Karam Sethi

The Michelin-starred chef of Trishna and Gymkhana tells Guy Woodward what inspires his cooking – from family holidays in France to tapas-style grazing and the simplicity of Nordic and Japanese cuisines

When I was young

we visited Normandy every summer as a family. It really opened my eyes to food and the importance of produce. We were eating good, fresh, local, authentic cuisine, and picking vegetables – especially corn – from local farms.

It was the same in India

where we visited family in Delhi. The fruit and veg guy would come to the front door of our house to sell fresh produce every day. My mum tried to open us up to the importance of freshness – not just in terms of produce, but in the sauces we’d have, and their fragrant spicing, which is something I try to use at Trishna.

The Indian restaurant scene

has come a long way in the UK, but there’s still room for more authentic experiences. At the top end, Indian restaurants are obsessed with trying to ‘Frenchify’ the food, making it overly complex.

We’ve just opened a new restaurant in Copenhagen

Verandah (thestandardcph.dk), with Claus Meyer, the co- founder of Noma. The Indian restaurant scene in Denmark isn’t very well developed – it’s kind of like it was here in the 1990s.

I love the emphasis on seasonality

and the particular attention paid to vegetables in Nordic cuisine. I haven’t been to Noma (noma.dk) but I’m desperate to go; René Redzepi has achieved such remarkable things and his influence can now be seen in restaurants worldwide as his alumni spread their wings. Fiskebaren (fiskebaren.dk/en) is also on my Copenhagen hit list.

Most of my holidays are food-led

and planned around restaurants. Top of my list is San Sebastián. When my wife and I go out for dinner, we prefer to wander to four or five places, grazing – so we like the Spanish tapas culture. With San Sebastián there’s the added allure of being by the sea. I imagine wandering around on a warm evening to wherever looks good for pintxo and pote and then moving on. I like a proper Spanish tortilla; in London I get my fix at Barrafina (barrafina.co.uk).

Other places I love in London

are Colbeh (020 7706 4888), a small, family-run Persian spot off the Edgware Road that’s always busy – it does great rice dishes and kebabs – and Yauatcha in Soho (yauatcha.com), which does the best dim sum. La Fromagerie is superb, and The Soho House Group has really impressed me recently – great atmosphere and service. I’m a big fan of the rotisserie at Chicken Shop (chickenshop.com).

I admire Richard Corrigan’s

bold, rustic approach to food. At the opposite end of the scale, Raphael Duntoye, who I worked with at Zuma, and is now at La Petit Maison, treats ingredients very simply in his dishes, yet manages to pack huge flavour. I worked at Zuma (zumarestaurant.com) earlier in my career, which opened my eyes to restaurant management. They can do 500-600 covers a day and you still get an individual experience. And the food is so good, so light, it works.