Like a Jedi knight with an offset spatula, pastry chef Jehangir Mehta switched over to the savory side last September when he opened his first restaurant Graffiti in the East Village. Armed with a few induction burners and assorted kitchen gadgets, Graffiti’s 4-person staff prepares and serves Mehta’s eclectic food out of a pint-sized kitchen. Before Graffiti, Mehta worked with Jean Georges Vongerichten, Rocco DiSpirito, and lots of other chefs. He was most recently pastry chef at Aix.
As with Momofuku Ko around the corner, Graffiti’s cooks are also its servers. The restaurant received the designation of “your best bet” from the Post in an article on accessible wine programs at city restaurants. Grafitti's wine list follows one simple rule: Glasses are $8; bottles go for $25. Finally, Graffiti’s menu has three tier food price categories. Plates are either $7, $12, or $15. Start with the Green Mango Paneer ($7) and work your way up; a kickass meal for two can come in under $100, and the food is generally brilliant. Additionally, all dishes on the menu can be delivered vegetarian.
Jehangir Mehta spoke with us about Graffiti, his first cookbook, which comes out in May, and how carambola doesn’t always get a fair shake on more fruit plates.
I know everyone always asks you about your background. You’re Persian- your family hails from Mumbai- but your last name name is Indian–
“Mehta” means accountant. Our family name got lost when the British took over, I don’t know when, exactly, but it’s a very typical ancient name. In the last three generations, members of my family were accountants; my father is. But from my father’s side of the family, for my sister and myself, even from my dad’s other brother’s side, I think none of them were accountants.
For your interview with Restaurant Girl, she asked what your biggest challenge has been so far with Graffiti, you said it was accounting.
[laughs]
Did you come to the US with your family?
No, I came by myself, 15 years ago.
And how did you get into the culinary world?
I went to hotel management school back in India and I was also doing a sociology degree. I was doing them simultaneously, but I was very sure I wanted to pursue this career in the food world, and that’s when I went to the CIA. It all fell into place.
Where did you do your externship?
At L’Absinthe on 67th Street.
What about sociology interested you?
It was studying about people. Working in this industry is like getting to know people to a certain extent, however, and it’s not that different. Sociology was just something I liked as a field. I don’t know how much you can do with it. You get a PhD. I don’t know about a career; it’s more like a sport, a hobby.
In addition to Graffiti, your cooking for kids side project, Candy Camp, is still going on, and you do catering on the side. Anything else?
My first book is coming out in a couple of months.
I saw on the website there’s a countdown to the book being published.
I didn’t see that. On which website?
Harper Collins. There’s a little widget that’s a countdown clock. It also says the book’s for ages 18 and up. Why’s that?
I don’t think there’s a reason. We are marketing the book for adults, but I don’t know why it’s 18 and up. The book does mention that – well, in America you have to be so careful. And on our website we do sell Kama Sutra chocolates, but those aren’t in the book.
The book is divided into 10 sections?
There have been a few changes since then, so it now has 4 major sections with subdivisions. That was more to do with design—the people who put all the pages together thought it looked better with less big sections; they’re broken down into ingredient types. The first section, if I’m not mistaken, is about flowers. But then we’ve taken roots, bulbs, all together.
I know you do a lot of wedding cakes, with ornamental flowers. Could you talk about cooking with flowers?
I prefer to use fresh flowers. I know people like the handmade pastillage, which are very beautiful, but in the end those are inedible, which makes them a waste of time. If you can’t eat something which a cook makes then I think it’s a waste. That’s according to me, which doesn’t make it right or wrong. But I just feel that edible fresh flowers give a lot of flavor, and people still won’t eat them sometimes because they don’t know about edible flowers. How many people have eaten flowers? I agree. You’re right too on the other hand. My major concern is that when you use fresh flowers you can make your cake very much at the last minute, so the final cake is even better than the cake you make with pastillage – which is left out forever. You can’t use egg base and fresh cream base with pastillage because those will just get spoiled. But with mine I can pull out the cake 4 hours before and finish the decorations. That’s the major reason. And very honestly, if I’m using violets to decorate, there’s violet ganache. The flavors of the cake will correspond with the decoration, so there’s a real reason.
Do you put flowers in your savory food?
Some items have flowers, but right now on the menu, no. I’ve used lavender and violets though. And will start again in the summer but right now it’s hard at a small restaurant. If I had the resources of say, Jean-Georges, I could get fresh flowers from Hong Kong too, make it happen.
Taking it back a bit: You worked at Union Pacific under Rocco DiSpirito. How was that?
It was before he was a rock star. I left right when he started his Food Network show and he was in the kitchen everyday, very focused at the restaurant, so I have a good amount of respect for him. I feel unfortunate about how his career is now, unless, maybe he’s big somewhere right now and I just don’t know about it. I think people are just jealous, wishing they’d made millions of dollars; that’s my conclusion. I just feel bad that it went down, for a person that can cook extremely well, a very talented gentleman, a little bit military – which I have no problem with. I grew up like that, with military teachers, but it’s sad where his career has gone. I still have tremendous respect for him. Money can do that to people, though. Things change. People are just jealous that they didn’t get what he got.
How big is your kitchen? What do you count as your kitchen?
I mean, it must be pretty small. There’s one table back there, have a look. That’s my kitchen. Customers have to walk through it on the way to use the rest room.
You chat with all your customers.
Yes, I do. It’s very rewarding, for a couple of reasons. I like doing it. I would say the major reason being that I think that people who make the food and get to serve it have a very different way to approach it and serve it. Even the best waiters can’t do that. All of us have worked in the kitchen so we know what we’re serving; we did that job. It comes out more passionately. Every restaurant has that tension between waiters and cooks; I put in 15 hours and you put in 15 hours but the pay is different. It’s not like that here. We all respect each other a lot. People say we’ve never had service like this or we’ve never had the food explained here. People ask us if we’re all related sometimes; they feel something is happening here.
Was it a big change to go from a big kitchen at Aix to the one you have here?
I would say you adjust to your environment. You have to learn how. I would love to have a bigger kitchen, but I don’t. You just play the hand you’ve been given.
What type of advice would you give to someone who’s just started cooking?
Go and work for someone who’s a trunk and not a branch. Like I would say go and work for Daniel, someone very, very rooted, someone who’s not out there. Like I would not say go and work for Wylie [Dufresne] when you’re first starting out. He’s the branch, the leaf, the flower of today, which is great. But I think that first you should work for someone rooted, which Wylie himself did for 10 years when he worked for Jean-Georges. He didn’t become who is he is by working for someone making food like he making now. I suggest you learn the base and then you go and do whatever you like. You can’t follow the branch itself, you have to start at the trunk.
Do you consider yourself like a branch? If someone wanted to stage with you, for instance?
We have a stage right now, but we tell him our limitations. Today you’ll be doing this, tomorrow you’ll be doing something else. His other stagier friends will say, “they don’t even know when I come in or leave,” and he’s like, “oh, I had oysters and wine on the first day.” It’s different here, it just is. It’s different when you’re in a very small organization, you’re not a lost piece.
Would you consider opening another Graffiti?
I would love to. Definitely definitely love to.
What’s your favorite subway line?
The F.
Do you live in Brooklyn?
No, Manhattan. There’s also the L train. It’s very intriguing to see the people, all the people on it have their own style. I see the Gothic look, musicians. There’s a very integrated mix of young, preppy people. It may not be my favorite but it’s the most interesting line, going from 14th to the first stop in Brooklyn. I’m intrigued by the people I see every time. They all have their own concept of being, their own personality, and it shows. From the hairstyles to their clothing to what they’re carrying. I find it fascinating. I love it. From Union Square to 1st Avenue, it’s my favorite 3 minute ride.
Best place to get a bite at 3 in the morning?
For me, all the places that the taxi drives go to eat. 28th and Lexington is a spot I’ve been to a couple of time, very good hot dog stand sort of food but in a little shop area. Good kebabs, which I like at 2 in the morning. Otherwise I would say, in many ways I’m a homebody. I prefer to go home with friends and have cheese and wine. A lot of my friends are not in the industry, they’re doctors, so I’d rather chat with them at home.
Speaking of doctors, and back to the book, I noticed there’s almost a wellness theme.
Sure. We aren’t promoting it as a wellness book– We do say honey is good for you, but we don’t say eat 3 ounces of honey every day. We’re not acting as Ayurvedic doctors, but we are presenting Ayurvedic principles in the book. Like if you have a sore throat, have water, cognac, and honey. My parents gave me that when I was little. And every morning, coconut water with honey. And walnuts, because they’re good for your back. Going to school, we had to carry a lot of books so my mum gave me walnuts to eat while I walked down the street. I may not have learned much about cooking in India, but I did learn about what to eat for what. In India, these things don’t have a stamp of approval from the FDA or whatever, but people have been doing these things for thousands of years. Pomegranates for the heart. Here people say an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but we still haven’t sent the stamp of approval to prove it. Of course fresh fruits and vegetables are always good, always helpful in life. It’s never going to harm you.
Do you have a strange, only in New York story?
I was at Aix and a lady asked for a fruit plate. We always had passion fruit, star fruit, and other kinds of exotic fruit. It looked beautiful, but then the plate came back to the kitchen. The woman had said, “I don’t eat third world fruit.” She wanted apples and bananas. She could have just said “I don’t like exotic fruit,” but calling it third world fruit was crazy. Wow, I thought. That’s really amazing.
Photo: Hall PR.
