How Slovenian Chef Ana Ros privileges seasonality and regionality in her food

Seed taco, black sunchoke puree, pears and silene vulgaris (Source: Taj Hotels)

A big believer in the seasonality and regionality of food, Ros, who curated her signature creations at the Taj, votes for the street food of old Delhi. “I love the flatbreads and spices. I haven’t picked up a spice yet as I am still discovering the complexity and layer each brings. But since I love tomatoes, I can think of blending some with them,” she says. At the Taj, she played on texture, contrasting the smoothness of potato with hay crust and teaming up sour butter with robust Indian spices. Then there was fermented pumpkin that added a different depth to the relish.

Ros was quite clumsy to begin with, hardly able to fry her egg. She loved ballet and at age seven had joined the national skiing team. After competitive sports, she trained to become a diplomat. And Hisa Franko happened only because her then partner Valter Kramar was its owner. She began helping out in the kitchen and was determined to succeed. “My mother told me whatever you do, do it well enough to succeed. I had a disciplined childhood and creativity too needs discipline. I am self-taught, learnt through mistakes and because I am conscious of how invested I am, I aim to be three times better than anybody else,” says Ros. Her food allows all the natural flavours, freshness and textures of the Soca Valley to come through as they are, using only as much technique as is needed.

Chef Ana Ros (Source: Taj Hotels)

Ros remembers visiting the iconic El Bulli, the Spanish restaurant which set the benchmark for progressive cuisine with molecular gastronomy. “It was unique till they did a lot of copy-pasting and had to shut down. In the end, we work for people, not Michelin stars. Food for people is the comfort of memories and imagining the infinite possibilities that nature has to offer. And that’s about instinct, not technique. That’s why I do not have signature dishes. All my dishes are ever evolving according to what the farmers grow and my local environment,” says the chef who has made something as simple as a cauliflower ravioli, with goat kid liver in broth and black truffles, a global delicacy.

Of course, Ros has used her feminine instinct to take on the robust celebrityhood of male chefs. But she detests being labelled as a top woman chef as it takes away from the hard work she puts in. Even now, she goes back to the books in the kitchen every night to see what could be done better and visits restaurants around the world for research. “Women chefs have to prove themselves that much harder as they are still battling the perception of them as skirt-wearing blondes or with curly hair. I was the only girl in the kitchen when I cooked the first time. Men became my friends after I got appreciation,” says Ros, who works with farmer communities and helped them market their produce by making packaged food for local supermarkets during the Covid years.

Summer feast – A salad of broad beans, roasted yeast cream, nasturtium (Source: Taj Hotels)

Resource-consciousness is always at the back of Ros’ mind. “Every change in the environment, be it less rain or too much rain and extremes of temperature impact the produce, requiring you to change your cooking in tandem. Also, we just can’t order what we need like you do in Delhi. I cannot get a rack of lamb but have to take the full animal. We make sure to use every part of the animal or plant in our dishes. That’s why I am a votary of ethical cuisine.” That’s also why she likes Indian cuisine.