A secret sauce was the team he picked. Ajit Bangera, Senior Executive Chef at ITC Grand Chola in Chennai, was tasked with what many would consider audacious in a city known to be conservative. The mandate was a new south Indian restaurant brand for the hotel, but he had to figure out a new way of eating, and presenting it. Bangera had worked across the world; this was his opportunity to "internationalise" south Indian food.
In his launch team, he picked mostly south Indians - but they were not south Indian chefs. They grew up eating south Indian food but professionally, they were Continental and Western chefs. "It would have been difficult to change a south Indian chef. We would have to make him un-learn. Very, very hard," Bangera says. The idea was to get in dishes without a name so gastrocrats don't expect the expected. "You may not recognise the food when it comes to the table but when you eat it, it would ring a bell," the chef says. "This is a restaurant where you don't come to just eat. You come for an experience."
Avartana opened at the Grand Chola on March 17 this year with four menus: Maya, a seven-course meal; 'Bela' a nine-course; 'Anika' a 13-course and Tara, a seafood menu. Along with it came a new Rasam, a distilled version where all its traditional flavours remained intact. The fun was in the way it was presented; brought to the table in a French press to compress and extract the flavours of fresh coriander and served in a Martini glass. There is a Stir-fry Chicken, which would remind you of a popular appetiser Chicken 65. But it is served on a granite stone with a crisp curry leaf tempura and buttermilk mousse. A Slow-roasted Pork Belly lends itself to dramatisation. It is cooked in vinegar masala from Coorg, but is served alongside an edible ghee candle. Even the twig of the candle is edible. All of this melts into the roast, creating layered textures in the mouth.
The restaurant is a hit. This writer visited Avartana on a Thursday and it was brimming with diners. Quite something considering the hotel wasn't serving alcohol just as yet. "We are doing over 50-55 covers a day on average. It is only a 63 cover restaurant," Bangera says. "A 90-year-old Tamil Brahmin lady from a business family has been here five times in four months. That's the biggest tribute to me."
Food of the decade
At Amaranta, the modern regional Indian restaurant at the hotel, he has come up with a "Power Play" theme, a menu inspired by the game of chess. There is a dish associated with each of the pieces in the game - king, queen, rook, knight, bishop, and pawn. The bishop, for instance, is depicted by a camel in Indian chess and dishes in this course are inspired by the Thar desert of Rajasthan. Sovani has created an "Yoghurt Explosion," a curry-filled tortellini or pasta with a soft centre of yoghurt. There is also the Achari Lamb.
"Salmon | hamachi | gondhoraj lemon | mustard cream | ginger" is about the Pawn, the foot soldier. "Foot soldiers would need something which is high on protein and fattening," the chef says. "So, we have done a fish course. We have paired it with mustard cream sphere, a sauce of mustard and coconut cream, widely made in Bengal."
The salmon in the Pawn is imported but Sovani, increasingly, has been tilting towards local sourcing. Amaranta is now promising "Bay to Plate in 8 Hours". It is possible for trawlers to reach the dock from sea at 4.30 in the morning with their catch of lobsters, sea bass, and snappers. They auction it by 5.30 am. If representatives from The Oberoi pick the fish and pack it in a dry ice box by 6 am, it could catch the flight that leaves for Delhi around 8 am, from Surat, Kochi, Chennai, Vizag, and Kolkata. The fish could technically be ready to be plated at 12.30 pm.
This supply-chain, to serve food fresh, is complex. A small miss and the product may not be available to be served at all. However, many luxury dining destinations are willing to go the distance now - it is emerging as a new dimension to contemporary cuisine. "Everybody is worried about the carbon footprint a dish creates. I'm now struggling a lot with good quality seafood, even though India has got a huge shoreline," says Chef Arun Sundararaj of The Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi. Varq has started sourcing "Today for Today".
"The focus is back on freshness. If you go to a restaurant today, the chicken you eat may be 15-20 days old. It would be in and out of the freezer. It is safe, but the quality deteriorates," he says. "Hotels have traditionally worked on storage. We have decreased our storage time drastically. We have decreased inventories. The purchase manager is always running and has lost half his hair," Sundararaj tells. And then guffaws.
The effort may be worth it. In the era of "Make in India", a brilliant representation of Indian cuisine would only be complete with great local produce efficiently sourced and cooked well. Just-in-time. ~
@Goutam20