Dhamaka has a kitchen the size of a storage container and a waiting list a month long. chrisecrowley reports
From top left: Roni Mazumdar, Eric Valdez, Tsepak Dolker, Chintan Pandya, Saul Anastacio, Rafael Zaragoza, Shawon Deb, Cristian Gonzalez, Lila Weitzner, Juan Gonzalez, Abel Aviles, and Bubacarr Kabba. Photo: Evan Angelastro The kitchen at Dhamaka — the Indian establishment at Essex Crossing with a monthlong waiting list — is about the size of a large storage container. At tightly packed stations, cooks work, if not back-to-back, then close enough to pass ingredients without taking a step.
Dhamaka, which opened in February 2021, is known for its unadulterated representation of regional Indian dishes less familiar to diners abroad: Gujarati stuffed peppers with peanuts and chickpea-flour masala; a pig’s-head salad from the country’s northeast.
Pulao is one of the most popular menu items, and at first the restaurant tried to limit orders: “Every time we got busy, it was chaos,” Valdez says. Each pulao takes about eight minutes to cook, and only two can be made at a time. But he got used to it: “It’s about timing. You need to smell the steam coming out — that’s when you know it’s cooked enough.” Valdez simultaneously works the pass and the pulao station; there’s no room for anyone else.
In such cramped surroundings, it helps that some of the staffers, including Valdez and line cook Abubacarr Gikineh, have worked together before . One year in, everybody in the kitchen still seems a bit surprised by the fanfare. “People ask, ‘How are you guys always busy?’ I’m like, ‘I’m just cooking the food, bro. I don’t know why they like it,’ ” Gikineh says. “Everything that I do I learn from Chintan and Eric. I do it how they taught me, and if we can do better, that’s good.
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