THE CLUB GOES CASUAL
The historic Western Courtyard in Devonshire Square where Cinnamon Kitchen and Anise is housed today was first acquired by the East India Company back in 1820 and at the time was used to store spices, forming part of a gigantic warehouse complex covering over five acres. I was first shown around the area in 2007 and I just couldn’t imagine a better setting for The Cinnamon Club’s new and more casual manifestation than a spice warehouse that once stored India’s then premier export and that would shortly house India’s best known export of modern times – the Indian restaurant!
But the real reason behind the creation of Cinnamon Kitchen and Anise was much more than the chance to offer a dining space in an old spice warehouse once owned by the East India Company. The idea of Cinnamon Kitchen had begun to take root some years before – ironically, at the time when The Cinnamon Club was already creating waves with its fine dining menu and upmarket approach towards Indian food.
The Cinnamon Club serves no fewer than 100,000 guests per year and yet I am still asked if it is an exclusive, members-only destination! Unashamedly luxurious and high-end it might be, but I always intended it to be a welcoming place, open to all, serving extraordinary Indian food in an extraordinary setting. Although The Cinnamon Club is internationally renowned, I did not want my cuisine to become the preserve exclusively of the famous and fortunate. I had begun to realise that it is entirely possible to be as creative and innovative as we are at The Cinnamon Club while managing to appeal to a wider, more diverse clientele. Indeed, food of this calibre certainly doesn’t need to be restricted to the confines of an exclusive restaurant. With this in mind, Cinnamon Kitchen was born, billed as The Cinnamon Club’s younger, cooler sister restaurant in the City and housed – rather appropriately – inside the historic East India Company spice warehouse.
Our menu uses the same local, seasonal ingredients and creative, bold cooking techniques as those that feature at The Cinnamon Club but in a far more relaxed, flexible format. Diners at The Cinnamon Club can enjoy anything up to nine courses and beyond, whereas Cinnamon Kitchen is more about the option of dropping by for a light lunch or a couple of smaller, quicker plates for dinner. We decided on adding a glamorous bar space, which we called Anise, adding to the casual feel by serving pre- or post-work drinks and a few small spicy nibbles. And I insisted on access to a gorgeous tandoor grill, where I now host my cooking masterclasses throughout the year.
At Anise we showcase trademark Cinnamon innovation and creativity, only in this case with drinks! Our cocktails reinterpret classic Western cocktails with homemade spice infusions and exotic tropical juices. Sometimes the drinks also draw inspiration from traditional Indian favourites such as lassis and thandhai, combining them with spirits to create drinks that are very new, very now. And once again this makes a nod to the old East Indian spice warehouse where we find ourselves today.
Put simply, my intention for Cinnamon Kitchen has always been to create a space where great food is served in a casual and friendly atmosphere, free of formality and dress codes – a place where the expectations of the Cinnamon dining experience are fully met in a relaxed, informal setting.
When I was developing the menu for The Cinnamon Club, there was great emphasis on exclusive, expensive ingredients. I wanted high-end cooking in a high-end environment; my younger self thought the more expensive the dishes, the more expensive the experience and the more seriously people took it. But from the outset I envisaged Cinnamon Kitchen to be quite different. I wanted the menu to be appealing, fresh, and creative – offering the same quality experience diners had come to expect from The Cinnamon Club but not necessarily the most expensive.
As a young chef, I subscribed to the view that the more resources you had, the more creativity you had, but as my thinking evolved and my experience developed I began to believe that creativity is not linked to the depth of your pockets. Some of my best creations recently have come from the simplest, most cost-effective ingredients.
Cinnamon Kitchen gives me the opportunity to be more creative with lesser-known cuts of meat – it pushes my team to think outside the box and to run free with ideas. Good examples are our much-loved vindaloo of ox cheek and our rump of lamb – both of which have become Cinnamon Kitchen signature dishes, making use of cuts that would never feature on the Cinnamon Club menu.
In terms of simplicity, not everything comes with an accompaniment – for example, many dishes come with simple salads, while some are served straight up. This lighter, streamlined approach also means that we can have more of a focus on the main components of the dish and let them be the star on the plate.
I also decided to feature an open tandoor grill at the Cinnamon Kitchen – helping to simplify the menu, taking it away from a traditional, structured three-course format to one offering a mix of small plates, grills, larger dishes and desserts and bringing with it a great sense of theatricality. This simple pared-down attitude to the menu has resulted in the creation of some of Cinnamon Kitchen’s strongest and best-loved plates, such as the bhaditrakha – a simple grilled dish of lamb escalope that dates back to A.D.1127. Traditionally, the escalope is cut very thinly, spiced and cooked on a grill; Cinnamon Kitchen enables us to do just that and present it in its purest form, the way it was intended.
THE MEN BEHIND THE MENU
While our diners and their experience are key to Cinnamon Kitchen, so is our team of chefs, and I was fortunate enough to take a very strong core of people directly from The Cinnamon Club when I first opened Cinnamon Kitchen. At the helm is head chef, Abdul Yaseen – renowned among his peers for brilliantly combining seasonal European produce with Indian spicing and cooking techniques – while heading up Anise was Prakash Shetty from The Cinnamon Club’s bar team, an Indian mixologist who really loved the idea of combining the new with the old. I believe Cinnamon Kitchen is as much about recognising the ambition and aspirations of the kitchen team as it is about its guests. Recognised in many arenas – three-time winner of the Square Meal Canapé Cup, two-time winner of the British BBQ Championships, and winner of the Craft Guild of Chefs and Best New Restaurant in 2009 awards – my team really have the talent to take Cinnamon Kitchen to the next level.
HAVE BOOK, WILL COOK
The dishes at Cinnamon Kitchen and within this book draw on inspiration from across the Indian subcontinent, with influences from the east, west, north and south. They are also shaped by Middle Eastern influences – so the recipes that you will discover within this book are multicultural, varied, and above all, modern. With minimum preparation but maximum impact, these recipes don’t call for a special occasion – they are for every day. Now, go forth and cook!
Anyone who has enjoyed a curry understands that it has an addictive quality. In fact, ‘curry cravings’ can become quite overpowering. The pleasure sensations associated with eating curry comes from the release of endorphins, thanks to the spices, and it is this buzz that drives many of us to a curry house when we have abstained for any period of time. This is particularly true when returning from a holiday abroad where curries might be off the menu. I still remember when my wife and I arrived back from our first visit to France several years ago – we headed straight to the kitchen and made dozens of poories and a very spicy potato curry to go with it! Little wonder, then, that when British officers returned from the Subcontinent in the days of the East India Company they would bring back sacks of spices, and sometimes even their own cooks, in order to be able to enjoy the thrill of a curry at home.
The art of spicing in India is arguably the most sophisticated and complex in the world. In other cuisines, spices tend to be used in isolation or in simple combinations. But Indian cooking relies on an intimate knowledge of the way spices work together. Aside from the flavour, it’s important to consider the texture, the sequence in which the spices are added, and how long they are cooked for. It is an exciting and challenging way of cooking, and one in which there is always something new to learn.
Spices are used in Indian cooking for a variety of reasons. Foremost among these, of course, is flavour, but historically they were just as important for preservation. In the days before refrigeration, spices helped to prolong the shelf life of fresh ingredients and were also used to tenderise meat. Traditional Ayurvedic medicine relies on spices for medicinal and health benefits. Aside from using spices to treat certain ailments, an Ayurvedic practitioner will assess a person’s body type and advise what spices and other foods are beneficial for them to consume and which are best avoided. It is common knowledge in India that cumin aids digestion, while coriander is an antipyretic which is often used to reduce fever in children and has a cooling effect on the body. Fennel seeds aid digestion and are used as a mouth freshener. Turmeric is an effective antiseptic and is frequently used to treat minor cuts, burns and wounds, as well as building up the body’s resistance to minor ailments.
Each curry is unique, however, and to understand a particular dish you must look beyond the spicing and acknowledge what the French would call the terroir. But cuisines merge and develop every day. Very few chefs’ larders are restricted to what’s local, and in theory anything goes, with creativity encouraged. Curry, like everything else, is subject to a continual process of change, evolving in order to remain accessible, popular and relevant.
It wouldn’t be right to associate curry exclusively with Indian food or ingredients; it needs to be viewed in the context of the influences that have shaped it on a global scale. Even though curry has its culinary roots in India, it has travelled across the world and evolved. We Indians should not arrogantly assume that we own curry. Like Indian cuisine as a whole, it has become an international phenomenon that has thrived as a result of interest, interaction and innovation.
