Hrishi’s Table: ‘I call it an investment in talent’

Alongside the tasting menu at Cedar Tree and the hotel’s more casual dining offering at Bistro Enkel, the chef’s table allows Desai to cement Farlam Hall as a food-led destination, while also providing more options for guests. But beyond the advantages of creating food experiences for guests, Desai first and foremost created his chef’s table to invest in his culinary team.

“I call it an investment in the team,” he says. “You can appoint a person who is talented rather than lose them to somewhere else – you give them responsibility, skills to run a business, marketing and PR. This gives us a chance to teach them, and they can go on to be good ambassadors for the hospitality industry.”

Desai says by promoting his team into new roles thanks to the expansion of the business, you are “creating entrepreneurs”.

“There’s been so much progression within a year and a half in the team, and I’ll always be there to guide them, but in the next few years I will reach a stage where business development is very important and everyone on the team has a role.”

He points to his former senior sous chef Gaikwad , who now has a big responsibility overseeing Hrishi’s Table, while in Cedar Tree Desai has promoted his head chef Mariusz Kleczek to executive chef across the three F&B outlets, with more promotions across back and front of house on the cards.

AI in the kitchen

As well as providing opportunities for growth, Desai is also leaning into AI to teach the “modern generation” of chefs.

“AI is the direction every single profession is moving in,” he says. “AI helps us visualise concepts – but rest assured the creativity and natural ability of creation, which what makes us human, is the first thing we will harness.”

“As things move in the future AI will be an important tool. Everyone in the business should have the knowledge about it”

Desai explains how he is using AI as a supportive tool to help the brigade be consistent with plating. Having learned how Ferran Adrià used prototypes of dishes to ensure consistency of presentation at El Bulli, Desai has started to experiment with ChatGPT to create 3D illustrations of dishes.

“You can show in a photo, but a 3D picture is a different story in understanding the concept as chefs can see the dish from different angles and it’s the best way to learn,” he says, explaining how the tool is only used for visualising an idea, not to come up with recipes.

“We do a rough sketch on paper, feed the components into the AI and ask it to create an image – it’s not always used, it’s not foolproof and sometimes it’s a complete disaster – one time the AI thought beef wellington was a dessert,” he laughs.

“But in the future AI will be an important tool. Everyone in the business should have the knowledge of it.”