Baasim Zafar Brings a World of Experience to Celia

Celia’s ambience is so soothingly sedate it has a tranquillizing effect even before the first cocktail is poured. The pizzazz is on the plates. Executive Chef Baasim Zafar makes dishes that dazzle the eyes and taste buds: Chicken Tangine presented in an ocre-colored teepee-shaped casserole, bright green fresh asparagus lightly dressed and bowls of deep purple-shelled mussels.

Born into a family of high achievers in a provincial suburb of London, Zafar’s father is a forensic psychiatrist, his mother a supervisor with an airline and his sister a vice president with Citibank Europe. Zafar led a typical English boyhood, playing soccer and exploring the nearby woods. After school, his chums followed him home for snacks of his grandmother’s fresh hot chapattis (whole wheat Indian flat bread like tortillas) with butter.

Zafar grew up with the foods of his Indian heritage: lentils, rice, vegetables and yogurt with a little bit of meat. His mother, a great cook, was a real innovator within her own cultural cuisine. “She was always trying new ways to cook things healthier like marinating beef with green papaya and toasted spices – green papaya is the world’s best tenderizer,” said Zafar.

At 11, Zafar went to board at Aldenham School in Hertfordshire, an hour away from home. There, playing cowboys and Indians, he was always the only Indian chased by a posse of cowboys. “It was a hostile environment,” he recalls. “First year [students] are servants to the upper levels – polishing shoes, making beds, putting paste on their toothbrushes, cleaning, running errands, serving them at meals. The sons of lords, dukes and counts all have to do it.” From the experience he learned self-reliance. “You have to look out for yourself because no one else is gonna do it for you.”

A culinary career was his goal from an early age. He wanted to go to le Cordon Bleu. College education, however, was a family mandate; so he attended the University of Houston’s Conrad Hilton Hotel Management program where he earned a degree in restaurant management, lodging and food and beverage service. Zafar apprenticed at the Four Seasons Houston, Dallas and at the 2 Michelin star Four Seasons London. Zafar then achieved his dream of a Grand Diploma from le Cordon Bleu London. Zafar’s early career included working with legendary chefs like Jean-Christophe Novelli at the Four Seasons London who once said “Being a cook is the only job where you use all five senses, like making love.” Zafar recalls, “He is extremely creative and did things with products and technology I’d never seen before – pushing the outer limits to the true soul of cuisine. He pushes those limits but keeps the DNA going through it.”

A year with famed firebrand Gordon Ramsey at Aubergine was enlightening and eye- popping. “He was a difficult man, not likeable as a person, but I learned so much about quality, motivation and striving [for the best] day after day – that’s his driving force.” Zafar is diplomatic, but admits that he also learned from the explosive pan-throwing gastronome how not to treat people.

Zafar got back to his roots at London’s Café Lazeez. “London is the world’s capital for Indian food even over India – it’s like Chinese food here.” Many great chefs of India flock there to satiate the colossal demand for their cuisine. Under Zafar’s helm, Café Lazeez won Indian Restaurant of the Year for the UK in a nationwide poll. His Lamb with Yogurt Pistachio on Yellow Lentils with Shitake Mushrooms was an award winning recipe. He married in 1999 and returned to the United States the next year with no money, no TV­– just one plate, spoon, fork and knife. “It’s the best place to raise a family and it’s still the land of opportunity.” His wife joined him three months later and fortunately opportunities unfolded quickly.

As Sous Chef at Chicago’s Palmer House, in the huge kitchen of a hotel with over 1,600 rooms and 560 catering/food employees, he found out that “no one is indispensable, including yourself.” A headhunter’s call led to his current position, and he jumped at the chance to elevate from one of a number to number one.

Parenthood entered the picture two years ago with the birth of his daughter. As we finished our interview, Chef Zafar got a call from his nanny. She was sick, so he rushed home to take over. Achieving indispensability in his career may or may not come to pass, but he is an indispensable dad.  VS