My visit to Chef Pillai in Bangalore and my thoughts on why we need to be more honest to our work

I was keen to check out Chef Pillai because the  founder, Chef Suresh Pillai is a celebrity chef having run Veeraswami and Hoppers in London and also appearing on the British Masterchef. He is seen as one of the leading exponents of South Indian food in the restaurant world and the opening of his eponymous restaurant in Bangalore last year was a big deal in the food scene. 

I felt there was enough evidence at my meal that this is a Chef who has the ability to cook some amazing food. But sadly a few great dishes don’t make a great restaurant and there just wasn’t enough consistency in terms of quality. The rice in the biryani was probably the best and most fragrant I’ve had in Bangalore but the meat was tough and hadn’t absorbed the flavour of the biryani. The marinade in the prawn and fish starters was excellent but the protein was dry. The crispness of the fried chicken was on point but the meat was slightly undercooked and I had a crushed gristly bit that robbed me of my joy. The dish that was really worth going there for was the Chef’s special seared fish cooked in coconut milk. The curry was velvety and even more flavourful than a moilee, slightly reminiscent of a Thai curry and demonstrative of Chef Pillai’s mastery of flavour. Our group made the mistake of ordering Karimeen which I feel is best had in a dry preparation like pollichathu because of the bones but that’s no slight on the restaurant since they also allow you to order it with kingfish which would work quite brilliantly in my opinion.

It is the third option on that dish that disappointed me because it was a paneer version of the dish. I yield to no one in my love of paneer, one of the great discoveries of my years studying in Delhi and I always bemoan the lack of nice soft, paneer in Bangalore. But how can any restaurant that claims to cook authentic food, and marketed as founded by a chef who is a torchbearer of Kerala cuisine serve paneer versions of dishes? And this wasn’t the only paneer dish, there were several. Now I may be completely wrong and maybe paneer is a classic Kerala vegetarian staple in which case I apologise and stand corrected. But in my visits to Kerala I’ve never seen paneer on a local menu and I think the food of Kerala has many extraordinary vegetarian dishes that celebrate local produce. 

Again just to clarify, I don’t have a problem with restaurants that make paneer versions of dishes because I understand it’s popular and sells well. I’m a guy who unashamedly orders a Gobi manchurian in any place that serves a nice crispy version. But then be honest about it. Say that it’s a commercial massy restaurant with no claims to fidelity or authenticity. 

Food is food. Different people love different things and to each their own with no judgement whether you like schezwan Dosa or Maggi burgers. 

But what’s important is to always be honest in what we say or do. Whether it’s people who describe goat as lamb because calling it mutton like the rest of the country means you can’t justify the price you charge, or chefs who claim to have worked at some globally renowned restaurant (usually Noma) after interning a few weeks, this kind of stuff comes across as insincere or dishonest in some way. If we believe in what we do and do it with heart and soul, then it will always resonate with people, and we need that honesty if our food scene is to progress. We cannot move forward as a culinary community without being completely true to ourselves and our customers. 

Cook and serve whatever you want. But do it with honesty. That’s all I ask for.