Clay Oven: A Taste of India Comes to Town

When Rajesh Bajaj immigrated to the United States from India in 1999, he brought along a love of the flavors and cuisine of his homeland. Better yet, he brought with him the knowledge of how to prepare the native dishes he favors, gleaned from years of watching his mother and grandmother cook them.

It might not have been that way. “In India,” says Bajaj, “the boys don’t cook.” At least they didn’t when he was growing up – that was “just the ladies’ job,” he explains. But Bajaj “had a passion to cook,” and he followed it.

“It’s worked out for me,” he laughs.

And for those of us around here who love Indian food. Bajaj is the owner of Clay Oven, which opened in Woodinville last fall, after having to vacate the Monroe site where it had operated for five years. In addition to owning the restaurant, Bajaj is also its all-day, every-day chef, and has carefully developed all of its recipes.

It’s those recipes that are central to the restaurant’s success, says Bajaj. “I have no secrets," he says. “I give all my recipes to all the staff.” At the same time, he insists that they be followed to the letter. “This is the way it has to be done – nobody changes the recipes,” he explains. “That’s the secret, I think, for a restaurant – consistency,” he says.

Clay Oven specializes in the cuisine of Northern India, says Bajaj. He aims to serve food that is as close to authentic as the local palate will accept. “I haven’t cut any corners” with the spices, he says, explaining that the dishes he serves are slightly “toned down” versions of the ones you might find in India. They are “inches away from the real flavor,” he says.

To get that flavor, Bajaj imports many of his herbs and spices from India and grinds and mixes them himself. It was his grandmother who taught him how to season foods for the best flavor. It’s best not to use too many different seasonings in a single dish, he says. “The spices all fight with each other.”

Instead, says Bajaj, his recipes emphasize a single flavor in each dish. His goal is to have each of the dishes at Clay Oven taste and look different.

At the heart of Clay Oven’s open kitchen is its tandoor, a large clay pot used for cooking Indian breads and grilling meats. While tandoors were traditionally heated with a charcoal or wood fire, the restaurant’s clay oven runs on natural gas, reaching temperatures up to 800F degrees.

Bajaj says in days past, tandoors could be found “on every street corner” in India. They were community ovens, used by local residents to bake bread dough they mixed at home. The Mogul Empire adopted the tandoors to cook the meat that was part of their traditional cuisine, says Bajaj, leading to popular dishes as tandoori chicken.

Passionate about the cuisine of his homeland, Bajaj is eager to clear up common misconceptions about it. For instance, he says, there is no such thing as “curry powder” in India, where a curry is simply a sauce. What we commonly think of as curry is a simply a proprietary mix of the many seasonings typically used in Indian cooking, he explains. “We make our own blends.”

Another common misconception is that it is those spices that make Indian food hot. “The heat is not from the spices,” explains Bajaj. “The heat is from the cayenne pepper,” which in a restaurant is added to order. For the best balance between flavor and heat, he recommends ordering food with a spice level of two or three. Anything above a four is just “burn, burn, burn,” he laughs.

Bajaj still likes to visit the street vendors and other culinary “hot spots” he frequented while growing up in India when he travels there to see family. Back here, he clearly enjoys sharing the food of his homeland with his clientele. He particularly savors slower, weekday afternoons when he can interact with customers, cooking their favorites, perhaps making something off-menu.

He credits a loyal customer base from Monroe for the quick success the restaurant has seen in Woodinville. He says quite a few of Clay Oven’s regular customers now take a detour to stop by the restaurant on their way home to Monroe. “Woodinville has really accepted us very well,” he adds.

As for the long workdays – he arrives in the morning, cooks lunch, then dinner and does all the grocery shopping himself – Bajaj doesn’t seem to mind. “This is how I grew up,” he explains. “I’m doing it from my heart,” he adds. “I feel happy … just like a kid in a candy shop.”