MILAP DIXIT WEST MEETS EAST: Graham Sydney with tandoori chef Ram Kaji Lama count their chickens for a lunch spread at the Summit Hotel on Tuesday.

Just when Graham Sydney decided he needed a sabbatical from his job in the hospitality industry, a man came to his restaurant, Restobar Knus in Amsterdam, and offered him a two-month training stint in a hotel in Kathmandu.
The man was Cas de Stoppelaar, the owner of Summit Hotel and author of the novel Elephant Polo, and Graham thought the offer was so providential he did not hesitate to say yes.

"The two months in Nepal stretched to six months, a year and now it's been three years," says Graham, a native South African who has run restaurants in Johannesburg, Durban and the Netherlands.

Graham has since been involved in improving the food and beverage department at the Summit by implementing western standards of hygiene and food preparation, introducing new recipes and styles of cuisines.

He has also been involved with other projects, including product development and training to improve food production in Nepal as a whole.

"I gained experience from extensive travels through Africa, Asia and Europe, and this has influenced my cooking style to combine cooking techniques and ingredients from all corners to create original, simple recipes," explains Graham.

These recipes are now available every week on p 14 of Nepali Times, and recent items include 'Pork Saltimbocca' (Italian entr?e served with ham, cheese and sage rolled into meat and pan-fried) and 'Barbecued tuna with a red onion Mascarpone sauce (which is self-explanatory). The recipes are available for orders at the Summit for the week after it appears on Nepali Times.

Says Graham: "We want to offer some original, exciting recipes to guests at the Summit and also entice amateur chefs out there to try them out at home."