Chef Ryan Alexandre Semelhago talks about contemporary Goan cuisine through the lens of Zōdo
Chef Ryan Alexandre Semelhago runs a home catering service -Zōdo, which translates to ‘firewood’ in Konkani, from his residence in Nagalli Hills, Dona Paula.
Ryan, a trained chef, has worked in the hospitality industry for several years. Apart from his passion for food, Ryan is deeply interested in art, acts in theatre and also writes poetry. “I have been cooking since my childhood and took this passion forward by becoming a chef. My roots in Goa, coupled with my extensive travels, have inspired me and influenced my cooking techniques,” he says.
Ryan’s passion for his Goa and its cuisine have led him to repeatedly advocate the cause for creating modern Goan cuisine. “Since 2002, I have been asking why Goan chefs have not created any new ‘Goan’ dishes which will become classics tomorrow”. He further adds that “the Goan market place has significantly changed over the last 20 years with the availability of new ingredients. These new ingredients have unfortunately not been embraced by Goan chefs. Several herbs like thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, and sage are available plentiful in the market every day and I don’t see a reason why we are not using them in our cuisine.”
Ryan celebrates local produce and uses techniques from around the world in his preparations. “My food is global in terms of technique and flavour profile while it is completely local in its produce. You may call it ‘glocal’ food, creating wonderful taste profiles using locally sourced organic produce cooked using global techniques”.
Ryan believes that food has to be ‘honest’. “There is no such thing as ‘Authentic Food’! Authentic food only comes up with relation to countries and cuisines that have a very fixed structure. Honest food needs to be palatable, that celebrates produce, techniques, people and cultures.”
Keeping the above in mind, Ryan speaks about Zōdo. “Zōdo is basically wood fire cuisine which is a celebration of age old techniques injected into his style of modern, Goan food. Not all food prepared at Zōdo is cooked on firewood, but there are some components that go into all Ryan’s creations that are kissed by the smoke of fire.” Ryan goes on to elaborate about his popular creations such as Nagoa Chicken, PiriPiri Chicken, Crackling Belly, Crackled Pigling, Angry Butcher Steak, ‘Malandrajem’, among others. He talks about the ‘Bate Papojoc’ which is his take on tongue made two ways, salted and ‘assado’ and served with a crust of baked mash potatoes. The Angry Butcher’s Steak also has an interesting story. “Basically, all the beef we get in India is very badly butchered. I can only salvage a part as steak from the tenderloin and convert the other cuttings into succulent Zōdo beef strips. The dish is brought together with a homestyle mash along with mashed potatoes which have smoked cheese, thereby adding a subtle smoky flavour to the dish, finished with homemade bacon.” For dessert, Ryan does his own take on the famous Serradura – though his version adds some secret spices and Moira Plantain Banana’s to elevate this already popular dessert to another level.
As far as feedback from his patron’s, Ryan is ecstatic and says that the response has been overwhelming with orders regularly coming from the vicinity, Panjim, Caranzalem, Donapaula, to people driving all the way from Chandor and Cavelossim in South Goa to Siolim and Aldona in North Goa. “What pleases me most is when I receive repeat orders. The fact that my patrons are willing to drive from all parts of Goa to taste my food and come back again makes all the hard work worthwhile and fulfilling.”
Ryan operates from home and is a one-man operation thereby guaranteeing that the freshest and best quality ingredients are used in his offerings at the most reasonable prices.
“Everything that I put into my food, matters to me. The salt that I use in my kitchen costs six to seven times the cost of commonly available salt. I source organic brown sugar and unsalted butter, from Kodaikanal, which is hand moulded and hand wrapped. I use ‘Khapli’ wheat, the English name being Emmer wheat, which has very minimal gluten content and is not commonly available. Utmost care is taken at every single step in my kitchen.”
Ryan concludes with a message to aspiring chefs. “Keep cooking, believe in yourself and keep questioning your ability from time to time. Stay hungry, stay passionate and stay motivated”
