We had the opportunity to spend some time with Vikram Vij, a proven Vancouver restauranteur whose restaurant, Vij’s, has become an institution in Vancouver in the past 16 years for combining French cooking styles with Indian spices. Everybody who has dined at Vij’s knows how good it is. Mark Bittman in the New York Times described it as “easily among the finest Indian restaurants in the world”. It has consistently remained on top of the Best of Yelp Restaurant list for Vancouver.
Vikram and Meeru now own Vij’s Restaurant, and Rangoli, a new line of frozen curry products in supermarkets all over Canada. There is also a new concept in the works!
We can only hope to be that successful 16 years from now.
We covered many topics but all of it revolved around the common theme of how passionate Vikram is about food: what he enjoys eating, drinking, cooking, shopping for, and presenting at his restaurants, as well as bringing awareness to his culture and cuisine.
This interview is split into three parts:
- Advice for home chefs and health.
- New Indian Cuisine and Asian Fine Dining around the world.
- Vij’s – All about the business – past, present and future.
What is your advice for new home chefs?
What is your favourite tool in your kitchen?
My kitchen has a big huge 10 foot long wooden chop block with little curves in it. I cut everything on it. I don’t use cutting boards. I scrape it, I cut it, I chop it. For me, it’s not a tool as such but it’s my work place.
What can’t you cook without?
I enjoy wine. I usually have a bottle of wine while I’m cooking and when I sit down and eat, we’ll have a second bottle. Maybe we don’t finish the second one but one and a half is normal.
How do you keep your restaurant food healthy?
Do you like grocery shopping?
It takes time but it’s also fun though. It’s something I did when I grew up in India. Going to the markets and buying some stuff. I still remember going out with my grandfather on the rickshaw and going to the farmers market and picking up stuff that we needed to pick up and bringing it home and then cooking it.
I don’t think of it as a chore, it’s not a big deal. You gotta do what you gotta do. It’s almost therapeutic – go to the market, looking at the vegetables, at the mushrooms. At the farmers market, I just go walk around for a couple hours just to see what’s out there.
Buy a little lamb from this guy, buy a little beef from that guy…
Do you have your own garden?
I do have a little patch of garden at home. We have Kale, herbs, carrots that grow. But not actively just because the time is not there…and it is easier to go out and buy it. I really don’t have the time – I’m pretty go go go. When I come home late at night, I’m not farming but wanting a glass of wine to chill out.
So are you involved with the UBC Farm?
Michael Pollen was here to promote Omnivore’s Dilemma and I did a cooking show with him at the UBC Farm.
Meeru maintains the dialog with UBC Farms. They tell us what’s growing and what’s happening there.
I’ve been to the UBC farm a couple times and I enjoy what they’ve done. I think it’s a great effort to bring the awareness of farming to the people on this side of the world. If you aren’t in the Fraser Valley, chances are you don’t know anything about farming so UBC does a great job in bridging the gap.
Do you share recipes?
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Tags: Cooking, Cutting, Fusion, home cooking, India, interview, New India Cuisine, Vij's, Vikram Vij, wine
