Year’s supply: Chefs pick their favourite ingredients for 2015

Vikramjit Roy, Tian
I think I’ve stopped using salt almost entirely this year because I’ve become kind of obsessed with miso. We’ve been using a dehydrate of miso to season almost every dish. It adds a whole new dimension to the dish. The other one would be kafir lime, for essentially the same reasons.

Sabyasachi Gorai, Lavaash by Saby
It’s really hard to narrow it down to one dish or ingredient but I’ll give it a try. I was fascinated by millets and seeds this year. In millets, it was everything from foxtail to sorghum, while in seeds, everything from chia to buckwheat. They give dishes a beautiful texture and are fantastic for a chef to experiment with.

Vikram Khatri, Guppy by Ai
For us, 2015 was the year of ramen. It was one of our top-selling dishes, and our ramen was voted among the best in the country. We had also introduced the Ramen Burger, which has become a crowd favourite. Though we have a new menu, ramen continues to reign in it.

Shamsul Wahid, Smoke House Deli
I’d say it was more a group of ingredients that we used a lot this year, namely superfoods, and most of them locally sourced. We were very health-conscious in 2015 and our menus reflected this by using Indian grains for risottos, among other dishes.

Manu Chandra, Fatty Bao, Monkey Bar and Olive Bangalore
Smoke is absolutely fascinating and I have been tinkering around with a giant custom-made smoker this past year. We’re experimenting with different smoke from different woods, hot and cold smoke, and other things. All of this is for an exciting project being unveiled in 2016.

Sujan Sarkar, Olive Bar & Kitchen and Ek Bar
For me, 2015 was all about the beetroot; and not just because of red velvet cake. It’s such a versatile ingredient that it can be used in every course, from soup to dessert. And it’s a delight to play around with, one can apply so many different culinary techniques to it.

Compiled by Shantanu David