We caught up with Sarah Todd, celebrity chef, restaurateur, author and a finalist in the popular cooking competition MasterChef Australia Season Six as she hosted a Master Class at Palladium, Phoenix Mall, Chennai. Hair pulled back into a tight ponytail held together with a scrunchie, her freshly scrubbed face look and a radiant smile give her a girlish charm.
She impressed us with three signature dishes, Prawn Farce with spice, confit prawns with chat masala salsa and spiced prawn blanc and says, “My association with India has immensely influenced my cooking style. I use the best of both cuisines, Indian and French – and what comes out is a beautiful fusion. I have a deep connect with India and that reflects in my cooking.”

What kindled her interest in cooking?
“My growing up years were in a small town, my mom was a single mom who worked really hard, but the one thing she made sure was that by 6.30 or 7 p.m., she had this beautiful meal for us and we all got together and decompressed at the end of the day. There were no distractions and my extended family got together often too. As I grew older, I realized how important that was and that food can bring people together and the way it brought out a lot of emotions and nostalgia. You can ask anyone what their favourite dish is, and they usually refer to their childhood or something really nostalgic. For me that was the biggest job and kind of starting point.

“When I started to travel, I saw different cultures and cuisines. The food in Australia where I come from is very simple. There were not too many flavours, so while travelling and exploring wanted to get to know more about this.

“I think food is the main part of tourism, the first thing that people experience when they go to a new country, it’s really easy to communicate, I put a story on my Instagram asking for suggestions on what to eat in Chennai and there were thousands of comments on what to try. Cuisine describes a region, the people even the climate based on the dishes served. I personally love to travel and the first thing I like to do is eat and try dishes. I still love going to a supermarket as you get to know a lot about the place from there. I am really lucky that I explore lot of places due to work and it’s a passion.

“Indian cuisine is like a Pandora’s box, every city is so different with unique flavours and technique. When I started French cuisine in the course I studied, it was so regimented quite like my growing years where everything had to be done perfectly and it could be debilitating at times. You need resolve. In contrast, as soon as I started exploring Indian cuisine, I saw people put a little bit of this and that into the cooking, it was intuition and love that went into a dish. In the beginning when I began making Indian recipes, I would make it and feel this is not right and put the recipe aside and say its not right. Some of the spices were overpowering others and when I started cooking, I did not know which spices were too much but over a period of time I learnt. My palette has evolved so much, and some people say, does eating Indian cuisine overpower your palette but I think it’s the opposite as it helps your palette advance as you get to know these nuances of how to cook a dish and what spices are best. Now I feel if I taste a dish in any country, I can tell the spices. I have learnt so much by experimenting with Indian cuisine.”

When quizzed on her favourite Indian dish, she mentioned that she had tried some Chettinad dishes, seafood and idlis and had not picked a favourite yet.

Recalling her restaurant Antares in Goa, she said, “I was young when I started the restaurant and young in the industry too. I have worked as a chef and threw myself into building this restaurant, building a team, doing interior design, probably as I was young I just went for it but there was a lot to wrap my head around. What I did not know, I had to figure out. I have been a closed person who would hide my emotions. The pressure got a lot on me, being in a different country away from my family. One day I had to make all these decisions, I called my business partner and told him I don’t know how to do this and if I am making the right decision. He said look, make the decisions, make the mistakes and its ok, I just had to push through those moments of not knowing what was the right decision. He never said don’t make a wrong decision, he said if you did, we will work it out and that is a big thing for me too. I realized you can’t be perfect all the time. It was a huge learning for me.

“I grew up a lot, turned into a businesswoman. This is a point in your mind where you change from being a worker to an owner of the business. A huge change for me.”

Her brand of chilli sauces Hot Toddy is quite popular. When asked how she came up with this, she reveals, “It was really random how I started. I wanted to create a brand, my friend George Colombus, old Master Chef Judge called me up one day and said, ‘I need Kashmiri chilli base for something I am making, where can I get the ingredients, I said I have everything in my pantry and can make and send it over. He said ok and I made it, sent it to him and forgot about it.

“He went on Instagram and said, ‘My friend Sara made this, I don’t know what she put into it but if you want the recipe, go ahead and ask her. When I went onto insta, I saw many messages, my brother and I were excited and started chatting. We collaborated with some people in his office and we started the brand, it was a two and half year project to get it running.”

Other than cooking, what is it that she likes to do. “I am a mum that takes all of my time, Recently I started realizing that we need to be active and have got into activities like tennis and racing.”

She’s quite the fashionista and we asked her about it, and she responded that, “When I started coming to India my mom used to totally go crazy because every single thing in my wardrobe was black, clothes, shoes and she asked me,’Why do you look depressed?’. India rubbed off on me and I now love pops of colour, unique textures and pastels. I am really drawn to prints and anything that’s different. Fashion is in a way like you present a dish. Not necessarily trendy but your personal style.”

We asked her what’s in store going forward and she says. “I am working on the brand and the restaurant Sanctuary in Goa. I am happy being in the kitchen, cooking food and joining people at the table after that.”