PROFILE: Executive Chef Tarique Aziz - Why I abandoned a career in Science to cook

Tarique Aziz was supposed to become an engineer or a doctor; that was what his father wanted for him. Aziz was born in Kolkata, India, to a family made up purely of doctors and engineers. And so he was supposed to carry on with this family legacy; hell, in higher secondary school, he even majored in Science.

But, as soon as he graduated, and without warning, he said goodbye to Science and enrolled himself into a hotel management school to pursue his lifelong dream: cooking.

This culinary dream had been burning inside him ever since he was about 8 years old when his mother completely lost her eye sight, and he started helping her out in the kitchen.

Aziz has been cooking for 18 years now, the last 8 of which he has served as Executive Chef. He has cooked for regular people and celebrities and kings all over the globe; you name it, he has probably made a meal there; Asia, Middle East, Gulf, Indian Ocean, Southwestern Pacific, Seychelles, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Gambia, Maldives, Indonesia.

His talents have now brought him to Nairobi, Kenya, where he has served as Executive Chef at the Gem Forest Hotel for the last six months.

Aziz is a man who likes to let his work speak for him. When I went to interview him at his kitchen, he first whipped me up a risotto with lamb chops laced with 15-year-old Singleton whisky that exploded all kinds of yummy goodness in my mouth.

Eventually when we sat down, he told me his one regret is that he did not get the chance to cook a proper meal for his mother, who unknowingly nudged him down this career path when he was helping her out in the kitchen as a young boy.

When I asked him what he has learnt about the eating culture of Kenyans so far, he told me simply: “Kenyans love a lot of meat.”

The Executive Chef is the leader; you’re leading a team behind you, and it is your responsibility to deliver the highest standard of quality of food and services to the guests.

I am leading almost 35 to 40 staff at the moment in the Gem Forest hotels.

I’ve seen in movies how some Executive Chefs run their kitchens like army camps. Is that how you lead as well, or how would you describe your leadership?

In our industry as chefs, we are like the army, which means it’s very important to maintain discipline. As chefs and cooks, we often have differences, but you have to always keep calm and understand the situation and deliver to the guests.

There is an age old habit where chefs were very strict, but we are a bit modern (now); we’re very friendly with our team of chefs and we work together and do lots of training and cooking techniques with them.

Our industry is moving forward [with a focus] on sustainability; it's our role to figure out how we can build a sustainable kitchen, where we can reduce wastage but still come up with new recipes.

Reducing wastage, for instance, means like we can use the skin of tomatoes to also make jam or garnish or tomato crust.

Being constantly on the move, what are some of the challenges you face and how do you cope?

I travel a lot; I have worked in Asia, Middle East, Gulf, West Africa, now I'm in East Africa. We have different kinds of guests, and it's our job and responsibility to deliver the food and quality according to the guest’s need.

Sometimes we get challenging last minute orders, and we have guests of different nationalities with different kinds of food expectations, but that has helped me because I have traveled to different places in the world and I’m able to adapt more knowledge and skill with different cuisines.

I have done the Indian cuisine, Asian cuisine, Indonesian cuisine, Thai, French, Italian, Spanish and Arabic cuisines, and all these have helped me to deliver and fulfill to our guests’ expectations.

What do you remember about your childhood that led you down this career path?

As a child, I never had any plan or thought that I would become a chef; actually, I'm the first one in my family as well as my locality and in my town to join this industry. Most of my family members are either doctors or engineers, and my higher education was also in Science.

But when I was a child, about five years old, my mother lost her sight on one eye. And then when I was about 7 or 8 years old, she lost sight on the other eye completely as well.

So I just started helping her to cook at home, and she started teaching me how to make the Indian chapati and whatnot, and from there, little by little, I moved forward and realized I was very comfortable with cooking.

After I completed my higher education in Science, I realized that my interest was in cooking. I learnt basic cooking at home, by just helping my mother and father in the kitchen. From there, my journey in the hospitality industry started, and I admitted myself (in culinary school) then informed my parents later.

Initially, they did not like it very much, but [now] they’re okay because my father is very open-minded, and he believes I can do whatever I want to do. So he supported me and said, ‘Okay, if you’re really interested in this hotel industry, you can go on.’

Having worked across the world, which country would you say has the most interesting food culture?

I would say the Asian country of Indonesia, because they have lots of cuisines and ingredients. Indonesia has a little touch of food of Malaysia, Singapore, and then they have Thai food. They also use many types of ingredients, which made me very interested to learn their cuisines and to explore them with my modern Western cuisine.

These many years, and these many cuisines later, is there any particular dish that still gives you a little trouble making?

There is a kind of food we call Laksa; it is a kind of soup, and it is a main course that also use in Singapore, and it is very tricky for me to deliver because the Laksa has very many versions – there’s the Singaporean version as well as the Malaysian version.

We also have some kind of Sambal, which also is a bit tricky for me to deliver, but in terms of cooking the Western meals like French, Italian and Spanish cuisines, I am an overall expert.

If you could cook for one person in the world, dead or alive, who would it be?

I would’ve liked to cook for my mother, but she passed away, and I did not get an opportunity to cook for her the best food, unfortunately.

Apart from my mother, I can make the best food for my father; he’s very picky on food; whether it’s home food or hotel meals, he always has lots of comments.

I would also like to cook for King Salman of Saudi Arabia. I cooked for one of his brothers, Prince Fahd bin Saud, at his palace – so [I hope] in future to get an opportunity to cook for the royal families.

What would you say you’ve learnt about Kenyans so far from their eating habits?

Kenya is a very beautiful country, first of all, and all the ingredients are available here. I always go around the markets and malls like Carrefour and find all [necessary] ingredients [for cooking].

I have noticed that Kenyans prefer a lot of meat; they love to eat beef, chicken, and pork products. But some, especially young ladies, are now moving forward on organic and more healthy food as well.

I always see these scenes in movies where if a customer loves the food, they request to meet the Executive Chef and appreciate them. Does that happen out here in the real world?

That’s real; actually nowadays most of the guests prefer to meet directly with the Executive Chef. Some guests have many dietary restrictions, so when they meet directly with the Chefs, communication is easier and they’re more satisfied if they receive food according to their expectations.

It’s easier this way for Chefs to also understand what guests are looking for, because our purpose is to deliver the best food with the highest standard.

Personally, for me, I like meeting guests so that I can get their feedback and know if there are any gaps or where we’re lacking so that we can fulfill their expectations.

As the food world evolves, I’m seeing a lot more of chefs experimenting with unconventional things like the Singleton whisky you just used in my food. How do guests react to this?

We’re now in the modern era, so what we do is we come up with promotions where we can do pairing of foods with different kinds of wine or whisky like Singleton. This way guests can enjoy their food with the proper alcohol pairing.