Royal revels at Malabar

Photographer Cassandra French captures authentic past and present Indian flavours for SMH’s Shoot the Chef competition. SHIVANGI AMBANI-GANDHI reports.

If the Commonwealth Games brought Indian cooking to our televisions and ingredients to our local supermarket, the month-long Crave Sydney Food Festival has its own taste of India. One of the finalists in the popular Shoot the Chef competition, run annually as part of this food fest, is a wonderful photograph of Mohammed Sali, owner and head chef of the Indian restaurant Malabar in Darlinghurst.

In the photograph, Sali, dressed in pristine whites, holding up a knife and a paddle, sits proudly against a floor-to-ceiling mural of the royal family of Gujarat, which is in his restaurant.

“My family has been going to the Malabar restaurant since it opened about 8 years ago,” says photographer Cassandra French. “I have loved the space and the floor-to-ceiling photographs. When submissions were requested for this year’s Shoot the Chef, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to ask to photograph in the restaurant”.

Malabar’s interiors feature two large-scale photographs, one of which appears in French’s photo, and another one of a royal wedding.

“One of my friends collects these old photographs and that’s how I had access to them. Each of them is about 80-100 years old,” says Mohammed Sali.

French found these old photographs an interesting feature of the restaurant and a perfect backdrop for her own project. “This large scale photograph of the royal family is on one wall of the restaurant. I love sitting beside this image as you feel like they are dining with you,” she says. “You can gaze into the faces of these men and boys and wonder, who are they? Are any still alive? What is their role in the photograph and in the family that is being photographed?  The image is beautifully reprinted and as it is printed to full scale, it was perfect to photograph Mohammed in front of it. Putting Mohammed in this photograph, I wanted it to be as if he was sitting with the royal family – them in their turbans, and the chef in his whites.”

It is this visual play between Sali and the characters in the mural behind him that lend the portrait its humorous quality, a requirement of the Shoot the Chef competition. While the royal family members have their elaborate turbans, Sali dons his tall chef’s hat. While they hold their elaborately adorned swords, Sali wields his kitchen tools. The family are dressed in impressively embroidered finery, while Sali is pristine in his whites. “I wanted the contrast of head adornments and clothing to be an element of the photograph and add to the visual interest,” says French.

Due to the scale of the mural, Sali himself seems to fit perfectly into the photograph.

“The hands of Mohammed and the hands of the royal family behind him in the photograph are in line with each other, and the scale is perfect,” says French.

In fact, a lot of Malabar customers often have their photographs taken against these murals on their visit to the restaurant, says Sali. “I also have a turban similar to those in the murals and often customers wear it and take a photograph against this mural,” he adds.

In fact, one of the series of photographs that French took for her submission to the competition had Sali wearing this turban. “I have him wearing the turban in a couple of images with his tall chef’s hat beside him on the chair. I also photographed him in front of a second large photograph of a wedding parade, which includes a decorated elephant and a large number of people in the image,” says French who spent an hour taking the photographs one afternoon after the lunch service at the restaurant.

The image turned out to be Cassandra’s third-time selection as a finalist in the competition, out of four submissions.

Cassandra’s work so far includes streetscape and reportage besides portraiture.  She is currently working on a series on older women and leisure activities, concentrating on a seniors’ dance group. A series exploring memory and beloved objects, and an ongoing series on adolescents, are other current projects.

French is largely self-taught as a photographer and has been taking photos for over 20 years.  “I prefer to use natural and available light for photographs.  What I love most about photography is that a photograph captures a moment, often one that is fleeting and the details easily forgotten”.

So what are her favourite orders at Malabar? “My personal favourite is the Goan fish curry.  My youngest daughter orders the chicken makhani (butter chicken) on every visit.  It is deliciously creamy.  My husband loves the dal. Recently we ordered a chilli crab which was fantastic.  To be honest, we have never been disappointed with anything we ordered.”

Besides Sali’s delicious food, French has experienced India through a short trip to the country a few years ago.

“About 5 years ago on a trip back from Europe with my family, we had a five-day stopover in India, en route back to Australia. Flying into Delhi, we travelled out to the Taj Mahal and the forts. We then flew to Mumbai and returned to Sydney from there,” recollects French. 

“The experience was totally fantastic.  The noise, colour, the adventure of it all was a lovely adventure for all of us! We were there during Diwali and experienced the street parade through Delhi one night,” she says.

Inspired by the food at Malabar, French plans to visit the real place and experience all the flavours. “I am planning a trip to the Malabar coast, hoping to rent a house there and spend at least 4 weeks.  I might even have to hire a cook!”