DENNIS ODA / DODA@STAR-BULLETIN.COM Chef Hemant Oberoi, right, and Shep Gordon met with Ravy Winter, manager of the Asian Grocery, last month when Oberoi visited Hawaii to check on the availability of fresh ingredients for the East-West Center banquet. He said he was surprised to find 80 percent of what he needs -- including several pounds of fresh curry leaves. "Even on the busiest New York streets, you won't find all these ingredients," he said.

International flair

The world's most powerful leaders
have sampled this chef's Indian cuisine

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By Betty Shimabukuro
bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com

As corporate chef for India's most exclusive hotel chain, Hemant Oberoi has served presidents, prime ministers and princes. But if you really want to get a rise out of him, ask about Cindy Crawford.

"She entered our kitchen, no bodyguards, no nothing," Oberoi says of the supermodel's after-dinner activities. She took the time for autographs and photographs with the kitchen staff, but she also took an interest in the cuisine of India and the kitchen technique of the chef and his staff.

Oberoi is executive chef for the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, as well as corporate chef for the 55 Taj Luxury Hotels and restaurants. His position gives him responsibility for state dinners on behalf of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, which means he's cooked for guests of great prestige and power.

An International Affair A benefit for the East-West Center honoring Ratan Tata of the EWC Board of Governors Dinner is served: 7 p.m. March 15 (cocktails and silent auction at 6 p.m.) Place: Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom Tickets: $100; $70 tax-deductible. Tables of 10 available for $1,000 to $10,000. Reservations: Call 944-7196 by Friday.

But all of that aside, what Oberoi seems to appreciate most is a good appetite.

Former President Clinton, for example. "He loves food," the chef says.

On March 15, the East-West Center is throwing its annual fund-raising shindig, "An International Affair," to focus this year on a culinary tour of India. Guest of honor is Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons, holding company for India's largest industrial and technological conglomerate, the Tata Group, which owns, among other companies, the Taj hotels.

Oberoi will lead a team of five Taj chefs in preparing the meal. It is a mark of his standing that as much attention is being paid to his credentials as to those of the formidable Tata.

Perhaps it is the flavor of the Indian menu, much of which will be served family-style -- platters of mutton biriyani (a rice dish made with saffron and almonds), kebabs, side dishes such as raita and mushroom peas korma, pickles and chutneys. Perhaps it is the intriguing idea that each course will be paired with an Indian tea.

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STAR-BULLETIN.COM Chef Hemant Oberoi needs 80 to 100 fresh coconuts for the East-West Center banquet.

And giving it all the rock-star quotient is Shep Gordon, the promoter who's based on Maui but handles an international range of special events.

This is a pair accustomed to the rich and famous.

In the last few months, Oberoi has hosted British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger. He's cooked for Blair's predecessors John Major and Margaret Thatcher, Prince Charles and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, serving them in India as well in international capitals and at the United Nations in New York.

Major and Thatcher he remembers as great lovers of Indian food. President Bush (the father), however, had a Western meal.

Major was so impressed by a lamb curry Oberoit served that he asked if the dish could be duplicated at the Bombay Brasserie, a Taj restaurant in London. It is now called John Major Curry.

He's fed Clinton twice, and remembers him as a particularly impressive eater. "The first meal he had in India was vegetarian and he had never seen that kind of variety," Oberoi recalls. "He said, 'Look, I only came for a quick lunch -- 45 minutes -- and I've been here 2-1/2 hours.' And he repeated the whole meal again."

Clinton was particularly found of dahi vada, a lentil dumpling in yogurt. "He took the second and the third helping of that one."

For his part, Oberoi is also an adventurer. "I got in at 9, 9:15 at night and I said, 'Take me someplace local.' " So straight from the airport, Gordon was taking him to that venerable late-night haunt, the loud and smoky Side Street Inn.

The plan a few nights later, Gordon said, had been for Don Ho to take him "somewhere in the underbelly of the city." But they ended up back at Side Street, eating the house specials of pork chops, soy beans, fried poke and ribs.

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