My nose was twitching right off the scale, even at the early morning preparation stage, the kitchen at Hotel Escuela in Santa Cruz was alive with warm spicy aromas. Indian chef Ramamoorthy Swaminathan was a picture of calmness, well when you have cooked for 300 world economic leaders in Switzerland; looked after 300 international gourmets in Singapore and tried to satisfy hundreds of irate grounded flyers from Heathrow, seven nights cooking in the Canary Islands is almost relaxing.
Ramamoorthy is the latest in a series of guest chefs from around the world to cook and teach in Santa Cruz from 21 to 24 July and then at the Hotel Escuela in Santa Brigada, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria for another three nights. These are popular four star hotels that offer courses in all aspects of hotel and catering. At any time Hotel Escuela teaches around 350 mainly local students; they currently have 29 from Dresden and are just expecting five from a college in Senegal.
Curiosity led Ramamoorthy into the family kitchen at home in Madurai in south India at a young age and his love of food and cooking grew during big family gatherings, through a diploma from the Indian Institute of Hotel Direction, and into hotel work in Hyderabad, Bombay and Cochin. So what is Indian cuisine? “It’s so much more than curry and hot dishes” said Ramamoorthy. “It’s about flavours and the huge range that comes from the different areas of India. Chillies change as you travel every 80 kms, and you can learn to recognise them and their origin.”
Ramamoorthy built up his experience at the World Gourmet 2000 event in Shangrilla in Singapore. “We spent a month serving 700 meals a day to leading names from the gourmet world, that gave me a lot of confidence.” The economic leaders” forum in Switzerland was another important learning experience and a trip to a London festival gave Ramamoorthy a taste for the mixed cultures and cuisine of the city and he joined the Marriott Group at the Renaissance Hotel near Heathrow where seven years later he is the sous chef.
“It’s a big place, 649 rooms, 28 meeting rooms and banqueting suites, we can serve up to 1,300 meals a day.” The closeness to a major international airport can bring its own challenges. “During the recent lava cloud crisis we had to cope with hundreds of passengers being stranded with us at short notice, keeping them happy was a tough order.”
There are two full menus to prepare at Hotel Escuela, one vegetarian and one conventional. Pointing out a couple of notable menu items Ramamoorthy starts with Kuzhi Paniyaram on the first menu. He is a vegetarian himself in line with his religion. “This uses a special mix of rices and a batter that is marinaded overnight producing a light tasty dumpling. On the other menu Machili-kasandi tikka involves fish cooked in a tandoor oven with a west Bengal sauce.”
Leaving the master to his craft, I was given a tour of the hotel by Director Lucia Garcia Canino. “We have up to eight courses running at a time and our students can gain practical experience in all areas of the hotel; catering, management, bar work etc. There are also special study rooms with computers and work areas and it’s great to see so many of our past students go on to do well in the hotel business.”
The four star rooms look out onto the Barranco Santos and across Santa Cruz and there’s a nice homely feel helped by the paintings and sculptures from local artists. It’s a strange experience for me, after 9 seasons of supporting CD Tenerife it’s the first time I have gone through the hotel entrance just opposite my usual turnstile. Next season as I try to chomp through a rock hard roll at half time, my thoughts and taste buds will be yearning for some of Ramamoorthy’s Indian cooking.
