6 minute read
CHEF SPEAKS
CHEF
ANKITA
Chef Ankita Honavarkar is an Sous Chef at The Park Baga, Goa
By Rajesh Ghadge Images by: The Park Baga
Chef Ankita, Sous Chef at The Park Baga holds a decade of experience in the culinary field and she has worked with various luxury brands in Goa and other parts of the country.
Chef Ankita is capable of conceptualising the executing food concepts from inception to execution. Let us take a look at her journey into the field of culinary. Tell us something about your journey and your entry into the field of Clunary. Hi, I am Chef Ankita, sous chef at The Park Baga. I am hardworking and having more than a decade of experience in the field of culinary delight, I hold an upbeat attitude about the food and its quality. I have worked with luxurious brands like Marriott, Hilton, Staywell hotels etc & really passionate about creating new concepts from inception to execution. Love for food brought me into this industry, wherein I got a chance to train in different cuisine & multi tasking where I continued working with Pastry & Bakery. Since born in Goa, currently expertising in Goan cuisine where I would like to create some Goan western fusion which gets recognition onto the global platform When did you realise that you wanted to become a chef? As I said earlier, love for food got me into this industry. Iam a foodie that encourages me to try making new dishes & also I used to cook after watching few cooking shows in my childhood. My granny was a home chef, she used to make sell authentic pickles ; wherein as a child I used to help her for the same which gave me an immense pleasure;, wherein I felt cooking was in my passion & so I chose my passion as a profession & landed up wherever I am there today. Tell us more about your tenure and journey at The Park Goa Having a vast experience in different hotels, The Park gave me an opportunity to showcase my talent of my culinary skills as the Kitchen
Head. The Park journey for me was 'Anything
but ordinary
' . The brand gave me an opportunity to experiment new things with new technique which has led me to innovating new dishes. It was a drastic change as I was promoted from handling only one section to handling the entire department. It was challenging at the same time a good learning experience. As Goan food was my home food, I thought of creating a fusion of with western cuisine which was my expertise, gave me a success creating some iconic dishes for our restaurant. What are your signature dishes? Tell us more about it My signatures are my Goan western fusion ie:Goan Poi sliders & Goan Bento box & also since Pastry is my background desserts like reconstructed strawberry eton mess & Chocolate Chilli fondant cake are my signatures. Poi sliders are basically made by stuffing Poi with any goan preparation of your choice along with Goan slaw & home made peri peri coulis served with peri peri fries. Goan Bento boxes was created keeping in mind for the short stay guests wanting to expierence variety of Goan food in one plate. So typically our bento box offers three main Goan prepartions served with Goan rice, homemade Goan pickle, Papad, Goan salad, Goan dessert & Solkadi ( a Goan appetizing drink, usually consumed after or along with the meals). Reconstructed eton mess is a dome shaped dessert which is a extravagant combination of fresh strawberry mousse, strawberry jelly & meringue served with strawberry coulis. Chocolate chilli fondant cake is a dessert consisting of a chocolate cake with liquid spicy chocolate core usually served with Vanilla ice cream & home made sweet chilli coulis What is your personal favourite cuisine? Since I am Chef, this question stands a difficult for me as I love to eat all kind of food. But my personal favorite is Pastry & desserts. I love baking & eating different breads, cakes & cookies. We all have to agree that no matter whenever we go out for food ; how much ever we eat, we always save room for dessert... So i love desserts. Also making customized cakes is my passion. What’ s the dish you enjoy cooking the most? There is no particular dish that i can think of but i love cooking any indian dish as I feel Indian dishes are tricky as most of Indian food recipe is spicy, rich, flavorful & diverse in variety & taste & is made up from wide array of regional cuisines throughout various parts of India. So I feel delighted & curious to work with different flavors, spices & ingredients. When it comes to eating, as a person what is your comfort food? Being born in southern western coastal part of India, my comfort food is my home food that is prawns curry rice with any fish fry & Any goan bread with any seafood curry What are your biggest strength and your weakness when you are leading a team? My biggest strengths as a team leader is my communication skills & motivation. I believe these are two important attributes which play an important role in any leadership role. It is very important for you to keep communicating with your team members to understand their requirements & diificulties towards operations for the smooth functioning of the work. Most of the solutions for my problems I find when I speak to them. Also self motivation for any team leader is important as I feel a team looks
at you for their performance of the day. When iam motivated, my staff looking at me feel confident to handle the pressure of busy hours in the kitchen. My biggest weakness as a team leader is that iam not a tech savvy person, which I feel is a need of an hour especially into the business into which iam in. I believe iam a quick learner so iam putting efforts to work on those grounds How did you keep the momentum going with your team during the low phase due to COVID-19? In recent times, the ongoing global pandemic has brought challenges to everyone in their own unique circumstances. As a leader I had to face three main challenges :- safety, motivation & support. As it was very difficult to predict future, it was important for me to train my staff for their & guest safety on regular basis. Keep them motivated being calm & transparent with clear communication & support them with set of flexible approaches. RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS Q.1 WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF 5 YEARS FROM NOW? I see myself growing & developing a better version of me Q.2 WHAT WEIRDEST THING YOU HAVE PUT IN YOUR MOUTH? Since I am a Chef & have a habit of consistently tasting each & every dia, I remember an incident in one of my previous hotels, we had put up a huge soup counter & as habituated ; I went on tasting evry soup kept in the container but didn 't realize as one of it was full of soap solution as my kitchen stewarding was busy cleaning up the counters, so accidentally I happened to put spoonful of soap solution in my mouth thinking that it was a soup whic was the wierdest thing I put in my mouth Q.3 5 KITCHEN TOOLS YOU CAN’T DO WITHOUT Knife, peeler, small whisk, thermometer & spoon
