An extraordinary life of a chef - mapping through three continents, a war, surviving homelessness, and now - giving birth to a cooking show during a global pandemic with his daughter, Diya.
A crisp September evening in 2018, my publicist and friend, Aisling Brady and I took an Uber down to the northern suburbs of Melbourne. We were very excited to meet Abhijit Saha, winner of the ‘Best Chef of India’ at the Indian Restaurant Congress and judge of Indian MasterChef that evening.
We were invited by Melbourne Indian chef Daman Shrivastav 55, who threw an honorary party for Saha that evening. Of course, we were delighted to be there to be in the presence of such a prestigious chef but to be honest, being such a lover of good food - I was there to quench my gastronomic delights. Sooner rather than later, I was forced to join the others in the patio. For quite some time, I stood pinching myself, a smorgasbord of dumpukht biryani and butter chicken lay in front of us. “What a spread!” I whispered. Aisling and I looked at each other in disbelief. That was my first introduction to the man and the chef Daman Shrivastav in person, and not one I will easily forget.
Fast track two years into the future - we are now all in the middle of a global pandemic; what didn’t change for the ‘chef ‘is his love for good food, and his continuing being a human that is a tad bit extraordinary. Every weekend, Daman packs 40 - 60 lunches for the homeless and struggling international students quietly from his kitchen at home. Daman is very reluctant to take any credit, yet he does this with no financial donations, and this humble gesture is so appreciated by the countless people who have been fed by him.
Born in Delhi, Daman grew up in Munirka in 1981. Daman wanted to join the hotel industry not because it was fancy and it would get him a ticket to see the world - he simply wanted to participate because of the dinner jacket and the bowtie!
As a trainee, Daman started at the Imperial Hotel part of the hotel management industry release, and in 1983 it did not take him long to become a Commi 3 at The Oberoi Group of Hotels. In that same year, Oberoi bought a 7-star hotel in Baghdad, the infamous Al Rasheed. It did not take long for him to get promoted to Commi 2, and his thirst for ambition landed him in London’s Westminister College in 1985, where a well-known chef called, Jamie Oliver was his junior.
In 1989 after his mother passed away, he gave up his job at Maurya Sheraton as an Executive Sous Chef at the Pavilion only to return to Baghdad to work at Al Rasheed as an executive chef. In 1990, everything changed with the onset of the Gulf. People were leaving Iraq in droves; even the Oberoi Group of hotels had pulled the plug on its hotels in the country. Daman ditched the idea of returning home and stayed in Iraq, not knowing at all that Al Rasheed would soon become the epicenter for all the journalists reporting for that region with the eyes of the world upon them. Little did we know that behind that hotel wall, Daman fed all these journalists, cooking tasty food to cheer them up and helping to keep them alive as they lived through another day in that horrible war.
In 1991 after the Gulf war had finished, Daman travelled to Amman (Jordan) with a Syrian diplomat. With no money or food, Daman decided to work as a labourer in an orange farm, little did he know his life was about to change again - the owner of the farm was the cousin of King Hussain. When he found out about Daman working originally as a chef, the owner revealed to him his plan to open a French Restaurant. Daman was asked to cook up a nine-course meal, and the rest was history giving birth to La Coquette after six months. Charmed by Daman’s food, King Hussain presented a Longines watch from his private collection with the king’s signature embossed on the dial. Amused, I whisper, “What a life!” to that Daman giggled on the other side of the phone.
There is so much more to write in this story, like his first modern Indian French-influenced restaurant on Hoddle in Melbourne, Bay Leaves, to his teaching at the Box Hill TAFE.
These days he has started his own YouTube channel with his young daughter Diya which is streamed live across in a prestigious school in India.
Apparently, during the lockdown, home-schooling little Diya lacked fun, so being the creative chef he is- one idea led to the other finally giving birth to the cooking show. They appropriately called ‘The Dad and Daughter Cooking Show.’
I conclude this extraordinary journey of a humble chef with a quote by Hemingway.” The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”
By Nandita Chakraborty