Seated outside at Babaji’s Kerala Kitchen, beside the warmth of the fire pit and surrounded by the hills of Warburton, I first spoke with owner Billy Crombie. As the conversation continued, chef Jithin Pattiyal joined me, sharing his journey from Kerala to Australia and offering insight into the authentic, carefully crafted approach to cooking that underpins everything at Babaji’s.
Hi, Jithin. I just heard all about Babaji’s from Billy, but can you tell me a bit about the food that you’re cooking?
There’s a lot to say about all the food that we cook here, especially in terms of the way we cook here is entirely different. I’ve done so many jobs before coming to Australia. I was in India, I was in Southern Arabia, I was in Dubai. Compared to that, the way we cook here is entirely different. That way we have the authentic taste of everything. Unlike some Indian restaurants, we don’t make a big batch of gravies and mix the meat in with that. If we are cooking beef, we are cooking just beef. Whether it is 10 kilo, 30 kilo, or 50 kilo, it’s just beef. There’s nothing else, no basic gravy. When you taste it, you will have all the beef flavours and everything plus our masalas and stuff. And also same, like, uh, which curries, everything we are doing, just doing them by itself, not mixing up uh, pre- pre-cooked, some different uh, basic gravies with the vegetables. So that makes a lot of difference in terms of taste, especially when we want to claim it’s a Kerala restaurant.
Are you from Kerala?
Yes, I am.
Did you always know you wanted to be a chef?
Sort of, because, to be honest, when I finished my schooling, we didn’t have much choice and also in terms of financial ability also, that also matters. During that time, there was a trend to go either into graduation courses or professional courses. In the professional courses during that time, there was a big boom on nursing. But for some reason, I didn’t want to do that, so I chose to be in hotel management, imagining doing a graduation four-year course. After that, I thought I would be posted in a very reputable post. That was the wrong idea, actually. I never really had a clear vision of being a chef, but once I joined the course, my interest in cooking grew and it was my major.
When you studied cooking, was that Indian cooking or did you do European cooking as well?
Everything. A combined one. When you do a graduation of four years hotel management from a university in India, it covers all the departments where you have to run a 5-star hotel, like housekeeping and maintenance, front office, accounting, hotel loans. We studied French for two semesters. If somebody says Bonjour to me, I can say it back.
So then you travelled to different countries. Where’d you go from India?
As soon as I finished my studies, there was a campus recruitment, so I got placement in Dubai. I started my career in Dubai, doing Emirates flight catering.
What was it like living in Dubai?
It was 2009. It was a bit difficult. I was only 20 years old and away from family, friends, and everything, and it was totally different. Somehow I got on with it, and I had a few friends, those who studied with me also got placements. We were together and it was actually a good thing, a bit more of an adventure. The cooking was totally different from what we learned from the course because it’s flight catering. The meals were produced 24 hours in advance and in massive quantities. There were a lot of processes before the actual food went to the flight carrier. That was a bit different. I found it a bit boring after 3.5 years and just wanted to move on, grow in my career, so I decided to try something different. I went home and started working in India. Meanwhile, I tried my luck applying in different countries for higher studies that might lead to a different work culture and things like that. I was in South Africa for about 6 to 8 months and then came back and got married and then had to go to Saudi Arabia. Then I got an opportunity as a chef hassle. Then it was a long journey and there it was a very nice experience. I was there for 6.5 years. That’s when got the opportunity to come here to work with Babaji’s.
So you came specially to work here?
Yes. It’s good.
Do you live around here?
No, I live an hour, 10 minutes away in Cranbourne East. I chose to be there because the community and everything is there because I have my kids and family here. So, for them also, to get along, I have my friends, relatives living nearby, so, I don’t really mind driving this far, and also, the drive towards here, it’s always exciting. You never know what you’re going to see.
It is a beautiful spot to work. Although, you’re in the kitchen. Do you have windows in your kitchen?
There is a massive glass window, but that opens to our cool room.
Usually we start cooking early in the morning. That batch will be consumed in two days or maybe one day. That’s what’s special about Babaji’s. We don’t cook a massive quantity to please everyone. When we cook, we cook a batch and if it’s finished, it’s done. We don’t do it anymore.
Jithin Pattiyal, Babaji’s Kerala Kitchen
Billy was saying that every day is a bit different here, and you never really know who’s going to turn up, especially if an Indian family turns up with 20 people. So how do you prepare for that?
That’s why we have specialties available only on the weekends. Usually we start cooking early in the morning. That batch will be consumed in two days or maybe one day. That’s what’s special about Babaji’s. We don’t cook a massive quantity to please everyone. When we cook, we cook a batch and if it’s finished, it’s done. We don’t do it anymore. Our fish cart was very popular and, lasted about three months on Sundays. People started coming, especially for that fish cart, and we clearly advertise everywhere that we run it only on Sundays. But people came on weekdays, and we couldn’t do anything about that because the thing that made it popular is the freshness of the fish and the way we cook it. We marinate it and cook it, and finish it the same day, it’s totally good and tasty. If we keep it for a couple of days, it goes off and that will affect our reputation as well. We don’t do that.
It’s good to have something that’s only on a Sunday. That makes it special. The fish cart is finishing now and tomorrow’s the first day that you’re doing the Polichattu. What is that?
It’s very authentic and traditional way and it has become a practice. Somebody invented that and it’s became so common and nowadays it’s getting so popular. There are different kinds of flavours. We can add any flavours into that, and basically the fish is marinated and cooked separately, and we make a shallot based big gravy, which is very flavourful with Kerala spices, tomato, tamarind, coconut toy, things like that. Then the cooked fish is kept on the banana leaf, and covered with that basic gravy, and folded it up, then tied up, and cooked on top of a tava on a grill. So, that way, when we sprinkle water in between, it is steamed. From the grill, the heat transfers to the inside, through the fish and imparts the banana leaves flavour. That has also a unique taste and flavour, smell everything. So that makes it very unique. We are going to start it from tomorrow.
What kind of fish do you use?
We can use any kind of fish, but at the moment we are starting with a pomfret, which is very popular in Kerala. That’s the whole fish, three or four people can share it together. We also have golden trevally, that’s a huge fish. We cut them into cutlets. We also have prawns.
Where do you get the banana leaves from?
We have a couple veggie guys we use who have fresh banana leaves, and we do have frozen bananas. We actually thought that frozen banana leaf wouldn’t be good, but once we were in a position that we are not going to get any fresh banana leaves from our veggie supplier because of the storm or something happened. We had to depend on that frozen banana leaf. But there are a few different types. We chose a couple of things and one actually turned out very interesting and so we are using fresh, but we do have some frozen as backup, but that is really good as fresh.
Delicious. I’ll have to come back on a Sunday now. Thank you. That was so good.
Babaji’s Kerala Kitchen, 3305 Warburton Highway