The chef who mentored many chefs

Chef Vernon Coelho was head faculty at IHM Mumbai (popularly known as Dadar Catering College) for 13 years until he retired in 2016

Not everyone outside the culinary community might know chef Vernon Coelho, but it's certain they will know at least a handful of his students. His understudies include veteran Mumbai restaurateur Farrokh Khambata, founder of Theobroma chain of patisseries Kainaz Messman, and award winning chef-restaurateur Manish Mehrotra of Delhi's The Indian Accent.

Chef Coelho with students, food blogger Taraa Senguptaa and Monisha Gupta. Senguptaa says he inspired kids to become chefs when MasterChef wasn't a fad

Coelho, who was head faculty at IHM Mumbai for 13 years (popularly known as Dadar Catering College) until he retired in 2016, passed away at the age of 64 last Thursday. His Bandra home on Perry Road was a Mecca for ex-students of hospitality, who would drop in to say hello to their chef-mentor.

Coelho (seated) with his students hotelier Tushar Bhandari, chef Salil Fadnis and celebrity chef Vicky Ratnani

For the batch of 1991, Coelho was batch mentor, which meant he taught the students personally for all three years of their course. Taraa Vermaa Senguptaa, food blogger (mychefstables.com) and leadership coach, says in the 1980s and '90s, cooking was not inspired by MasterChef. It was all about getting the basics right. "Chef Coelho taught us [how to achieve] perfection in colours, flavours and textures." Sauces should have no lumps, and grains of rice should always scatter. She remembers the time he was teaching them the recipe for beef Wellington. "Fifty students who had never tasted beef Wellington learned to make it from scratch under his supervision. The English pie dish is a beef steak rolled in a pastry and has intricate elements of pate and mushroom duxelle fillings," she recalls. On her last visit to the college, Coelho served her the same dish for lunch. "He fed us silly during an ongoing class, while making sure his current batch of students didn't miss a beat. He even doggie-bagged leftovers for our families," she says.

Coelho got on board Jehangir Lawyer, whose brand imports cheese and meats, to start a course on wine pairings and charcuterie

He was a man of varied interests, you learn, when the students say that Coelho led the college choir, too. "He sang beautifully and we used to have wonderful carol singing sessions every year during Christmas. We'd even sing Bengali songs on Rabindranath Tagore's birthday. He was an enthusiastic choir director and encouraged us to excel," says Senguptaa.

Auckland-based James Ellis says he was roped in to launch MGV Institute of Hotel Management Nasik in 1993. "After college, I had returned home to care for my ailing parents, when one day, chef Coelho called me. ‘Where are you, man? Don't leave Nasik, I have a job for you', he said. A pharmacy college had to be converted into a culinary institute. For a few minutes I fell silent. Chef said, ‘What's the problem? You are a chef, you will know what to do,'" says Ellis, then a management trainee for Raheja group of hotels, Mumbai.

Ellis' list of equipment and layout designs were okayed without changes. "Then, there was the challenge of attracting students. I suggested a food fair. He gave me the go-ahead nod. It reminded me of when he'd give us class assignments. When we took the long-winding road, he would snap, ‘Why all that? Keep it simple,'" says Ellis, an education agent and licensed immigration adviser for New Zealand. "Coelho, I guess, spotted in me the talent to be part of launches and start-ups. I am currently working on an online project to create a virtual skills academy, which will also feature skill-based courses in hospitality and the culinary industry."

Every year, Coelho handpicked and trained students to represent the institute at all-India level chef competitions, subjecting them to rigorous training to ensure they won. When Udaipur-based hotelier Tushar Bhandari opened Heritage Girls School in Udaipur in 2013, he decided to introduce a chef competition for students from Class 4 to 12 across India. "Chef Coelho helped me make this dream possible. Till last year, the competition was presided by him, along with chef Vicky Ratnani and chef Salil Fadnis," Bhandari says.

Coelho was this rock-solid support for most of his students. "When I started my career, I launched a few restaurants in Ahmedabad and Jaisalmer. Coelho came all the way to oversee the kitchen design. In that sense, he was omnipotent for all of us. When you got stuck, he was there," says Bhandari.

JD Mukherjee, brand head, Smoke House Deli, who is associated with the success of Indigo, remembers a class where they cooked the roast chicken in mushroom sauce. "Simple dishes, Coelho taught us, are difficult to make, because there are fewer walls to hide behind. The meat has to be marinated well, the oven has to be at the right temperature and the mushrooms need to be cooked on slow flame, else you'll be left with a watery puddle. These were complicated instructions then but are the foundation of good cooking today," Mukherjee explains, tossing in the example of scrambled eggs. "You had to take them off the heat minutes before they were fully cooked, and allow them to come on their own to perfect smoothness."

Mukherjee remembers the time he fell ill and moved to Bandra - a stone's throw away from chef's home, to live with his aunt. "Chef Coelho had insisted on driving me to college until I was fit. He took great care of students who came from other parts of India. When we went back home for our the holidays, Coelho usually took off to some part of the world. Gastronomy is life, and he encapsulated and embodied it," Mukherjee signs off.

Passion to teach
Two decades ago, a few students showed up at Jehangir Lawyer's warehouse, asking his staff for empty cheese boxes. With tight budgets, the college could not afford the cheeses so they were using dummies to explain how to pair them with wine to the students. Lawyer, who owns Fortune Gourmet, a firm that imports cheese, meat and seafood, saw his passion to teach and met Coelho. Together they curated a course on cheese, wine tasting and charcuterie for which Lawyer also roped in Rajiv Samant of Sula Vineyards. "Coelho's culinary inquisitiveness was infectious. We stopped the course soon after he retired. There was a reason why his students were called ‘Coelho's kids'," he says.

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