Even though he now runs Tabla, arguably the most famous Indian fusion restaurant in America, Floyd Cardoz never thought he would come to the United States. A Goan who grew up in Mumbai and trained in Switzerland, he dreamed of going to Australia.
"I came purely by chance," he says, after filling out a form incorrectly in his bid to emigrate to Australia. As he waited for the confusion to be rectified, the U.S. visa his brother had sponsored for him came through, and he found himself in New York in 1988 for his sibling's wedding. He gave himself a few months and a hard deadline: If he had no job by that date, he would go back to India. Cardoz ended up being hired the day before he would have flown home.
After first working in some traditional Indian restaurants, he took a demotion and entered a French-Asian fusion restaurant as a salad chef to learn new techniques and how to blend cuisines. "I always wanted to do this," he says, remembering how he once created a curry for his father with rosemary and Riesling wine added to it.
Now as executive chef and co-owner of Tabla, which he opened in 1998 with restaurateur Danny Meyer, he marries east and west, like traditional American crab cakes laced with Indian spices and served with pappadams. Or steamed red snapper with a lime-jaggery glaze. Traditional Indian breads are served at the beginning of the meal, just as in traditional American eating, and his staff is well-educated to explain every dish to newcomers-a key to acceptance and success, he says. "If you have good service, you can make the food taste better," says Cardoz, 47. "Translating is important."
He says the toughest skill to teach trainee American chefs is how to cook the spices and "coax the flavors out," something not so common in Western cooking.
"I came purely by chance," he says, after filling out a form incorrectly in his bid to emigrate to Australia. As he waited for the confusion to be rectified, the U.S. visa his brother had sponsored for him came through, and he found himself in New York in 1988 for his sibling's wedding. He gave himself a few months and a hard deadline: If he had no job by that date, he would go back to India. Cardoz ended up being hired the day before he would have flown home.
After first working in some traditional Indian restaurants, he took a demotion and entered a French-Asian fusion restaurant as a salad chef to learn new techniques and how to blend cuisines. "I always wanted to do this," he says, remembering how he once created a curry for his father with rosemary and Riesling wine added to it.
Now as executive chef and co-owner of Tabla, which he opened in 1998 with restaurateur Danny Meyer, he marries east and west, like traditional American crab cakes laced with Indian spices and served with pappadams. Or steamed red snapper with a lime-jaggery glaze. Traditional Indian breads are served at the beginning of the meal, just as in traditional American eating, and his staff is well-educated to explain every dish to newcomers-a key to acceptance and success, he says. "If you have good service, you can make the food taste better," says Cardoz, 47. "Translating is important."
He says the toughest skill to teach trainee American chefs is how to cook the spices and "coax the flavors out," something not so common in Western cooking.
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