For those who occur to stroll into The Secret Kitchen in Ahmedabad — a restaurant run by Aanal Kotak — chances are you’ll end up awestruck on the sort of dishes which can be made right here. Not solely are these the results of a singular mix of elements, however additionally they have a deeper, cultural which means.
For example, one of the in style dishes on the menu, she tells The Higher India, is the ‘Caged Samosa’, which borrows inspiration from a recipe adopted by a 100-year-old store within the city of Kutch, and one which she got here throughout throughout her analysis for the restaurant.
“I beloved the recipe a lot that I introduced it to my restaurant. Right here, I needed the serving to characterize how the samosa had discovered a brand new lease on life and from a small city had now discovered its approach to so many others. So I started serving it in a cage, therefore the title.”
The truth is, Aanal notes that on the Sydney outlet of The Secret Kitchen in Australia, the Caged Samosa is the “fastest-moving starter”.
Having constructed such a beloved and celebrated meals model, Aanal says she finds the journey to be fairly “surreal”. Her goals of changing into a chef had taken form because the younger age of six.
“I’d play with the kitchen toy set, and as I grew older, I’d sit close to my mother within the kitchen as she cooked. I beloved watching her create new recipes and distinctive flavours,” she says, including that when it was time to decide on a profession, she was clear {that a} chef was what she needed to be.
“However, I wasn’t allowed. I used to be raised in a Gujarati household, which didn’t consider in women changing into ‘cooks’. I used to be informed I might select one thing else as a substitute, so I went forward with style design at NIFT, Gandhinagar. However the dream of being a chef by no means left my thoughts,” she says.
An engagement, an audition, and a dream come true
At the same time as 19-year-old Aanal busied herself with work after school, her love for cooking by no means light away. So in 2009, when a possibility offered itself within the type of a cooking competitors, she simply couldn’t carry herself to refuse.
On the time, Rasoi, the favored and longest-running Gujarati cooking present, was holding the Rasoi Maharani competitors, and Aanal thought this was a good time to point out the world her cooking expertise. However sadly, she wasn’t chosen the primary time, and went forward and utilized once more in 2011.
“The present held a number of sentiment, as I had grown up watching it with my mom and grandmother, and beloved each episode. So, I went forward and utilized, and even received chosen! They invited me to the following spherical in Might that yr, however as luck would have it, it was on the identical day as my engagement.”
When Aanal’s mother and father heard of the plan to audition on the identical day because the engagement, they weren’t too joyful. However her fiance, she says, supported her and he or she went forward, managing to make it to her ceremony as soon as the audition was full.
Not solely did Aanal clear that spherical, however she additionally went on to win the finale spherical in October 2011 and in 2012 was invited by the present as a culinary professional, the place she was bestowed with the title of ‘Youngest Chef of Gujarat’.
This, says Aanal, modified her life.
Everybody needed to style my dishes.’
In the course of the course of the present, Aanal cooked and ideated a myriad of recipes, each conventional in addition to fusion. Viewers beloved her recipes a lot that she was flooded with messages and requests that she begin promoting her meals and the delicacies she ready on the present.
“That was once I determined to start out my restaurant,” she says.
Aanal recounts how she’d at all times been fascinated with what went behind the scenes of a restaurant, particularly how the kitchen labored. “I used to be intent that I needed my restaurant to have an open kitchen the place visitors might work together with the cooks. I made a decision to include this into my restaurant,” she says.
In June 2017, The Secret Kitchen was launched, and Aanal’s dream was able to take flight.
Secret Kitchen: An area for innovation
Talking on how her enterprise is completely different from others, she says she has at all times aimed for authenticity.
“You understand once you go to a restaurant and have a good time with the meals, however find yourself feeling very heavy the following day? I figured that feeling was introduced on by the garam masalas used within the meals, and so I made a decision to make my very own masalas,” she notes.
She goes on so as to add that whereas at this time pre-made masalas are quite common, the idea of do-it-yourself masalas has existed for hundreds of years.
“In historical occasions, maharanis would make their very own masalas after which give them to the khansamas (head cooks) to make use of within the dishes. These masalas would come with a number of flowers and spices and as a substitute of the heavy feeling, they offered a soothing one.”
Quickly the elements and dishes at The Secret Kitchen gained enormous recognition and Aanal determined it was time to open extra retailers so individuals wouldn’t should journey.
“I began the Ahmedabad department of Secret Kitchen in 2018 and in 2019 the Surat franchise. Now we even have a department in Sydney Australia. In 2021, we additionally launched The Secret Kitchen retail house with ‘Southak’, a spice model,” she provides.
Aanal’s references for the masalas borrow inspiration from a extensive number of historical past sources resembling ‘The Moghul Feast’ by Salma Husain, ‘Historic Spices of India’, and so on. “These have an unlimited storehouse of knowledge on how completely different spices have to be used so as to render the most effective style. For example, elaichi shouldn’t be heated in oil, whereas laung lends good style solely when heated.”
The vary of dishes at The Secret Kitchen features a unfold of vegetarian delicacies resembling Pesto Kulcha (Indian bread with flavours of basil and crushed garlic), the Gossip Platter, which has a variety of a number of dips, salads, and chutneys and fusion dishes resembling a dhokla fondue (steamed rice cake with cheese sauce, moong dal and particular spices and tempering).
Incorporating all of this had taken The Secret Kitchen to the heights the place it now stands with each outlet of The Secret Kitchen seeing round 180 to 200 visitors every day.
“Once I simply entered this trade I observed how girls didn’t get a lot recognition on this house, however the respect I acquired was completely different and I really feel proud that in 5 years I’ve managed to create this,” she says.
Edited by Divya Sethu