With a global reputation as one of the masters of Indian fine dining, Vivek Singh’s signature culinary style marries modern Indian flavours with Western techniques. Executive chef and CEO of five restaurants (The Cinnamon Club in Westminster and Dubai, Cinnamon Kitchen in Battersea and the City, and Cinnamon Bazaar in Covent Garden) author of six cookbooks and a regular face on both television and live cookery events across the country, Vivek is one of the most inspiring Indian chefs of his generation.
Vivek is celebrating 15-years of his trailblazing modern Indian restaurant Cinnamon Kitchen City, which challenges traditions and creates dishes that go beyond authenticity and draw on the diversity of the sub-continent. To celebrate the anniversary, Vivek and his kitchen brigade are planning a whole host of exciting events, which celebrates the restaurant’s past and present talent, as well as the City’s love for diverse and imaginative dishes – all whilst reflecting Vivek’s passion for connecting Indian cooking techniques and British culture by spice.
This includes a one-off four-course exclusive dinner on the 6th October, where Vivek Singh will be joining forces with some of the capital’s renowned chefs from Cavita, Kricket and Rambutan to celebrate an incredible 15 years of Cinnamon Kitchen City, and all things spice.
We caught up with Vivek to find out all about his inspirations, favourite food and flavour pairings and where you’ll find him on days off.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, including your where you are today, professionally, and what got you here?
My professional cooking started as a trainee with the Oberoi Hotels, where I was able to work at a variety of restaurants, including running the Surya Mahal in the Oberoi Rajvilas hotel in Jaipur, before moving to London to open The Cinnamon Club in 2001. Today, I’m currently the executive chef and CEO of five restaurants, as well as being an author of six cookbooks and appearing on TV and at live cooking events around the country.
Engaging culturally and socially is important to me, celebrating and bringing Indian culture and festivals to the UK, as well as doing what we can to support our community and the hospitality industry – it’s been a long 30-year journey of engaging, exploring and, more importantly, enjoying a career spanning across three decades.
Who has been your biggest influence to get you to where you are today?
Over my journey of 30 years, I have had many influences from a number of people along the way and, surprisingly, some of them have not been chefs or people within our industry. In fact if I think about it, often it’s not limited or restricted to the people you meet or the amount of time you have spent with them, sometimes you can meet people for five minutes and they can have a big impact on you.
When I was much younger reading books by Marco Pierre White and Raymond Blanc really influenced my thinking of a chef and inspired me. Other people I was greatly influenced by include Vikram Oberoi, during my time working with the Oberoi hotel group, as well as Paul Jones, who was the F&B director at the Oberoi Rajvilas hotel. During my early days at The Cinnamon Club, I was influenced by Iqbal Wahhab, who I co-founded The Cinnamon Club with, as well as chef Eric Chavot, who I was speaking regularly with during those early days at the restaurant.
What’s your signature dish?
My signature dish is not a dish, but rather a genre of cooking, and I absolutely love cooking game dishes for which The Cinnamon Club has been very famous for over the years.
Do your personal preferences influence the menu at all?
All the time, for around 15 of the 30 years of my cooking career, I ensure that home style cooking is at the core of my personal preferences – it didn’t have a place on restaurant menus, because many people were going out to eat what they couldn’t find at home, and that belief has completely changed in the last 15 odd years – there are several of my home style chutneys, techniques and garnishes that now appear frequently on my menus, which I’m particularly proud of.
How would you describe your cooking style?
I would say my signature culinary style is contemporary Indian. I tend to draw experience from Indian spicing and cooking techniques, marrying this with local British produce, we basically bring together the best of both worlds.
Do you have a favourite time of year or set of ingredients that you look forward to working with?
My favourite time of the year is autumn and I particularly love this change in season, when different ingredients become widely available. We particularly find during this season that game, partridge, grouse, pheasant etc make an appearance on our menus for a short period, which I love cooking with.
What is your favourite ingredient to create with?
I always start thinking about a dish based on what hero ingredient is in season, so I’m equally excited by the ingredients available to then curate a dish by.
What would you be doing if you weren’t a chef?
I don’t know what I would be doing but I would rather not be doing anything else if I wasn’t a chef.
What is your favourite dish to cook at home?
It would have to be my hyderabadi lamb biryani.
What differences do you find working with local produce as opposed to non-local produce in terms of what you can create and flavour?
As a chef, I see the benefits in both local produce, as well as non-local produce. For example, fresh meat, vegetables, seafood – you are able to get so much more freshness and quality from them sourced locally. But at the same time, for things like spices, I strongly believe that provenance plays a huge part in any dish, as the terroir has a part to play in the taste and flavour, so I would say it’s a real balance.
How do you go about menu planning?
Our continuous search for the finest new ingredients that we may or may not have used before from our land, shores, or skies is the starting point of our menu development process. Once we have the hero ingredient in mind, we dive into our pan-Indian search for inspiration around the correct spices and cooking techniques and in doing so we come up with the final dish, which, even though it may be rooted in thousands of years of cooking history, still seems modern and current.
When are you happiest?
When I’m trialling new dishes; I like nothing more than gathering round the kitchen table with my full team and sampling new plates together, which is when I am the happiest.
What is your favourite piece of kitchen equipment?
A tiny, tiny brass mortar and pestle that I have in The Cinnamon Club.
When you’re not in the kitchen where can you be found?
I spend it at other people’s restaurants!
What’s your favourite takeaway or comfort food?
My favourite dish has to be the buttered chicken from the Babur restaurant in South East London, the restaurant has been going for 38 years and the chef Jiwan Lal knows just how I like it!
Where is your favourite place to dine?
There is always so many new places to try in London, I rarely find myself going to the same place more than once.
What do you think is the most over-hyped food trend?
For me, it would have to be the ultra-high processed vegan food, which is mimicking protein, as I believe the focus should be more steered around utilising the natural plant-based ingredients high in protein, full of healthy and nourishing goodness, such as lentils and chickpeas.
What’s your favourite flavour combination?
Carom seeds and nigella seeds with fish and seafood – it’s a delightful marriage made in heaven.
What is the USP of your restaurant?
A key USP of our Cinnamon Kitchen City restaurant has to be our interactive tandoor bar and grill, which was a capital first! It allows diners to sit and interact with our dedicated chefs, whilst we delight them with our modern Indian dishes. We love hosting truly bespoke, theatrical dining experiences for our guests to enjoy.
If you could describe your restaurant in three words, what would they be?
Evolving, modern and Indian as my cuisine – and I would describe Cinnamon Kitchen City as being warm, busy and tasty.
What are the most important considerations when crafting your menu?
The most important considerations when crafting a menu include the availability of good quality, locally sourced, seasonal ingredients, the variety of cooking techniques and spicing, and ensuring there is a fair balance between familiarity and challenge, so there is something on the menu for everyone when dining at one of our restaurants.
From the adventurous diners that want to try something a bit different and daring, to those who like familiarity and seek comfort to what they are used to eating, I want to make sure everyone feels inclusive in our restaurants.
What’s the process from picking the ingredients to getting them fresh into the kitchen and into dishes?
Awareness around what is coming into season and what is going to be available, establishing a supply chain and a reliable supplier who can source it for me and at a competitive price – whilst the ingredient has been identified and a reliable supply chain confirmed, then it is the easy part of treating that ingredient with respect and utilising my innovative cooking techniques and spices that best show off that particular ingredient.
How would you describe the food you create at Cinnamon Kitchen to someone who’s never experienced your kind of food?
It’s very tasty you must try it haha!
Looking after one’s mental health is a big topic within the hospitality industry. How do you find the right work-life balance and how do you support your team to do the same?
It’s certainly one of the most talked about things in our industry in most recent times – my own experience is that there are no set rules that work for everyone, so I would say it is important to treat each member of the team individually and have a regular check in with them to check they are in a good place mentally and if they need any support, you provide it to them. Generally, a good working environment with regular breaks during shifts and staff meals help – a stimulated engaged work culture and a sense of feeling valued and contribute makes a difference – these things seem to help.
What do your future plans entail?
To be honest, we never plan the journey so far, we just like to try and create new dining experiences for people and push the boundaries of Indian food, then along came our books, the restaurants and my television appearances.
My plan for the future is not necessarily about opening more restaurants or publishing new books, but to create a workplace and environment that attracts more and more young people to join the industry. I’m also starting an apprenticeship programme for Cinnamon Collection next week, where we intend to take 12 apprentices who may or may not have had previous experience working in a restaurant and aim to get a first account of working in a busy kitchen.
For more information on Vivek’s selection of restaurants visit thecinnamoncollection.com.
