Bringing European cooking home

CHENNAI: After spending over a decade cooking in London, chef Sai Kailash is back in Chennai, his hometown, this time to build something of his own.

His first supper club in the city, Homecoming, brings together the European techniques he picked up in professional kitchens and the Indian flavours he grew up with. With Slab, his studio kitchen in Virugambakkam, Chef Sai is bringing authentic European food to the city.

This is where he experiments with flavours, develops new dishes and builds his menus. It is also a space where he hosts private tastings and an intimate chef's table.

Guests can expect European dishes cooked true to their origins, his Roman-style pizza and a few creations of his own.

Sai began his career in London, where he studied before joining Blakes, one of the city's early boutique hotels. He later became head chef at Humble, a vegan restaurant, before moving to INCA London, a premium South American restaurant and bar on Oxford Street.

He spent three years there, creating elaborate menus using a wide range of ingredients. He subsequently took up a role as executive sous chef at Pirana London, where he was involved in developing the menu.

After years in professional kitchens, Sai felt it was time to take a break. His mother's advancing age also prompted him to return to Chennai. “I wanted to come back because my mother is getting old and I wanted to take care of her,” he says.

Back home, he began looking at what he could do independently. He had long wanted to organise pop-ups and supper clubs and started researching the dining scene, travelling to Bengaluru and Coimbatore, visiting restaurants and meeting chefs. He also spent time experimenting with recipes, sourcing equipment and organising tasting sessions with friends before opening Slab.

Chef Sai's focus on European food and Roman-style pizza grew out of his years in London kitchens, including making Roman pizza at Humble London.

He felt there was room in Chennai for European food that paid closer attention to the original preparation, from the dough and baking method of his pizza to the techniques and ingredients behind each dish.

"I spent years learning European food and perfecting Roman pizza. Now I want to share that here, staying true to the original while using the best of Indian produce," he says.

Having worked with South American and Mediterranean food, he believes every cuisine has a defining character worth protecting.

For him, a dish can travel, change and take on new influences, as long as it doesn't lose what made it distinct in the first place. That respect for the original is what he brings to everything he cooks, whether he is serving a classic European dish as it was meant to be or reimagining it with Indian flavours.

"Every dish has a story and a technique behind it. Before I play with it, I want to understand it and do it justice. Once you know the original well, you can bring something new to it without losing its identity," he shares.

The idea behind his studio kitchen is to make the cooking process part of the dining experience. Chef Sai describes it as a chef's table rather than a conventional restaurant, with seating for just eight guests who can watch the preparation and plating unfold in front of them.

“I wanted people to see what goes into making a dish, rather than just having a plate placed in front of them. The process, the techniques and the ingredients are all part of the experience,” Sai says.

For Sai, the kitchen is also a space to experiment with different culinary traditions, drawing on his experience with European, Mediterranean and South American cuisines. He wants the food to be rooted in technique while remaining open to influences from different cultures.

“Having worked with different cuisines, I don't want to restrict myself to one style. I want to keep experimenting, but I also want to understand what makes each cuisine distinct. It is important not to lose that identity just for the sake of creating something new,” he says.

His first supper club, Homecoming, brought these ideas together in a seven-course tasting menu. It drew on the European techniques, alongside the Indian flavours he grew up with.

“For me, Homecoming was about bringing those two parts of my journey together. I have learned so much from cooking abroad, but the flavours you grow up with stay with you. I wanted to explore what happens when you bring them together on a plate,” he says.

Chef Sai hopes to build a culinary brand through pop-ups, supper clubs and restaurant takeovers. Rather than committing to a conventional restaurant format, he wants the freedom to work in different spaces, collaborate with others and keep developing new ideas.

"I have always wanted to do pop-ups and supper clubs. I want to build a brand that lets me take my food to different places, meet new people and keep experimenting. I don't want to limit myself to one format," concludes the chef.