At present working as Executive Chef at “Cidade de Goa”, the second oldest 5-star hotel in Goa, Chef Sunit Sharma shares the reason for becoming a chef and his culinary experience with Hospibuz in an exclusive dialogue.

HospiBuz: Every successful person always has an inspiring story behind him/her. What drove you towards being a Chef and about your epicurean journey.

Chef Sunit Sharma: The main reason for becoming a chef is the inherent love for food. My mother was a fantastic cook and loved to experiment and try various foods to feed her family and invite friends and relatives. Starting from home at an early age, exposed to home cooked Punjabi food and the various cuisines that mom would cook at home gave a wide exposure and love for trying new things. This led to an interest in hospitality and career in cooking.

HospiBuz: When you’re designing a complete meal, what factors do you take into account? How do you achieve harmony/balance?

Chef Sunit Sharma: To make a complete/balanced meal, we need to focus on several factors like method of cooking, veg/ non veg ingredients, nutrients (protein/ carbohydrate/ vitamins/ minerals etc), texture, taste (savoury/ sour/ sweet/ bitter/ astringent), flavour and colour, dry/gravy etc. If we get a variety in these then a good balanced meal is achieved.

HospiBuz: What is one cuisine do you find the most exciting and why?

Chef Sunit Sharma: The most exciting cuisine is HOME FOOD as it is so varied even in the same community/ family and same region. Trying to map that and get the same flavour into a hotel kitchen is very challenging and exciting.

HospiBuz: What is the secret behind the great food that leaves an unforgettable taste and experience amongst your guests?

Chef Sunit Sharma: Personalisation is the key to great food reviews from guest. If we know our guests and able to serve them what they want with exciting presentation or with new flavours, it makes for unforgettable experience for them

HospiBuz: Suppose you’re stranded on a desert island. What five foods would you want with you? What would you make?

Chef Sunit Sharma: Salt, olive oil, desi ghee, spices, chilli and fire to cook food that can be foraged from the desert or the sea using the staple ingredients above.

HospiBuz: What would be some quick tips you would like to give to our aspiring young chefs who dream of entering into global market for becoming chefs.

Chef Sunit Sharma: It is very easy to enter the food business but we should aspire to lead by knowing the difference between a Chef and Cook.

Cooks use hands and Chefs use brain and heart along with the hands to cook.

HospiBuz: HospiBuz has been covering a numerous of Chefs from all around the world, discovering their unique identity and skills. Few words you would like to say about Hospibuz for our mission to uncover every aspect of Hospitality sector ?

Chef Sunit Sharma: Keep it up…keep inspiring all of us.

Thank you so much for your prestigious time!!