Revelations: Dayashankar Sharma, executive chef, Heritage Dulwich, London

We delve into the life and inner thoughts of a top chef. This week: Dayashankar Sharma

 

What was your first job in catering?

 

As soon as I finished my diploma, I worked as a trainee chef at Oberoi’s hotel in India. I was always curious to learn, working in different sections across the kitchen and I still clearly remember having to skin chickens all day in the butchery section

 

What do you normally have for breakfast?

 

Chai, paratha and mango pickle – yum

 

What do you do to relax?

 

Watch cricket on TV

 

Which is your favourite restaurant?

 

Bukhara at the ITC Maurya in New Delhi is my favourite restaurant. Their authentic recipes and approach to Indian dining is simply unmatched

 

What is your favourite drink?

 

I love a glass of Dalmore 18-year-old Highland malt whisky, but it has to be on the rocks

 

What is your favourite cuisine?

 

Indian, of course!

 

What flavour combinations do you detest?

 

I cannot stand it when people include prawns, lamb and chicken all in one biryani

 

Which person in catering have you most admired?

 

Satish Arora, corporate chef director of the Taj Group of Hotels

 

What daily newspaper/website do you read?

 

BBC – I have the app on my phone

 

If not yourself, who would you rather have been?

 

Hadn’t given that much thought… maybe Superman

 

If you had not gone into catering, where do you think you would be now?

 

I was actually a science student and studying towards becoming a doctor but became a chef instead

 

Describe your ultimate nightmare?

 

Eating Indian food which is not even close to tasting like proper Indian food!

 

What’s your favourite book?

 

Prosperity, Success and Achievement by Orison Swett Marden

 

What’s your favourite film?

 

Sholay – a film from Indian cinema in the 1970s. What a film!

 

If you had more time, what would you do?

 

I absolutely love farming, so if I had the time, I would probably buy a plot of land and start working on growing my own produce