At Home With...Sid and Chand Sahrawat

Auckland restaurateurs Sid and Chand Sahrawat, owners of Sidart, Cassia and Sid at The French Café, tell dish what’s cooking in their bubble – and why their freezer’s mostly full of food they can’t eat! 

Who’s in your bubble? Any particular highlights and/or challenges so far? 

Sid and Chand: We have just us and our two kids - Roan, four; and Zoya (nine next week); and the family dog Oscar, 20. Challenges so far have been to figure out a birthday plan for Zoya as now her birthday party will be just us and family Skyping in. 

Any projects for the next four weeks? 

Sid: Reading up on cookbooks, experimenting in the kitchen and, not a project, spending quality time with the family. 

Chand: Helping the kids with learning, and we are doing cooking videos with them for our Hospobaby Facebook page so I am learning to video and edit. Also trying to keep fit and not get fat is the biggest project when meals are the highlight of your day. 
 
What’s on your reading/podcast/movie list?  

Sid & Chand : We are getting through all the Star Wars movies with Roan, who is walking around the house being a Jedi with a lightsaber. 

Chand: I am reading Unnatural Causes by Dr. Richard Shepherd, then I’m going to read Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.  A friend has recommended American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, so that will be next on the list. 

Sid: Cookbooks, of course. I’m reading Mirazur (from the Michelin-starred restaurant in Menton, France) and Daniel Humm’s Eleven Madison Park (fine dining restaurant in New York). I’m reading them both more in depth now that I have the time, and have lots of others on my reading list.  

What’s in your larder? Do you have like 20 cans of chickpeas and 1 carrot or are you pretty sorted?  

Sid: Chand had started getting a few cans early on so we have canned tomatoes and beans. We have flour and sugar for baking as we grabbed some bags when we were closing the restaurants down. We have spices and pasta, so we are doing pretty good. We had to go out to do a shop for veges and meat in the first week though. 

What are you glad/regretting you stocked up on?  

We rushed to the pet store, Raw Essentials, to grab frozen raw meat as our dog is on a special diet at his age. Afterwards we found out pet shops are essential services. But our freezer is now full of 5kg of food for Oscar, leaving little room for human food! 

Who’s doing the cooking? 

Chand: We are taking turns; Sid does quite a bit of it, with the kids helping as I am still busy with paperwork and admin. I try to cook one meal a day. 

What’s the first thing you’ll do when isolation ends (apart from catching up with friends of course)? 

Sid: Get a takeaway coffee and a pain au chocolat on the way to work. 

Chand: Take the kids to the library and go for dinner somewhere with the girls. Maybe get my nails done and hit the gym again.  



Sticky Master Pork Stock Ribs and Kimchi as made by Sid, Roan and Zoya this week with homemade brioche buns.