"It was during my many travels that my love affair with food began,” says Malcolm Watcha, the man-behind-the-meal! "Working with airlines (Watcha was earlier senior flight attendant with Jet Airways, then with Delta) had its advantages. I travelled extensively on holidays and also got the chance to eat at restaurants serving different cuisines all over Europe during my layovers. I loved experimenting and to go to the supermarket was a high…!” Buying herbs, molds for cheesecakes and cookbooks from the US and Europe, Watcha would germinate the ideas in his head and try and recreate recipes.
Invited by his mother’s friend (who used to run cooking classes) to join her on weekends and have classes of his own, Watcha started teaching as a hobby with just four courses — Thai and Italian cuisine, salads and desserts. "Today I teach about 40 different courses, with an annual special Christmas dinner class as well,” he narrates. In addition, his Food Affairs caters for gourmet parties and teaches upper crust etiquette! "I soon realized there was a need to train people and their staff on how to host a sit-down dinner, what wines to serve, what is the correct way to serve cheese or caviar, the places to buy the right type of cutlery/glasses/wines, etc, so I started my own consultancy service,” he describes.
Malcolm Watcha with some of his culinary creations
Watcha also works as a culinary escort to foreigners wanting to view Bombay from a different perspective. "I had clients from Hawaii who had specific interests — fabrics, markets and, believe it or not, Bollywood! I think they had seen more Hindi movies than I had! I show tourists the usual things they may be interested in, but I also show and explain a little about our Parsi traditions and culture.” A visit to an Irani café, a Parsi baug, the B. D. Petit Parsee General Hospital, the Towers of Silence from the outside with an explanation are on the visiting platter, followed on the last day by a special cooking class on Parsi food and a meal together.
Having taken a few courses at the Cordon Bleu in Paris and learnt local delicacies from friends in France, Switzerland, etc, Watcha says he does include some type of spice in recipes to make them palatable to Indian taste buds while keeping original ingredients intact. Salad nicoise (from Nice in France), blueberry chilled cheesecake, Thai chicken satay, roast stuffed chicken, herbed fish in white wine cream sauce, olive and paneer pasta salad, etc are among his culinary creations. Watcha also writes on food and wine in newspaper columns and has demonstrated his culinary art on channels like NDTV Good Times, he says. Watcha can be contacted on +91 9920088419 or on e-mail watchamalcolm63@hotmail.com