Need wholesome food served with a smile? Head for Imperfecto

Me: “You are a little mad.” (Pause) Chef Nuria Rodrigeuz Parra: “Yes, you are right.” There aren’t many chefs who would nod their heads in mock dismay when you call them “a bit mad”. Secretly Chef Nuria Rodriguez Parra of Imperfecto takes it all as a compliment. She believes one needs to be “a bit mad” to be a creative genius in any field. The love for all things loony, is apparent in the only Hindi word she uses generously and frequently—pagal. Rodriguez was the second Chef I met in this month who strongly believed that normal was boring—the first being Chef Jerome Cousin who even named his restaurant Rara Avis meaning a rare bird (or a cuckoo if you will). It’s this belief that normal is boring that has been turned into a mantra at Imperfecto—one of the most visually stimulating restaurants in Hauz Khas (perhaps, the city?). It is as eccentric as it gets. Not just the menu which is pasted on a picture frame, but the interiors of the three-storeyed restaurant has the unique Rodriguez touch. Whether you look at the whimsical scooter jutting out of a wall on the staircase; or the mismatched brass lanterns; or the multi-coloured seats and tables of different sizes and heights; every item was carefully handpicked by the Spanish lady from antique bazaars of Rajasthan. At the end of the day, Imperfecto is not about a just a perfect meal. It is also about having a perfect time. Chef Rodriguez and the restaurant proprietors–father and son duo of the Madans—want their city folks to have quite the experience. Props aside, the restaurant provides the main thing as well—a nourishing meal. Albeit the menu is a bit DEMOCRATIC 43 WORLD JULY 2013 limited, however, it is not a bad thing. It will take one two to three outings to sample the whole fare that Imperfecto has to offer. And Imperfecto demands a second visit. To top that, Chef Rodrigeuz periodically appears with platters of tapas and insists that one tastes them. It was on one of her rounds on a late, late Sunday night that I met Rodriguez for the first time while sipping a wholesome, nourishing Bird Soup— chicken stalk, thyme, basil and generous cubes of meat, perfect comfort food—Rodriguez came with more chicken (salamis, this time) and stayed on chatting for half-an-hour. She arrived a little later this time with a vegetarian pizza covered in excellent mozzarella— which I am ashamed to admit—was devoured entirely by yours truly. Apart from being the kitchen queen, Rodriguez is good at making friends. It’s a quality that’s come handy for the woman who’s followed her scribe husband all over the world before arriving in Delhi. The first few months Rodriguez stayed busy teaching intricacies of the Spanish cuisine to ladies at the Instituto Cervantes. Afterward, she headed off to Olive before being approached by the Madans, who owned a boutique clothing store right at the entrance of Hauz Khas village. The Madans wished to start a restaurant. Rodriguez knew all about them with the years of experience of working in Michelin starred restaurants abroad. However, the good Chef was wary at best. “I asked them am I pagal!? I was already working 18 hours every day and now my good friends were asking me to spend the rest of the day at the project.” But a pagal she was, who started devoting bits of her weekends to Madan’s pet project. The weekend hours slowly extended, till the lady found herself immersed into the project nearly all the time including handpicking the curios that grace its walls. The two chairs nailed on the walls which ‘seat’ books? Yes, that was one of her ideas as well and those books belong to her hubby dear. Chef Rodríguez learnt most of her cooking from her grandmother. When she was young she would barge into her kitchen and demand to learn. Soon she had her miniature pots and pans to work with and would painstakingly write down each recipe in a notebook when she was a little bigger. However, the road to the kitchen was paved with responsibilities—one of them was to be ‘educated’. Thus Rodriguez went off to engineering college trying to work on farming and engineering. But that never was her calling and soon all plans were abandoned much to the dismay of her parents and the young girl headed off to chef school and received a degree in hospitality studies in Fundación San Valero Cepa, Miguel de Cervantes and from Villanueva de los Infantes (Ciudad Real). Based on the reservoir of knowledge, Rodriguez has become one of the top Spanish chefs of the city. Showcasing all that she learnt from her grandmother, she presents the best of her culinary skill—a wholesome meal with a smile.