ATTENTION TO DETAIL: CHEF RAHUL AKERKAR

If destiny hadn’t intervened, Rahul Akerkar would have become a biochemical engineer and the world would have been deprived of his stupendous culinary skills.

After a falling out with his advisor at Columbia University and dabbling in various other professions such as real estate and selling silver jewellery, Rahul realised that the one thing that has remained constant is cooking – he had been working at various restaurants at night to earn that extra buck. “One day it just hit me – ‘hey, you’re enjoying this, so why not make a life out of it? And that’s how it was,” he says with a smile.

Starting with Under The Over, and then Indigo, his flagship restaurant in Colaba, to the year-old Qualia in Lower Parel, the chef has packed in some mighty three decades of serving good food. In these 30 years, the chef shares that the things that have changed and the things that have remained constant are connected in some or the other ways. “I have always paid attention to detail and sweated the small stuff. But the way you did that in the ‘90s is different from the way you do it now. People have different expectations from their meals today than they had back then. The expression of what we do has changed but the underlying ethos stays the same,” he shares.

Secondly, he believes that the Indian diner is pretty adventurous when it comes to trying out new things. “That’s always been there but now, people are a lot more exposed and have all the vocabulary to express their likes and dislikes about the food. So, that’s a big change, but again the underlying spirit that drives it is the same,” he adds.

At his labour of love Qualia, the dishes are completely ingredient-driven. “The dishes can be very simple, but you make the ingredient the star. At Qualia, we do a lot of pickling and fermenting that give certain boldness to the flavours and make them pop in your mouth,” he concludes.