Chef Prasad in New Canaan's Chef Collab Events: How It Started + Where It's Going

Between courses at one of his collaboration special events, Prasad Chirnomula spoke to his full dining room about creating a bond with his fellow Connecticut chefs.

“We’ve been doing this for almost a year now, bringing chefs together,” he says. “The whole point of doing this, is we, as chefs, work our asses off. We’re always back in the kitchen on Saturday nights, Sunday nights, holidays, and everything else. I’ve done my share of work, so I said to myself that I’m gonna enjoy what I did for so many years of my life. I want to create a legacy and a bond with people I recognize and know of. Even if I don’t know someone, I’ll pick up the phone, call them, and say, ‘Hey, buddy! How are you doing? Do you wanna cook together?’ This is the hardest industry to work in and food brings people together.”

One of the collaboration courses between Chef Prasad and Jeff Taibe’s Taproot was a hiramasa tikka crudo with smoked pineapple and shaved onion.

Chirnomula working the line! “I want to be like their sous chef for these events,” he says.

The chefs, including Chirnomula, also get to chop it up with guests for a more personal experience. “I love the people in this industry,” he gushes. “And I love the clients on the other side.”

Where Chirnomula came up with this idea to bring in the who’s who of Connecticut chefs to his namesake restaurant, Chef Prasad, was during shutdowns three years ago. He mentioned that New Canaan and the surrounding communities really came together and supported him by “doing a ton of takeout.”

One of those pivots, besides offering more takeout than ever before, was the birth of teaching cooking classes and the idea to host a monthly tasting featuring a known CT chef consisting of passed bites, an open bar, and a sit down meal of 4-5 courses that’s cooked in the restaurant’s open kitchen in the dining room that’s just like being at someone’s house for a big dinner party.

“Teasers” come around in heavy rotation upon check-in. Lobster & sunchoke samosas, Seacoast Mushroom murtabak, zucchini blossom pakora, late summer vegetable chaat, and this puri chaat (peekytoe crab salad, uni foam, caviar) were featured for Taproot’s collab.

So far, Chirnomula has brought in chefs that are close friends, so Tyler Anderson was his first, and since then, he’s done New Canaan collabs with Luke Venner (Elm) and Nick Martschenko (South End, SE Uncorked, The Back End), and others he has wanted to connect with like Carlos Perez (At The Corner, ATC South Street), Joel Gargano (Grano Arso) Emily Mingrone (Tavern On State, Fair Haven Oyster Co.), and Jeff Taibe of Taproot.

One of the main points of it other than creating camaraderie is to have fun, create something special for the evening’s guests, and for the chefs, to learn from one another. Chirnomula, who mostly takes a backseat and acts as the guest chef’s sous, fondly remembers discussing and dreaming up a spiced butter for Martschenko’s lamb lollipops and similarly creating an Italian-Indian mashup with Gargano, but also being honored when Mingrone wanted to do an all Indian menu, saying “she went nuts and did tons of research for it.”

Lamb neck biryani w/tamarind peanut poppy seed

Tandoori octopus at the pass

Black garlic naan

Imarti cannoli - cardamom labneh, strawberry chutney, pistachios

Chirnomula is enjoying this series for a few more reasons. One is it brings forth chefs that his New Canaan customers may not be exposed to very much, if at all. Another is having that connection with his customers, as you get to meet and chat with him and the featured chef.

“The more I’m doing this, the more I love it,” he says. “I love the customers and I want to expose these chefs to them. Years ago, I felt like I lost that connection to my customers when I had several restaurants (Thali and INDIA) and I even lost that connection with my own staff.”

And continue, it absolutely will.

Chirnomula introduces Nick Lawton, who stood in that night for Jeff Taibe who was under the weather.

As per the collab tradition, each guest chef signs the wall and receives an apron.

Coming up, Chirnomula plans to welcome Arturo Franco-Camacho (Camacho Garage, Geronimo, Shell & Bones), Bill Taibe (The Whelk, Kawa Ni, Don Memo), and he’s hoping to reschedule with pitmaster Jamie McDonald of Bears Smokehouse.

Chirnomula even teased opening up these collabs to some of his chef friends outside of the state.

“There’s an incredible young female chef from Dallas that wants to come up, plus others in New York City, some Michelin starred chefs, and I’ve got friends in D.C., Cali, and Virginia,” he says. “Sometimes I get a call or text saying, ‘Hey! ‘What about me?’ But if they come from far away, I want to justify them coming out by doing the collab on Thursday, then opening up my kitchen and giving them the support of me and my staff so they can cook their food for a full weekend. I think this could be the best pop up kitchen in Connecticut.”

62 Main Street; New Canaan
475.256.5657; chefprasad.com