Responsibly Curated – Mindfully prepared is the theme at ITC Maurya. Helming this is Chef Rajdeep Kapoor, executive chef, ITC Maurya, Delhi. In an excluisve with Express Food & Hospitality, Chef Kapoor talks about how the hotel is curating its menus in the Use Local ethos and his journey as an ITC chef
How will dining change in the post Covid-19 landscape?
“Sustainability”, “safety and hygiene” will be the new luxury. Customer preferences will be based on healthy eating and sustainable food produce. A ten year strong “Responsible Luxury” ethos underscores ITC Hotels culinary brands and initiatives to present innovative cuisine experiences while adhering to high standards of food safety and hygiene.
How did you curate the dining responsibly menus at ITC Maurya?
Our menu “flavours” aim to offer diners responsible dining experiences in the comfort of their home, based on fresh and seasonal selections. A harmony of fresh, seasonal produce and sustainable food selections, our responsible dining initiative brings the taste of familiar flavours home. Crafted with care and handled with utmost hygiene to ensure your wellbeing, our mindfully curated menu ensures unique food experiences.
How is ITC Maurya following the Use Local ethos?
ITC Hotels takes pride in curating menus for unique food experiences with local offerings from the region for diners across all major cities in India…. ITC Maurya will use sustainable food materials and local purchasing of food items. More than 50 per cent of ongoing consumables used at ITC Maurya locally sourced. Curating an unforgettable dining experience for the guest will always be our priority at ITC Maurya.
You have been an ITC chef for most of your career. How has the journey been?
It’s been a memorable journey, there is nothing better that could have happened. I love my work!!! Every morning I put on my chef’s jacket with an immense sense of pride…!!! In all my years as a chef with ITC Hotels, I have relentlessly endeavoured to be self-effacing, persevering and driven, qualities that are imperative to direct the culinary department of a hotel and pilot its course towards creating F&B destinations.
Today, at the helm of the hotel’s culinary department and at a platform which provides me with infinite scope to create, reinvent myself, ameliorate resources and set new trends, I relentlessly endeavour to ensure that every guest experience is a culinary moment of truth.
Your type of cuisine?
I prefer comfort food, responsibly sourced with right ingredients.
As a chef, your inspiration and role model?
My father, being born into a family that brazenly discusses lunch over breakfast and dinner over lunch; I have been curiously entangled with food from the earliest years of my childhood. Growing up in an Indian home that was preoccupied with the eating, the preparing and the serving of memorable meals, I received a premature culinary orientation and with it began the quest for a profession where I could develop creatively and learn incessantly. My first tryst with food began, when at the age of twelve I tried making mushroom patties at home. It was inevitable that I chose to be a chef.
