I really want to cook goat blood curry, says chef Vijay Kumar

Mint

08-07-2025

Ruth Dsouza Prabhu In an exclusive interview, the James Beard Award 2025 winner talks about his time growing up in the village, catching fish for his mother, struggles to source the right produce, and how the famed snail curry made it to the Semma menu Chef Vijay Kumar; (right) the dish 'nathai pirattal' or stir-fried snails at Semma.
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'There's no such thing as poor person's food or rich person's food, it is food," said chef Vijay Kumar while accepting the James Beard Foundation Award for the 'Best Chef in New York State' last month. Dressed in a veshti and chunky pearls around his neck, the 44-year-old's speech took over our Instagram feeds, as he unabashedly went on to share his journey 'as a dark-skinned boy from Tamil Nadu" making it to the top, at the awards ceremony that recognises excellence in the culinary arts in the United States. Kumar steers the kitchen at the Michelin-starred restaurant Semma, in New York, where he serves nathai pirattal, a dish of spicy stir-fried snails that his grandmother cooked back home in the village.
'There's no such thing as poor person's food or rich person's food, it is food," said chef Vijay Kumar while accepting the James Beard Foundation Award for the 'Best Chef in New York State' last month. Dressed in a veshti and chunky pearls around his neck, the 44-year-old's speech took over our Instagram feeds, as he unabashedly went on to share his journey 'as a dark-skinned boy from Tamil Nadu" making it to the top, at the awards ceremony that recognises excellence in the culinary arts in the United States. Kumar steers the kitchen at the Michelin-starred restaurant Semma, in New York, where he serves nathai pirattal, a dish of spicy stir-fried snails that his grandmother cooked back home in the village.
Kumar was born and raised in a town called Natham in Tamil Nadu, and completed his schooling in Samuthirapatti. An ace student, he wanted to become an engineer. While his father was a government employee, his mother managed the farm. Due to financial constraints, Kumar had to leave the engineering dream behind and follow another passion, and that was cooking, at the State Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology in Trichy in 1998. Three years later, he joined Taj Connemara in Chennai followed by a few other stints, until he got an opportunity to head to the US in 2007.
Semma is a Tamil slang for 'fantastic', and has been the talk of the food world since it opened in 2021. Reservations are hard to get, and diners from diverse cultural backgrounds are encouraged to eat with their hands. It's not every day that a restaurant attempts to break the stereotypes associated with Indian food in the western world. Dindigul biryani at Semma.
The menu reflects Kumar's humble Tamil farmer-family roots, and sticks to the original flavours. Take the snails that he serves with spongy kal dosa. He recalls being nervous in the initial days of serving the dish, but is proud to see how diners enjoy it the way his grandmother made it. More so, because back in school, it was not a dish that he would share with others. He thought it would be made fun of as poor man's food. That escargot was a French delicacy was a revelation much later in culinary school, he says. His face lights up talking about spiced goat intestines, wild rabbit leg, and tiger prawns cooked with a generous dose of green chillies, each a throwback to the times on the farm, and in his family kitchens. Also Read | Disfrutar versus Noma: A tale of two Michelin meals
'I am so sorry to have you working so late," is the first thing Kumar says when he logs in for a Zoom interview. It was 9pm IST, and 11.30am in NYC. The rush of the win was evident as he settled in for a chat. He shares that although celebrations were on, the team had a responsibility, especially now that the queues were longer with over 50 people waiting for a spot at the 12-seater bar in the restaurant. Edited excerpts from the interview:
Take us through some of your favourite food memories.
Growing up on the farm, we always had fresh ingredients to cook with. We'd grow or raise everything, including goats and chickens for consumption. During school vacations, all the siblings went to our grandparents' place, and since there were no buses, we had to walk three kilometres to get there. We'd go fishing, work in the paddy fields, or go hunting. My memories are all about cooking with fresh ingredients, in clay pots on open fire, and eating on banana leaves.
Did you have a favourite dish growing up?
My mom's fish curry. She is one of those perfectionists, like most Indian moms. If she buys fish, it has to be freshly caught. Otherwise, it must be fished by us from the river. Nothing else would do. She is picky about her ingredients, and I think I inherited that from her. That's what we are doing right now at Semma — going back to cooking the way I am used to.
It was a shift in mindset, from wanting to be an engineer to going to culinary school. How did you cope?
From my childhood, I always wanted to do my best at everything. It was a hard transition because one is always afraid of what society thinks. I didn't tell my friends that I was going to culinary school, and when they found out, they made fun of me. I had challenges, growing up in a village, and moving to big cities. My first language was not English, but I adapted. I persevered.
So, where did it all begin?
I started at a small place in Virginia as soon as I arrived in the US. Then I worked at the restaurant Dosa followed by Rasa in California in 2014, where I got my first Michelin star. Back then I was cooking contemporary Indian food. But I felt something was missing. We were deboning fish and turning down spice levels. I felt we were trying to fit into someone else's mold. I was fortunate enough to meet chef Chintan Pandya and restaurateur Roni Mazumdar of Unapologetic Foods in 2021, and partner with them to open Semma. I was given complete freedom to create the menu, which today represents the Tamil cuisine of my childhood.
Tell us everything about the food at Semma.
South Indian food is largely associated with idli and dosa, which is sad because it is a cuisine that's been around for thousands of years, and has not diluted with time. I have a responsibility to represent it. When we discussed the nathai pirattal, many were sceptical, but Roni said that it was about what I ate growing up. I didn't want the business to lose money because of such bold decisions, but they (Roni and Chintan) were clear about going ahead and being unapologetic about my roots. Our menu changes regularly. We had a venison curry for a while. Though deer hunting is illegal in India now, I remember going hunting for deer as a child. What I really want to do is make goat blood curry, another delicacy from my childhood, but I haven't had good luck acquiring fresh blood for it.
Is there any diner reaction that has stayed with you?
It's an incident that is both upsetting and memorable. One day, it was raining heavily and the restaurant was flooded. There was a maintenance issue, and water trickled down from the ceiling. A guest was at the table, and I went across to apologise. He brushed it off saying — 'don't worry about it, just give me an umbrella" — which he held on to and continued eating. For me, this is the power of good food.
What is that one meal you turn to when you miss home?
Rice and sambar, poriyal and appalam. There is so much emotion in that meal. Also Read | Can 'touchings' be the new tapas? Chef Regi Mathew thinks so
Ruth DSouza Prabhu is a features journalist based in Bengaluru. Topics You May Be Interested In