Cooking is an art through which one forges an exquisite bond with people and that’s the driving mantra for chef Abhinanda Bhattacharya! A self-made chef and founder of Peppercorns, she gave up her flourishing corporate career to pursue her passion for the culinary arts.
Having been trained under the renowned British chef Jamie Oliver in Italy, Abhinanda, however, took a rather unconventional route when it came to honing her culinary skills. She believes that is from browsing through scores of books on food and dining since her teens had helped perfect her culinary skills.

‘When I cook for people at house-parties I get to know what they love, their palate and cultural traits. I am a chef and a storyteller too.’

On asked about the best moment in her culinary career, Abhinanda replied,

'Oh yes, it has to be when Akasha Richmond, a renowned chef from L.A., visited Mumbai with her fellow chefs. During her visit I took them to Crawford market (South Mumbai) to pick some spices and ingredients for a lunch gathering. I prepared some native Indian food for them including our popular ‘Pani Puri’.‘Well, he used to burn toasts every time he made breakfast, but I devoured the mutton curry he cooked. The gosht masala he made was simply out of the world!’

Our self-made chef believes that cooking is a skill that she has inherited. During our candid chat, Abhinanda had a rather humorous anecdote to share about her father’s cooking.
In terms of what personally appeals to her palate, Abhinanda likes to keep the flavours simple, her only guilty pleasure being ‘Macher Paturi’ a traditional Bengali fish prepared with ground mustard, steamed in a banana leaf. (Pro Tip: She said the fish masala is the secret to any well prepared Paturi. So, all you home-chefs out there, make sure you get the masala right!)

From gosht masala to fish masala, which cuisine appeals to Abhinanda’s palate the most? Or is it Italian or Chinese that she prefers?
Even the best have one or two goof ups in their culinary journey and chef Abhinanda isn’t any exception! She recalled an incident where she added rice flour to her black forest preparation instead of all- purpose flour!

Cooking maestros love to be experimental and for Chef Abhinanda, she loves to experiment with croquettes.

No conversation on cooking can ever be complete without spices and we made it a point to ask our chef about that one spice that she cannot simply do without! To our surprise it wasn’t peppercorns, but cumin powder or whole cumin also known as jeera.
As we know spices can make or break a dish and Abhinanda believes in the art of subtle use of spices to strike just the right balance in flavors.

‘I am not finicky and I love trying everything but if it’s about choice then I’d say Indian because of the flavors and the diversity it offers.’

Like every chef, Abhinanda too has a few tricks up her sleeves when it comes to preserving spices.

‘I make sure to timely replace steel spice jars as metal tends to rust. Also, storing spices in the refrigerator helps retain its freshness.’‘Peppercorns are a universal spice and have historical embellishments attached to it.’ Besides pepper, she also swears by garam masala and chole masala which is widely used in food preparations.

‘‘Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as
there are only so many notes or colors, there are only
so many flavors - it's how you combine them that sets
you apart’’.

- Wolfgang Puck

When in the artistic space its always great to connect and collaborate so, we asked the chef if she had a chance to collaborate with a chef who would it be?
To this she chuckled and said ‘Akasha’ again for sure! At the end of it all, our chef of the day, Abhinanda Bhattarcharya, reminded us of a saying close to her heart: We wish you all the best Abhinanda for your future endeavours.Keep spreading the delight of flavours with your dishes!