Chef Suresh Pillai brings Kerala’s flavours to Hyderabad with Spices and Stories pop-up

Chef Suresh Pillai brings Spices and Stories: Kerala Reimagined to Hyderabad, showcasing love, simplicity and traditional flavours.

Spices and Stories: Kerala Reimagined, a pop-up,is where chef Suresh Pillai showcases the beauty of food with his two secret ingredients—love and simplicity. The chef, who was recently in Hyderabad for a two-day pop-up at The Leela Hyderabad, shared that he has long wanted to open a restaurant in the city, given the number of Telugu patrons who frequent his Bengaluru restaurant, Restaurant Chef Pillai (RCP). With nearly 25 restaurants across India, he sees the pop-up as an opportunity to introduce Hyderabad to his food philosophy. “This year, we are certain to open a restaurant in Hyderabad,” he confirms.

From chopping onions to Michelin-starred kitchens

The foundation of his culinary journey was laid with a simple task—chopping onions. After discontinuing his pre-degree due to family circumstances, he worked at various establishments before joining a hotel in Kollam (in Kerala) in 1993 as a waiter, earning a monthly salary of ₹450.

“I was 16 years old, working at Chef King in Kollam. One afternoon, I was asked to help in the kitchen by chopping onions. I did as instructed. Seeing my work, the head cook told me I had the potential to be in the kitchen. From then on, I started assisting with chopping and cooking,” he recalls.

His career had a turning point in 2002 when he moved to Bengaluru to work at The Leela Palace, where he officially became a chef. In 2005, an opportunity arose to work at Veeraswamy, a Michelin-starred restaurant in the UK, marking a new chapter in his career.

He has had no formal training in hotel management. Instead, he attributes his cooking instincts to his mother. Growing up by the Ashtamudi Lake in Kollam, where seafood was abundant, he recalls, “There were times when we didn’t have rice to eat, but we always had fish.”

At Veeraswamy, London’s iconic Indian restaurant established in 1926 by Edward Palmer, Suresh’s career took another leap. In 2017, he had the opportunity to contest in BBC MasterChef, a cooking reality show on television, which, he says, transformed his journey.