The chefs who cook for the world’s leaders usually keep a low profile, leaving the limelight to their bosses. However, once a year it is their turn to be wined and dined and treated as honored guests in a foreign country.
Billed as the world’s most exclusive gastronomic society, Le Club des Chefs des Chefs brings together the men and women who cook for heads of state to exchange ideas and — presumably — insider information on their bosses’ tastes.
They have met annually since the club was first established in Paris in 1977 and, for the first time, they are doing so in India, hosted by the Indian president’s personal chef, Montu Saini.
Photo: AP
“The presidents all met each other. I thought it was a good idea to make a sort of G20 of the chefs,” club founder Gilles Bragard told journalists in Delhi. “If politics divides men, a good table will unite them.”
Naturally, the tradition involves trying out local delicacies. However, Saini has left little to chance when it comes to the Indian capital’s most notorious complaint.
Rather than subjecting the chefs to Delhi street food, he had the kitchen of their five-star hotel recreate panipuri and aloo tikki — popular fried snacks made of wheat flour and potato and served with sweet and spicy chutneys.
“I can’t take them to the street, because they are foreigners. Their tummies are too sensitive,” Saini said. “So I am creating a replica in the hotels.”
India excels in the extravagant welcome, and the visiting chefs were treated like the royalty many of them work for.
Arriving in their immaculate chef’s whites at Old Delhi’s chaotic spice market, even more crowded than usual ahead of the Diwali festival, they were showered with pink rose petals and garlanded with jasmine.
“This is fantastic,” said Bernard Vaussion, who cooked for six French presidents before he retired, as he pushed his way through the market’s packed alleyways. “I mean it’s dirty and noisy, but who cares. It’s such an experience.”
India takes its toll, though. By day three, one of the visiting chefs had fallen ill, while another was feeling the effects of Indian cuisine.
“After four days of eating spicy [food], you feel it,” said Fabrizio Boca, chef to the Italian president. “I think it’s only because you have to get used to it.”
Like most of the visiting chefs — 16 men and one woman, White House chief Cristeta Comerford — Boca is eager to learn more about India’s vast range of spices.
For the chefs, the annual gatherings are a chance to exchange ideas and get to know each other.
They also have a hotline known as the “blue telephone” that allows them to consult each other on their bosses’ preferences before a state visit.
None of the chefs gave away much about their bosses’ tastes, although all agreed on the growing importance of seasonality in food, and of making state dinners a lighter, healthier affair.
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