Ismail Merchant | Homemade British Choco chip HobNobs

Someone asked me today who is your favourite chef? Well the answer to that is rather elaborate. But to pick one, the answer would certainly be Mr Ismail Merchant.The man who inspired me quite a lot in my growing years for understanding heuristics in food.. I am a software engineer and working on google is like bread and butter for me. So when you search for an individual search string and the results yielded are few which means that the particular topic need more scribbling over the internet websites,blogs and other netizens paraphernalia. So less is written about his books and his culinary expeditions. I am just reviving them through my writing.

Ismail Merchant

Currently the Cannes is adorned with who’s who of the cinematic world trying to showcase their movies, baiting for suitable distributors, agents hunting up for the next face of the celebrity. I could have never understood it to so much detail, had I not read real-time accounts of Ismail merchant.

So who is Mr Ismail Merchant? Ismail Merchant was born on December 25, 1936 in Bombay, Maharashtra, India as Ismail Noormohamed Abdul Rehman.He is the most classy filmmaker hailing from India and has produced 40 films under the prestigious Merchant Ivory production. He was a man ahead of his time and believed in thinking out of the box. Opulent and extravagant when it came to film making. Away from the film set, Merchant was most likely to be found in the kitchen. He liked to combine his two passions and was well-known for getting his cast and crew to bond by cooking gigantic Indian feasts. He freely admitted using food to get actors to do his bidding. This is the aspect which compelled me to know him more and more. His style of cooking is a fine example of revolutionary fusion cooking.

He lived in a trance world when he visited France.It was so evident in his style of cooking and charming picturesque tales which he weaves in his movies. I give him credit for his outlook and his undying efforts.He carved a niche for himself in France and America as a producer and filmmaker. I cite this particularly because till date the enhancement of making it big in the western cinema haunts many a starlets.

He is the man who made me fall  in love with Provençal region of France. If you read his books then you can understand the region and the books are ornate with stories of Parisian open air markets, vineyards in Bordeaux and Burgundy and lustful Michelin starred restaurants of that era. His journey is an extravagant culinary masterpiece. This is just Part 1 of my tribute to him there is more to follow.

Anecdotes

There are numerous anecdotes that he has cited in his books. But I really like the one in which he exchanges his indian food secrets with a Provençal local cook. He introduced her to fresh finer and green chillies which are integral to Indian cooking and sparingly adding them to French cuisine. She in turn showed him the usage of Crème fraîche. A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness. Quoting the local cook “Cooking won’t disguise a bad wine or turn it into a good wine.Start with an inferior wine and you end up with an inferior dish. And the fowl must be a rooster because it has more flavour”. Simple recipes, secrets, ideas are the central idea behind heuristic kitchens.

HobNobs

I find myself getting entranced by British cuisine just as the way my favourite chef admired French cuisine. I am stirring up a very british biscuit or cookie know as  Homemade British Choco chip HobNobs. I have converted the ingredients written at the back of package of Mcvitie’s into my ingredients. HobNob is mouth-watering oat and wheat biscuits. First sold in the UK in 1985, they are now enjoyed as a tea-time treat all around the world! The recipe is still a secret from original producers McVitie’s.