Recipe for success

When he had to stop his studies after completing Class X in 1993 due to financial problems and leave his village in Kollam at the age of 16, Suresh Pillai, a celebrity chef now, had no aim other than earning a few bucks by doing odd jobs to resume his education. Though he tried working as a security guard, it did not come off as he was afraid of working alone at night.So, finally, Pillai landed a job as a waiter at a hotel in the town with a monthly salary of Rs 450.
After hours of slogging at the busy hotel, Pillai pursued pre-degree in a parallel college. Often he assisted the main cook in the kitchen by cutting vegetables. The chief cook took him under his wings after noticing that the newly-joined waiter was slicing sacks of onion faster than any of his trained assistants and taking a passionate interest in cooking. Pillai shelved his pre-degree plans due to work pressure, but it was the beginning of Pillai’s journey to becoming one of the world’s most celebrated chefs.
Pillai’s life is an inspiration to all and illustrates how one could scale heights with hard work and determination.
Pillai’s culinary skills and ingenuity enabled him to travel the world and work in reputed hotels and even secure a chance to be one of the very few Indians to compete in BBC’s MasterChef. Over the past 28 years, Pillai has cooked for many celebrities, including actors and sportspersons. What is even more thrilling is that the pre-degree dropout has been delivering culinary lessons around the world, including universities. Pillai, who is currently the corporate head of culinary at Raviz Group of Hotels in Kollam is a social media celebrity too with over 1.5 million followers.
Though his career as a cook began in Kollam, his journey ahead would not have been possible if not for his passion for chess. Pillai used to play the game whenever he got free time and had won many tournaments, including the state championship.
“But I could not afford professional training. It was for playing chess I first went out of my hometown in 1994. I stayed at Malabar Palace Hotel in Kozhikode for the state championship. The biryani, which was not so popular in South Kerala then, and the spicy fish curry literally lifted my spirits. Though I could not win the chess championship, I brought back these tastes to Kollam and tried dishing them out, which was successful,” he said.
But even then he never dreamt of a career as a chef but focused on his chess. He shifted to Kozhikode for the game’s sake and worked at Casino Hotel for three years from 1995. In the meantime, his expertise as a cook was getting much appreciation from customers and the management. Finally, he understood that he has to abandon his dream of a career in chess and instead focus on cookery, in which he had an “inborn talent”.
“I had to choose cooking over chess and the decision changed my life’s course. Later I shifted to Bengaluru and worked there for six years. I started reading a lot of cookbooks on the internet and researched on a career. I knew though I was a good cook there is a long way to be a chef. I dreamt of working in star hotels. Though I cleared all trials, HR officials rejected me as I did not have a degree in hotel management. Moreover, my English was pathetic,” Pillai said.
He says he learned to speak English decently after interacting with hotel guests. Finally, Pillai managed to get a job at a five-star hotel, the Leela Palace, in 2000. “I was in a comfort zone receiving Rs 15,000 salary a month and over Rs 8,000 in tips. My dream of working at a five-star hotel finally came true,” he said.
Pillai gradually found his way to the hotel’s main kitchen from the cafeteria and excelled as a chef. He worked there for two years and later shifted to Kumarakom Lake Resort in 2002 as a sous chef, the second in command in a kitchen. He worked there for three years and in the meantime got married.
In 2005, Pillai got an offer to work at Veeraswamy Restaurant, the oldest Indian restaurant in London. “Mahatma Gandhi, Charlie Chaplin, and Winston Churchill had dined at this joint. It was a great privilege to get an opportunity to work at the restaurant. My family later shifted to London,” he said.
Until 2017, Pillai had worked in various hotels in London and had travelled around the world to promote Kerala cuisines. He flaunted his skills in the BBC’s MasterChef and the mackerel curry cooked in thick coconut milk received much acclaim.
“I decided to return to Kerala in 2017 when I got an offer from Raviz Group. It was always in my dreams to return to Kerala. Shortly after I reached Kerala, the 2018 floods happened. I ran an online campaign urging people to sell their favourite home-cooked food and donate the profit to CMDRF and we received a total of nearly Rs 30 lakh from across the world,” he says.
“My journey from a local cook to an executive chef was long, strenuous, and exciting. I never dreamt to be a chef but I learned to follow my dreams after realizing my skills,” said Pillai, who is currently busy launching his own restaurants in Bengaluru.