Organic for Lunch

We are what we eat. So, the more naturally pure food finds a place on our table, the better it is for us

KRISHNA RAJ WAS silent, rel-ishing his hearty meal of steamed asparagus and chick-peas sauce with fresh pepper and co-riander, washed with a chilled glass of aam panna.Two hours later, he would be ready to take on the weights at his gym. The nutritious meal of organi-cally grown ingredients and his fitness regimen are in complete harmony with each other.

In an increasingly synthetic world of cell-structured cultivation and chemically engineered diets, there is a slow but definite shift towards a 8220;sim-pler8221; attitude to living. This positive outlook has been triggered by a star-tling awareness among health watch-ers about the dangers posed by the junk food culture. Organic food is the straightforward, if not cheaper, way out of this gargantuan mess.

What8217;s organic food? Remember that kitchen garden behind your grandma8217;s small village cot-tage8212; source of the best veggies you have ever tasted? They were naturally delicious, pure and devoid of pesti-cides, harmful chemicals and noxious fertilisers. That8217;srealorganicfood.

Though it would take quite a while to go back to India8217;s organic cultiva- tion heritage8212;the first among ab-solutely natural cultivation practices anywhere in the world8212;it8217;s hearten-ing to see at least some amount of en-thusiasm in that direction.

As executive chef Hemant Oberoi of The Taj Group of Hotels puts it: 8220;Decades ago, we were out-and-out health-conscious organic cultivators. But now, aping the West has become fashionable. Hence, the attraction to-wards chemically monitored ingredi-ents8221;.

His opinion is shared by Dr Deepak Solanki, a general physician and organic food proponent.8220;Indians used to enjoy the good old home- grown, simple dal-roti-subzi-chawal without fear of being invaded by chemicals. In fact, weIndians had pio-neered organic food.8221;

In an effort to make organic eating popular as well as fashionable, the Taj Land8217;s End in Mumbai has come up with Pure, a brand new speciality restaurant. Set up by New York-based award-winning pioneeroforganiccui-sine Michel Nischan, Pure offers the pristine flavours of naturally grown in-gredients.

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This smartly designed restaurantoffers agamutofvegetarian delicacies, healthymeatsandseafood. Along with Michel Nischan, the ex-ecutive chef of Pure, John Mooney, balances nutritive values with some really tantalising flavours and innova-tions.

Using cutting-edge techniques, both chefs use steaming broths, citrus zests and different oils to achieve a de-lightful equilibrium between healthy cooking and great dining.The age-old techniques are fine-tuned to create simple, yet tasty sauces, using fruit and vegetable extracts. So you have 8216;shitake mushroom rice cakes with fresh pea sauce or grill cured salmon with caramalised cauliflower8217;.

One need not visit a five-star hotel foran8220;organic meal.8221;Bysourcingnat-urally grown foodstuff, 8220;pure8221; food can be made in the kitchen itself. Kavita Mukhi of Conscious Food, which manufactures and markets or-ganically growningredientsinMumbai, Delhi, Kolkata,ChennaiandBangalore, feelsthat itisjusta matteroftimebefore more people understand the value of organicmeals.8220;It8217;s asaferandhealthier way ofliving,8221;saysKavita.

The writing is clearly on the wall. Sooner or later, we will have to aban-don processed food and go organic. We owe it to ourselves.