Gresham Fernandes couldn’t have known it then, but growing up in a Christian joint family in Bandra with his father’s four brothers and innumerable cousins, and a matriarch with legendary culinary skills would give him the perfect head-start to a career that would see him cooking in far spread kitchens.

Impresario’s Group Executive Chef has earned his toque and chef whites at an age when most contemporaries are still finding their own style. But Gresh, as he likes to be called, is no stranger to being a trailblazer. His most recent achievement includes a culinary residency program with the best restaurant in the world – Noma. From January to March 2013, Gresh was selected and invited to join a 30-member chef team from across the globe to train at the award-winning restaurant in Copenhagen, Denmark. His three months as a stagiaire at celebrated chef-owner René Redzepi’s Nordic masterpiece changed his outlook towards restaurants, ingredients and food.

From a young age, Gresh helped in the tending and breeding of chickens, ducks and pigs at home (that would eventually end up as Christmas Dinner), took morning jaunts with Granny to the pork and fish markets in Chimbai, learned how to bargain with vegetable vendors and attended community weddings where everyone would get together to cook up a storm. The age-old recipes that Granny passed on to him mixed with his culinary pedigree gave the young man the art of cooking as his inheritance.

By the time he finished 12th Standard, Gresh knew he didn’t want to get into Arts, Science or Commerce. With two uncles who had made successful careers in hospitality in the Middle East, his family welcomed his enrollment to Rizwi College of Hotel Management. Gresham propelled straight to the top of his class, while his fellow students were just getting acquainted with the workings of a kitchen. But he was reluctant when pushed to managerial tasks by his professor and requested to stay in the kitchen so he could remain his reclusive self and let his skills do the talking. That’s when he had the epiphany that this is what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

Humility and that sense of restraint is still a trademark of Gresham, who is a Bandra boy at heart but is known for his contemporary European cuisine and his mastery over the science of Molecular Gastronomy. His time at NOMA gave him a perspective into understanding food techniques which he has adapted to push local ingredients and cuisine.

From the frying pan of Rizwi to being placed into the fire of The Leela’s five-star kitchen under the able guidance of Executive Chef and free spirit Frank Mueller provided Gresham with the finishing touches. Going from trainess to Chef de Partie at Aurus and then getting confirmed in the kitchen in just three and a half years gave him the encouragement he needed. Soon enough, his friend – Chef Brainard from Mocha (the flagship brand of Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality Pvt Ltd.) introduced him to the CEO Riyaaz Amlani and their easy work relationship took off. Riyaaz inducted Gresh into his new, ambitious venture on Marine Drive – Salt Water Grill (SWG) under Chef Viraf Patel in 2004. The mandate at SWG was to experiment with cuisines and palates. Gresh spent his days in SWG (from 2004 and 2006), riding his bike out from Bandra to Marine Drive and cooking up recipes and ideas in his head on the way there. He still follows that tradition of using his bike rides on the open road as a peaceful thinking board, but it was those building years that gave Gresh the platform to change popular gastronomic notions and challenge himself creatively.

When SWG shut down in 2006, Gresh went on to Aurus in Juhu under Chef Vikas and furthered his culinary skills, while cementing his reputation as an experimental chef working at the cutting edge of multiple cuisines. They explored Chef’s Tables and the world of Molecular Gastronomy together.

So when Riyaaz Amlani (Impresario) wanted to open his homegrown café in Bandra, he approached Gresh and gave him his first restaurant kitchen in the form of Salt Water Café (2009). SWC’s casual chic and mouth-watering comfort fare became an instant landmark on the discerning Bandra scene with loyal guests who still come back for more at an average of three times a week.

Moving on to make his mark in the culinary capital of New Delhi, Gresh gained experience learning about everything meaty on a foodie road trip across Spain with Riyaaz and returned to showcase a precursor to his fresh and edgy approach with Smoke House Grill’s evolution menu.

Gresh and Riyaaz then moved on to launch their dream gastronomical project in 2011 – Smoke House Room in New Delhi, a modernist fine dining restaurant where Gresh experimented with flavour combinations and textures to put inspiring creations on the plate.

Creating stories behind every dish, Gresh still attributes everything to his cultural upbringing. Mixing his Bandra roots with the five essential tastes of salty, sweet, bitter, acidic and umami – Gresh continues to innovate with unparalleled permutations and combinations to offer you a hint of the familiar fused with a delightful new world of undiscovered textures and tastes.