Cyrus Todiwala: A Genius in the Kitchen

Being bestowed the title ‘chef of genius’ Mumbai-born Cyrus Todiwala is the chef patron of The River Restaurant at the Acron Waterfront Resort in Baga and Cafe Spice Namaste, Mr Todiwalaʹs Kitchen, and The Park Café in London. With his feet on the ground – from cooking to teaching, writing and running successful restaurants, he’s all set to conduct a master class on food tomorrow at Acron Candolim Regina, Candolim.

What are the responsibilities and challenges that come with the tag ‘Celebrity Chef’?

I am a very outspoken person and I was warned once, as sometimes I speak without thinking twice. Today, I am more careful of what and how I speak as my words can be taken as authority. That’s a big responsibility and it’s even bigger when you are chef patron of four well known restaurants – The River Restaurant which is in Baga and Cafe Spice Namaste, Mr Todiwalaʹs Kitchen, and The Park Café which are based in London. People in India may not know me, but people in Brittan do, there are people who have travelled all the way to Goa from London because they know I am here. Since I’m known in Brittan for the works that I do, there is a responsibility that you do not damage the people that look up to you. It is easy to go down the road of doing nasty things.

What are the challenges of setting up a restaurant?

Being chef patron of The River Restaurant at the Acron Waterfront Resort in Baga and Cafe Spice Namaste, Mr Todiwalaʹs Kitchen, and The Park Café in London there have been multiple challenges that I have encountered along the way. One is getting the culture right, two is focus; the other is to get the right design, people and menu. If you have a dream and an idea, the people you employ need to grow, develop and build on that idea. Those are the biggest challenges. The greatest understanding you need to have is knowing what the people want and having a USP and exploit the USP.

From authoring books to teaching and running so many restaurants, how do you manage everything?

I am able to manage cooking, authoring books, teaching and running my restaurants – The River Restaurant, Cafe Spice Namaste, Mr Todiwalaʹs Kitchen, and The Park Café because I undoubtedly have a good team. Good management, good time, good support and good people. The industry is people intensive and based on trust. You have to build a trust in people and people have to build the same in you. If you don’t trust your team you wouldn’t be able to leave the job for a while and do other things. It is because they are trusted, they have a responsibility. It is important to have a core team of intelligent people and perhaps to have a few people more intelligent than you are, that is the best way to have it.

Tell us about the master class you will be hosting.

We did a UK master class at Acron Candolim Regina, a hotel where we brought down chefs from UK. It was a small scale. This year 100 people are coming down to Goa to learn from this master class, held by Indian chefs. I want the chefs to invest in training and development of young people. We need to share knowledge as it is important to everybody. The whole idea is to get people in one centre and share knowledge. It is more than a master class; it is a class of unity of chefs coming together, training for job retention.

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