'GEORGE - THE CHEF TO WRITE HOME ABOUT'!
Chef George Raviprakash (38) is a silent worker. Very
reticent too. His co-workers, working with him are not to know that he is
celebrating his 25th year in the industry right now.
Presently he is the Indian Master Chef (since Jan 2014) at Fortune Select Excalibur, Gurgaon. Tanjore born Raviprakash is just seventh standard passed. Just imagine the amount of hard work he had to put in all these years to reach his position today. When he had joined this hotel in 2010 he was just a Junior Master Chef.
"Ten years back, the situation was not like this. Today there is no depth in relationship amongst the workers, especially the younger generation. The interest to learn and acquire skills is declining. We were told to use our brains. Nowadays the younger generation is more connected to computers. Human touch is missing" laments George Raviprakash.
Listening to the songs of KJ Yesudas is his main hobby. He is very fond of Yesudas' songs - especially in Tamil and Malayalam. He spends his free time fruitfully by meditating to his heart's content. George can speak in as many as seven languages-all South Indian languages plus Hindi, Gujarati and English.
Married to Leela - a teacher in Gurgaon, he is blessed with a son, one year old Akash.
I have stayed at Fortune Select Excalibur, Gurgaon as many as seventeen times till date. On every visit of mine the presence of Chef George Ravipraksh has been a boon to me. His South Indian delicacies are really a delight to my taste buds….. Homely, tongue tingling dishes indeed.
His story starts many years back.
When he was just 13 the son of a farmer in Tamil Nadu, Raviprakash started his
culinary journey as a trainee cook in a mess run by the Tanjore Medical College
student hostel. His next four years were with Oriental Towers - a 3 Star hotel
in Tanjore. His hard work and sincerity was instrumental in taking him to Dubai
where he worked for 18 months in a small Indian Restaurant. He moved on
from there to do two innings' with the Mahindra and Mahindra Group in
Kerala with a stint at Pondicherry’s Mass Hotel sandwiched in between. The
turning point in his career showed up when he joined the ITC WelcomHotel in
Baroda. That was in 2003. His next stops with ITC were at ITC Maurya, New Delhi
and ITC Maratha, Mumbai. Six months each in both hotels. It is at ITC
group that he got the chance to sharpen his culinary skills. Sheer
providence, what else? Further a three year stint with the Leela, Mumbai made
him wiser as a Chef.
Thank You Chef
Raviprakash!
(Actually George is his father's name. In the hotel, he is popularly
known as George…..hardly anyone knows that his name is Raviprakash).
Text and Pictures: R Kesava
Mallia in Gurgaon
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