Page 73 - UpperCrust e-Magazine Third Quarter 2024

CHEF IRFAN PABANEY | COME INTO MY KITCHEN

to win her favour. We started dating about a His working life as a chef has also been
year and a half after we met in 1990 but we enriching. Working for the Radhakrishna Yasho, the arty one
married only in 1998! I remember going to Hospitality Services, he has launched
the US Club to meet with her parents and innumerable cafés inside malls, hospitals
chatting with them. It was an examination and even schools. There was also Seijo &
of sorts!” smiles Irfan. Aalika, their kid came The Soul Dish at Bandra which offered
along five years later. him the opportunity to cut his teeth at
Irfan Pabaney has a rather rich history Chinese cuisine, leading him to be picked
about his early years. Firstly, he was born in up by my friend and huge UpperCrust
Columbia, then moved to Mexico and after fan, the late Kishor Bajaj, as Brand Chef
that to Guatemala. If South America was not at Hakkasan, a restaurant that had created
exotic enough, guess where he followed his such a stir. In between all this Irfan had
father, an IAS officer, to, next ? Straight across
to the Philippines. And from there to Africa,
Nigeria! Such a geographical concoction
must have been enriching! “Yes, you could say
so, but I was happy to return to India and go
to senior school in Maneckji Cooper. Growing
up in Juhu had its own charm. Later, going to
college at Mithibai was good, too. I was into
sports in a big way, representing my college
in swimming and water polo.”

Irfan loves a good book

JUL-SEP 2024 | UPPERCRUST | 71