How things are changing at the top of India’s food scene

If you doubt that the Indian food scene at the top level is changing then you should have been in Dubai last week

when three of India’s top chefs first cooked an amazing meal and then came together to discuss how things had changed at a session that I moderated.

 

The idea, when it was proposed, seemed outrageous. Would Himanshu Saini whose restaurant Tresind Studio has three Michelin stars agree to invite Prateek Sadhu of Naar in the foothills of Himalayas to come and cook with him?

 

   And would both men welcome the new boy in the top league? Ebenezer Johnson of Bangalore’s Farmlore?

 

   For me that was the first revelation. Chefs agree to collaborations for various reasons. Sometimes it is friendship: Manuel Olivera of Mumbai’s LaLoca Maria (which sounds like the name of a Ricky Martin song but is actually one of the city’s most respected restaurants) went to Bangalore a fortnight ago to cook with Johnson at Farmlore because the two men are pals.

 

   And sometimes some collaborations emerge out of a desire to pamper influencers who, it is hoped, will then vote for the chefs in question at various awards and lists of best restaurants. Rare is the collaboration that emerges only out the chefs’ desire to work with the best and to further hone their skills.

 

   Himanshu Saini should know. One reason why his food is technically so advanced is because he has spent the last few years travelling to cook at the world’s best restaurants with the best chefs. It hasn’t changed the direction of his food but it has sharpened his cooking as he has picked up techniques, found unfamiliar ingredients and immersed himself in the latest trends.

 

   That’s also true of Prateek Sadhu who, after a lifetime of working in hotel kitchens struck out on his own with Masque in Mumbai. His first menus bore the influence of Rene Redzepi at whose Noma he had interned. But as he worked with other great chefs he began to develop a voice of his own. He used their ideas and techniques but ironically the food became much more Prateek’s own, tracing his Kashmiri roots and incorporating the flavours of the hills.

 

   It was only a matter of time before he walked away from the success of Masque, went off to the hills and opened Naar in the back of beyond serving food that was distinctively his own. Despite its hard-to-get-to location Naar is now India’s number one destination restaurant and has sealed Prateek’s reputation as one of India’s greatest chefs.

 

   The outsider in all this is Johnson who came to the dining scene late but has suddenly risen to the top but more about that later.

 

"The best chefs in India today are usually people who look at a global trend or ingredient and see if it fits in with their vision."

   By the time Himanshu started Tresind, he had already been mentored by Manish Mehrotra India’s greatest chef, had shaken Mumbai up with Masala Library and done a stint (an unhappy one admittedly) in New York. Prateek had flourished at the Taj and Leela groups and had staged at the world’s great restaurants.

 

   Johnson, on the other hand, has had no mentors and apart from an entry level position at the Taj in Chennai early in his career had never worked for any great restaurants. His foreign exposure was limited to cruise lines and stints at local restaurants.

 

   So, how does a self taught chef from Chennai perfect his food to the extent that Farmlore now has the top ranking of five stars from Culinary Culture and Johnson himself is number two on the list of India’s Food Superstars second only to Himanshu?

 

   Well it’s one more example of how much things are changing at the top of India’s food scene. Once upon a time chefs followed a familiar trajectory. They went to Catering College in Pusa or on Cadell Road. They joined a large hotel chain. They learned from one of the great hotel chefs and eventually struck out on their own.

 

   That model is dying. Oh yes, chefs still go to work for hotels but there are very few great hotel chefs left to mentor them and those young chefs who leave it too late never rise above their hotel origins. The ones who make it are often grateful for what they learnt at hotels but such is their post-hotel success that unless you are in the business you will not know, for instance, that Kunal Kapur and Ranveer Brar came out of the Taj or that Gaggan Anand walked out of the Taj training program on impulse one fine day. How many people know that the great Vikas Khanna once worked at the Leela? That Prateek Sadhu looked after Le Cirque at the Leela In Bangalore?

 

   The best chefs in India today are usually people who look at a global trend or ingredient and see if it fits in with their vision. At Farmlore the farm to table hype is overdone. Most of the food does not come from their farm; the restaurant’s success is entirely down to Johnson’s talent. In Dubai he came across ingredients he couldn’t get in Bangalore and happily introduced them to his repertoire. He used Japanese uni (sea urchin) and farmed caviar to transform a dish that had a Japanese style Chawan Mushi at its centre but got its kick from the Karnataka gassi he poured over it.

 

   Prateek has a signature dish of noodles that he usually makes with lamb and sometimes with pork. In Dubai he made it with seafood.

 

   It’s those changes that characterise the approach of India’s great chefs. They have worked so hard to earn their place on the high table of global cuisine that they are more adaptable and more versatile than most European and American chefs. Their recipes are not sacrosanct. Give them new ingredients and they will reinvent the dishes on the spot.

 

   And while Western chefs have a one track approach our chefs never forget their roots.

 

   Late into the night after the guests had gone home Himanshu served the chefs his staff meal: a sensational lobster curry. And then as the chefs unwound Himanshu (who does not drink except for the odd glass of beer) sang a fabulous version of Jhumma Chumma De De complete with dance steps while the kitchen teams cheered.

 

   Michelin can put an Indian boy at the highest rating. But it can’t take the Indian out of him