Gordon Ramsay set up shop on the pavements of RN Mukherjee Road in the Dalhousie Square area, cheek by jowl with the other street food outfits, and sold food he had cooked right there till they sold out. “Over 100 portions of chicken gone in 50 minutes,” he said, wiping the sweat off his brow with what looked like a white cotton gamchha.

So torrid was the Calcutta sun that he had to change into a white kurta (over bare legs), a dress that he christened as the “local chef white”. The gamchha slung over the shoulder completed the Indian summer look.

In case you are wondering if we are writing an All Fool’s Day article two months too early, tune into TLC today at 10pm.

Rewind & replay

The shooting for the second episode of Gordon’s Great Escape, the top chef’s first gastronomic adventure in India, had taken place in 2009 when he made a pit stop on the streets of central Calcutta, surveying the “competition” on what he calls the “gourmet trail” with 135,000 eateries — sipping chai in an earthen cup, getting his taste buds ravaged by the spice in the torkari while trying out kochuri, finding succour in the more familiar noodles.... His mission was to “show the city what it has been missing” — the food of the Northeast, which he planned to serve right on the streets after picking up a few specialities.

Northeast sojourn

What happens when Gordon Ramsay takes part in a cooking contest? He comes second. Incredible but true. That’s what happened in Guwahati, his last stop in the Northeast. When the result was announced, he jumped in joy, then suddenly realised that it was the first runner-up’s name that had been called. “So I didn’t win?” he looked puzzled. The contestants he badmouths in his other show Hell’s Kitchen would have relished that. When the winner, Nilima Goswami, walked up, Ramsay asked incredulously: “What did she do to the chicken that I didn’t?” “Papaya and carrot,” came the answer. “Papaya chicken! Interesting.”

Ramsay had two other destinations to visit in the Northeast — Shiyong village on the Nagaland border and the Majuli island in Assam —  before he headed back to Calcutta.

Calcutta cauldron

Guess what dish topped the menu at Gordon Ramsay’s Calcutta Café? Assamese Chicken & Papaya with Rice. If you can’t beat ’em, cook like ’em! That cost all of Rs 30. Had you been there on the pavements alongside the regular Dalhousie crowd in 2009, that is what you would have had to pay to taste Gordon Ramsay.  Unless of course, you were Nondon Bagchi for whom Ramsay had saved a portion to taste and comment on. The other two dishes came even cheaper: Naga Fish Curry with dry Bamboo Shoot and Northeastern Vegetable with Coriander, Carrot and Rice, both for Rs 20.

In less than an hour, all of his food got sold out and Ramsay made Rs 2,750. The waiters at Petrus, his Michelin star restaurant in London, make more in tips in half a day. But Ramsay has achieved his goal. “I have proved the curries of the Northeast are worth shouting out for.”
 

Green Chicken Curry with Sesame Seed

Method: First pour some mustard oil in a pan. Put onions, garlic and chillies in the hot oil. Mix the chicken with the mixture and close the lid for some time. After the chicken gets cooked, mix coriander paste and black sesame seed paste in it. Add salt as required. Mix it well and the curry is ready.

(Gordon’s Great Escape airs Saturdays at 10pm on TLC)
Sudeshna Banerjee