially see, like his mother with the hotel management course. They had tasted his food at Tamarind. They were open-minded and had the foresight and trust in Chef Prasad. Getting out of one’s comfort zone and taking a risk has clearly worked for him.

Menu at Suvlaki created by Chef Alfred Prasad

During the first lockdown, he and his wife put out a local message and offered to cook vegetarian meals for neighbours in need. They duly dropped off food packets twice a week to a few people in the neighbourhood who were self-isolating or shielding. “As a chef, for me, food has been always been a force for good. At times like this, if we could lend a hand to somebody in the neighbourhood. And if more people do that, then at least those who are lonely at least feel that there is someone out there. Alone for 6 or 7 months, I can’t even imagine. Happiness becomes so so important – not just your happiness, but investing some time in making someone else happy.”

This eagerness to give first manifested itself years ago in Chef Prasad’s support of various charities, including Action for Hunger and Food Cycle (which campaigns against food waste). He has used his high profile as a Michelin-starred chef to raise money for Akshaya Patra, where he has been the Chef Ambassador. Akshaya Patra is an NGO in India, whose mission is to eliminate classroom hunger. Since 2000, they have been providing a hot, fresh and nutritious meal to school children at government-aided schools in India. They now supply lunch time meals to about 1.8 million children every school day. This cause chimes with the recent initiative by the footballer, Marcus Rashford, in feeding hungry school children during holidays in the UK.

Chef Prasad explained that Akshaya Patra’s research into food with recipes fine-tuned by him has culminated in creating healthy vegetarian meals which are “good for kids’ attention span. It is not about loading up kids with fried chicken wings and chips and burgers and Coke. That is making them feel lethargic and fall asleep post-lunch. Whereas this food makes your mind active, being ethically sourced, an organic and nutrient-rich vegetarian balanced hot meal.”

Beyond banishing hunger, he continues: “But most importantly, it is a free meal scheme to children of really backward communities in free government schools. In many cases, what brings the kids to school is the fact that they get that square meal. These families operate what is commonly known as rotational hunger. One person in the family goes hungry every day because there is only so much food that goes around. So, the fact that the kids stay in school for that meal, the by-product is education and the chance to come out of the poverty cycle. It’s the reason they stay at school, the reason they have left with an education, qualifications and able to come out of the cycle of poverty that their parents or grandparents might have been in. [Looking at the] bigger picture, the benefit is exponential. It’s not just providing food.” You can just hear the intense passion in his voice, emitting immense power and emotion.

It certainly feels good to give. By feeding his neighbours with his food, Chef Prasad has also been feeding their soul, filling them with happiness, giving them a feeling that someone out there is thinking of them. Knowing that the millions of school children fed by Akshaya Patra may have a chance of acquiring an education and escaping the cycle of poverty must also give Chef Prasad a deep sense of satisfaction and fulfilment. Investing in someone else’s happiness has most probably spread happiness to him too. This is much more meaningful than the instant gratification from getting “Likes” on Instagram that we yearn for and addicted to. You blink and the momentary high of having these “Likes” has evaporated.

Of all the sadness that you hear in nearly every piece of news in the last few months, has the pandemic stirred up more empathy in some people? You are reminded repeatedly to protect others by wearing a mask, social distance and wash hands. Perhaps, just perhaps, this may make people more aware of the needs of others. Perhaps, this “ringtone” may subliminally be embedded in their minds. Or, for those more self-absorbed, will it be a case of “Computer says no”? Only time will tell. The world would be a better place if more of us perform selfless deeds like Chef Prasad.

In the meantime, let’s hope that Chef Prasad does his thing with his recipe book. It would serve well to implement his philosophy of Heritage, Health and Happiness. His book would become his instrument to pass on heritage recipes (including his mother’s hopefully), promote physical health through his nutritious food and mental health from the therapeutic effect of cooking, and bring about much happiness through eating and sharing good food. Perfect. I would want to buy a copy.

November 2020