The World on Your Plate

A misguided sense of elitism affects many Indian five-star restaurants today,with Balik salmon,Dutch cheese,Parma ham and tuna from Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market colouring their menus fifty shades of foreign. In some kitchens,imports account for as much as 70 to 75 per cent of the food cost,according to an importer from Delhi who does not want to be named. “Restaurants don’t just indulge aspirations for expensive foreign food,they import so-called exotic ingredients for the sake of importing,” says Arvind Shah,a 35-year-old gourmand from Malad,Mumbai,who eats out almost every weeknight. Shah,who worked in Los Angeles,USA,as a technical evangelist for three years before moving in with his parents in India two years ago,has been following closely the wave of ‘locavorism’ in the West that saw people passionate about food look closer home — ideally,within a 100-mile radius — for fresher ingredients that came with a much smaller carbon footprint. “In India,we are still globavores,” Shah rues.

A breed of well-travelled chefs is now embracing the fresh flavours of locally grown produce in inventive global cuisine,thanks in part to a handful of new-age farmers across India. Trikaya outside Mumbai,Dr Kale’s near Pune and First Agro near Bangalore,to name a few,have managed to grow everything “exotic”,from pandan leaves and arugula to kumatoes (brownish heirloom tomatoes from Spain that are known for their sweet,intense taste) and baby beets. At City Bar in the al fresco dining space at UB City,Bangalore,corporate chef Vibhuti Bane rustles up a “Red Ocean” salad with avocado,English cucumber,watermelon balls and succulent cherry tomatoes in vibrant pinks and chocolaty browns. The veggies are grown in a farm 130 km from the city,by First Agro,a zero-pesticide company compliant with international food safety norms. “The supply chain in India is not a stable thing. Before I was introduced to First Agro last year,I did not have much to play around with. I was using imported canned tomatoes and tomato paste to give my sauces the body and colour that the watery local variety could not impart. Now I tell First Agro what I want and they grow it for me. My menu has gone crazy,” says Bane,who,between his three restaurants — Zaffran,Kobe and City Bar — goes through about 800 kg of produce from the company in a month. He has significantly cut down on imports in the past year.

Noted chef and restaurateur Ritu Dalmia,who travels the world in search of recipes,takes pride in serving local produce. “I proudly serve mutton chops because we don’t get lamb in India,” says Dalmia,whose flagship restaurant,Diva,in south Delhi,now sources 25 per cent of its ‘exotic’ ingredients locally. Around the turn of the century,when ingredients like artichokes and mozzarella still had to be imported,“it was fashionable to say one ate Norwegian salmon or lamb from New Zealand,” says Dalmia. “But these are no longer rare. More and more chefs are aware now; they do not want to pay exorbitant prices for imports.” A purist who won’t use paneer in a recipe that calls for ricotta,or “parmesan” from Pondicherry,Dalmia says her focus has always been on quality. “If I can achieve that quality with vanilla from Kerala in a panna cotta,or pork from a farm in Mysore,why not?”

The best dishes are often masterpieces of simplicity and imagination crafted with locally grown produce,says Alex Sanchez,the young executive chef at The Table in Colaba,Mumbai. When Sanchez was brought to Mumbai from San Francisco a couple of years ago by the owners of The Table — the husband and wife team of Jay Yousuf and Gauri Devidayal — they made it clear that their food philosophy was to use the highest quality ingredients and to highlight their inherent qualities,be it in Italian,American or Asian cuisine. The restaurant has a farm near Alibaug where they grow Californian tomatoes,lettuce and other vegetables and herbs that are hard to come by in local markets. The aim is to be entirely self-sufficient one day. Having worked at Manresa,a farm-to-fork restaurant in Los Gatos,California,where the produce comes from just 13 miles away,Sanchez is aware of the importance of terroir,that fantastic French word usually associated with wine. One of his signature dishes is a zucchini “spaghetti”— local zucchini turned into pasta-like strands and served with toasted almonds,brown butter,and parmesan cheese.

Not far from Sanchez’s culinary playground is Rahul Akerkar’s Indigo,which serves modern European fare. The humble water chestnut finds pride of place in a cobb salab alongside asparagus and green apples,and red snapper rubs shoulders with kokum onions. A popular order is a half-dozen Cochin oysters served raw,with cucumber-lime granita and fish roe. “People are becoming more aware and more conscious of the food they eat. Along with this shift is a concern for the quality and origin of the products they consume,” Sanchez says.

In response,restaurateurs,too,are slowly waking up to the benefits of local,healthy,sensible food,says Pankil Shah,who runs The Pantry,the café at Kala Ghoda,Mumbai,along with partners Sumit Gambhir and Abhishek Honawar. Everything they serve at the café,from the cheeses and the meats to the compotes,is sourced from inside India. Not far from their café with French interiors,model Kamal Sidhu and her husband Nico Goghavala are about to launch a restaurant with an eat-local concept. “Going local may soon become the norm,” Shah says,cheerily.

Several restaurants in Bangalore have taken to growing micro-greens,edible flowers and herbs on their terraces,but Manu Chandra goes a step further. Executive chef and partner at Olive Beach,a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant; Monkey Bar,a gastropub; and Likethatonly,an eclectic new dining space in Whitefield,Chandra uses wild bathua in ravioli and makes mostarda di frutta out of kasundi and apples. “I buy excellent pork locally at Rs 450 a kg and fly in sashimi-grade yellowfin tuna from Lakshadweep. I’d rather pay my suppliers extra to deliver quality Indian meat and fish rather than import something that costs Rs 1,500 a kg and pass on that cost to customers,” he says. Chandra’s menus feature a dozen fish of Indian provenance— from cuttlefish to mahi-mahi —though he admits he cannot do without his imported cheeses,cured meats,foie gras and olive oils. “I want to open a modern Indian restaurant that does justice to locally grown ingredients. That is my next project,” he says.

At the newly-opened Blimey,an Irish pub in central Bangalore,Chef Vivek Salunkhe,says he imports ham and cured meats,but tries to cook with local substitutes wherever possible — Goan sausages in place of pepperoni,smoked pork from the North-Eastern states in carbonara sauce,eight varieties of mushrooms from Coorg,and freshly made buckwheat pasta. “I have also been ageing local beef for 21 days to deepen the flavour. Imported beef is several times more expensive,” he says.

While meat is best sourced fresh,India does not have a capable cold chain and animals are not necessarily bred for slaughter,says Suman Bolar,a food blogger from Bangalore. “For this reason,imported meats taste so much better,” she says. After the German-owned Arthur’s Food Company set up a state-of-the-art processing unit in the city last year,offering over 30 varieties of ham and sausages,at a fraction of the cost of imported meats,restaurants are finding it easier to switch to quality local meats.

Gresham Fernandes,group executive chef for fine dining at Impresario Handmade Restaurants,has fond memories of helping his grandmother rear chickens,goats and other farmyard animals as a boy. “My family was very serious when it came to food. We used to raise our own poultry. We even raised pigs for Christmas suppers,” he said on the sidelines of the recently concluded festival,The Taste of Mumbai. Barnyard animals may no longer be feasible in cities,but at the Smoke House chain that he heads,Fernandes uses local produce as far as possible. His inspiration: a three-month stint at Noma in Copenhagen,one of the world’s finest restaurants,where almost everything is grown inhouse.

Cooking with local produce makes sense on so many levels,reasons Abhijit Saha,founder,director and chef at Caperberry,which serves modern European food,and FAVA,an all-day Mediterranean restaurant,in Bangalore. “Local produce is always cheaper. Asparagus grown here costs Rs 325 a kg,while the imported variety costs Rs 800,” he says. Saha,whose signature dishes include halibut from Kerala,a new-age salad caprese with local produce and a foamy cauliflower espuma for dessert,has exclusive access to locally foraged truffles from Chikmagalur. Bolar,who has reviewed a truffle tasting menu at Caperberry,says the Indian variety is flavourful,and while not as aromatic as fresh truffles from Italy,is head and shoulders above the sub-standard imported fare she has sampled in Bangalore. Nitin Pai,the homestay owner who found the truffles while taking a walk in the woods in 2009,says the flavourful variety is very hard to find. “I do not market the truffles. I supply to Saha when they are in season every year only because I want to show the world that India too has truffles,” he says.

Truffles may be a rare delicacy for the rich,but there is no reason every Indian should not get to eat safe,local produce,says M. Nameet of First Agro. Even at competitive prices,First Agro’s growing repertoire of non-GM Indian and exotic vegetables is only available at select gourmet stores in Bangalore. What he is waiting for is a groundswell of awareness about food and where it comes from. The seeds have been sown,now it’s only a matter of time before the fruit makes it to the table,hopefully to one less than a hundred miles away. n

With inputs from Dipti Nagpaul D’Souza and Shantanu David