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7. Compassionate for Food & Life, Meet Suvir Saran

A successful chef, author, and educator, Suvir Saran is truly an inspiration. He is currently the culinary director at Cold Love artisanal ice cream; post is foray that The House of Celeste.

Suvir’s exposure to people from all corners of the world gives him an ease in settings that are bursting with diversity. Having always been the other wherever he has made home, he fits in seamlessly, and with his food he warms hearts, wins minds, brings peace, and makes lasting friendships.

In an exclusive interview with GlobalSpa, Chef Suvir Saran talks about his passion, battles, inspirations, Cold Love, wellness philosophy, and much more.

Q1.) What is it about being a chef that you love the most?

I love the challenge of bringing layered nuance and gustatory sophistry onto the plate in a way that people connect to their collective pasts, find amazement in this present when we need stimulation and pleasure that can take us away from our heads and the monotony of our lives. When food is prepared with passion and respect for the environment and the planet, it becomes sustainable deliciousness that will feed, heal and inspire for ages. It is this power that comes with cooking that I find most exciting and rewarding at once.

Q2.) From being a Michelin star chef, an author, educator, and now foraying into fashion through your Instagram, How has your journey been so far?

I came of age in Delhi and studying at Modern School in Vasant Vihar when I did was a remarkable blessing. Our school and teachers, the philosophy of tutelage, all instilled in us a grounded connection to India and its place in the world as a whole. We learned our history, appreciated our heritage, connected to our mythology and social narrative and found oneness with the world at large. Life at its toughest moments couldn't break me, as I knew that everything is cyclical and that good ultimately trumps evil. My grandparents and parents echoed this message of mindfulness that the school had brought to me, and with their support and courageous manner, I tackled every vicissitude of life head on and in doing so, found new opportunities and exciting discoveries where another would have seen doom and despair. Life has been nothing but an incredible journey of fulfilling growth and satisfying opportunities. As a chef I was able to put India on the culinary map in North America and beyond, my books have sold more so than many others put together, and that has given me joy as I know that people across the world cook inspired by my recipes. My teaching at the Culinary Institute of America and cooking schools big and small across the world's many nations has brought the foods of India and the world that I love onto tables of strangers, and this makes that hard work of writing honest and delicious recipes a painstaking exercise that has a fruitful purpose. From a young age, I have appreciated the visual arts and fashion. Rohit Bal has been my good friend and muse ever since I was a teenager. Fashion is no stranger to me. I worked at Bergdorf Goodman and Henri Bendel’s in NYC, and it is very natural for me to enjoy and celebrate textiles and couture without any hesitation. I see in fashion the expression that we might not be able to find elsewhere and so in dressing up to my heart and mind's contentment, I find peace with self and hopefully give others a moment of joy, too.

Q3.) You had to return to India after health complications. What kept you motivated throughout?

When I was headed to India, I was not sure I would live long. My mother brought me home to enjoy whatever it was that I had in my future. Every day in her care was a day that I got better. Sight that I lost came back, sounds that crippled my existence faded away slowly from the dark and sensitive corners of my head and brain where doctors couldn't reach or had no knowledge of. My speech got better with each raga and song I sang for hours or days on end. My iPhone gave me the ability to see beyond the three feet I could see with my left eye which had some vision, and it brought close to me the place where I was at any given time, and just like that I was able to click photos, write my impressions, and later turn them into Instamatic, the book I wrote as I recovered from sickness. India, my mother, family and friends - love and tenderness, hope and faith, these are what kept me inspired and feeling like I belonged and that there was a tomorrow worthy of me making an effort to be part of it.

Q4.) You made your return to the culinary business through House of Celeste. How’s the journey been so far?

As I was looking to open The House of Celeste in Gurgaon, it was the hiring of a team, women and men I had never known or worked with, it was this that became my muse and my passion. I met my two favorite shagirds (mentees) Vardaan Marwah and Haridashv Malhotra in the exchange. Then, just as we would have opened our doors formally, the lockdown happened. The two chefs decided to live and work at my home during the darkness of the peak of the pandemic. In our 24x7 living and sharing, caring and teasing, we found hope when others were broken, we created deliciousness where others felt out of sorts. Our bond as Guru and Chelas strengthened and our visions were aligned. The journey of cooking, sharing, laughing and crying together and providing for each other a safe space, inspire and learn, this has been a most thrilling experience and journey. One nobody expects in life, and one that shall inform every bit of everything I do until my dying day. I am most grateful for The House of Celeste and the pandemic and its timing. It brought me two wondrous humans and chefs, it also taught us lessons that are most critical for living a life well lived.

Q5.) Walk us through the journey of Cold Love.

Cold Love like everything in my life is a gift from life itself. Vardaan Marwah, my mentee and the head of my consulting business, American Masala, loves ice cream as much as I do. During the lockdown, we would find ourselves eating pints upon pints of ice cream daily. We tried every offering available in Delhi. Cold Love was the bright and shining star amongst the offerings. Founder of Cold Love, Aditya Tripathi would ask me if I needed more ice cream in reality, as he would remind me about the last orders I had placed. He is a wonderful man, an honest, hardworking operator, and a sound visionary with a deep respect for business that respects humanity and the planet. His passion showed in his offerings and we were excited to find that his wife, Sonam Kalra, and I were classmates and dear childhood buddies. As the pandemic progressed and our ice cream obsession furthered, Vardaan also learned from my then partner Charlie that I made what many considered the best ice cream in NYC. Vardaan also loved making ice cream. We took this desire to make delicious ice cream to Aditya and his partner Samir Kuckreja one day over coffee, and on the spot, as we chatted, they offered to bring Vardaan and I as head scoop masters and culinary creators at this gorgeous ice cream factory that we loved. The rest has been history. Aditya, Samir, Vardaan and I are driven by a shared desire to be responsible food professionals, bringing to market a product pure in ingredients and preparation, sustainable for the long run, and at affordable prices. Our ice creams are without chemicals and coloring, and made with the best of milk and ingredients. Innovation and creativity, fair business practices, and steady growth keep us on track and meeting benchmarks of business success that will hopefully make us a pioneering ice cream brand which dared to think outside the box and still feed people comforting deliciousness and excitingly exotic discovery at once.

Q6.) What is your wellness philosophy?

I have been teaching a joint course offered by Harvard School of Public Health and the Culinary Institute of America called Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives for two decades now. It is a course that brings mindfulness in eating to the forefront in the lives of medical professionals, nutritionists and epidemiologists and anyone studying how food affects health. Wellness is a practice and a lifelong journey of awakened thinking and mindful choices. We are what we eat, and so we must make every effort to be responsible about how we procure our ingredients, how whole and fresh they are, and what medium we cook those ingredients in, how seasonal and regional they are, and how smart we are in wasting as little as possible. When we cook smart, waste little, and pack inspiring punches of delicious flavor into each bite, it is then easy to eat healthy and live well without fear. Diets come and go, fads only last so long, and every New Year's eve, we find people making a new pledge to eat and live a certain way, only to find themselves lost and hopeless again, a few months into the new year. When we live with a mindfulness that is holistic and honest, eating well and eating healthy isn’t a punishment, it becomes the driving force behind our life. Calories matter, but quality of calories matters way more. Exercise is a wonderful way of keeping our mind and body healthy, but our bodies remain in stress and we lose our battle to mindless eating and binging despite heavy workout regimes if what we put in our mouths isn’t real food and delicious wholesome food. Eat mostly plants, prepare them with love, connect our cooking to seasons and regions we are in, and chances are that our food will taste better than good, and our mind, body and soul will feel a satiety impossible otherwise.

Q7.) What's next for you?

Embracing my motherland India, discovering it as an adult after having spent 30 years abroad, and learning about my county afresh - it is this that is keeping me inspired, hopeful and excited. I am working on a brick and mortar restaurant in New Delhi, entertaining the idea of creating a temple to Indian cuisine in a town far from Delhi within India, and working with Vardaan and Hari in consulting with others to ensure their businesses in the hospitality space remain fresh and inspired, and also delicious and sustainable.