Sushi 'chaat'! Really?

Foie gras galoutis or maybe a kebab made with turkey? Is the Indian cuisine at the juncture of revolution? Hope not, say most chefs.

It’s not true that restaurants in India and across the globe haven’t tried their hands at creating Indian fusion food — what probably hasn’t worked for them is the fact that some tried to actually change traditional recipes that are held sacrosanct by the cuisine itself.

Ironically, Indian fusion cuisine does appear at not-so-haute restaurants and road stalls across the country — the Cauliflower Manchurian (or the gobi manjoori) is nothing but an attempt to create an Indo-Chinese dish. Then again, no recipes have been tampered with as this dish is absolutely original and was not derived from an existing creation.

Chef Vikram Udaygiri says that it’s criminal to try and change traditional recipes. “One cannot be forgiven for altering the recipe of daal makhani or a tandoori chicken. However, I do believe that innovation is the way ahead and there are different ways it can be followed. For one, presentation is one big step. If Indian food is visually presented in a more western fashion, it would definitely attract a lot of traction — in short, finesse in presentation would do our cuisine wonders,” he says.

Cumin, an eclectic restaurant, at Hyde Park, Cincinatti, has actually developed an Indo-Euro menu where, apart from a few familiar names, we also came across a rather unique recipe for Butter Chicken. Here, it’s made with pulled chicken, spiced tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and Serrano chilli (of Mexican origin) and served with basmati rice!

“We need what Auguste Escoffier did to French food. He was responsible for giving French cuisine a makeover, changing the traditional cooking methods to make it simpler. We need something like that with our cuisine as well,” says Vikram, adding, “For instance, Indians have become extremely health conscious and if the same recipe could be toned down, perhaps by reducing the volume of ghee or oil used, and yet retain the flavours, it would be beneficial for the cuisine to survive as well.”

In Bangalore itself, a few fine dining restaurants had played around with the way Indian food is cooked and perceived. The Masala Klub at Taj West End switched to olive oil for preparing its food — making the dishes mellow, less greasy and palatable by the non-Indian population. However, it does take a little adjusting to get used to a change like this.

The new restaurant at Hotel Ista, Pink Poppadam, which claims to be serving nouvelle Indian cuisine, too has received mixed feedback. Creations like the Blue Cheese Naan, Lobster Moilee, and Flambéed Rasmalai Baked Alaska. While it might sound very exciting, the idea of trying Lobster Moilee might not go down too well with some.

Executive chef of The Lalit Ashok, Nimish Bhatia says that one can play around with Indian ingredients as long as you don’t mess around with the balance.

“I’ve made a tikka with salmon that turned out fairly well. However, I had to tweak the spices according to the fish. But I can’t pass off a completely different recipe of a tandoori chicken and call it that. What’s most important it to be able to maintain the balance of culinary process. I remember I’d eaten something called Sushi Chaat in a restaurant in Delhi. They’d used boiled potatoes, chaat masala and wrapped them up in rice and called it sushi chaat — now that’s what I would call pure murder!” he says.

However, what most avant garde Indian chefs are open to doing is playing around with ingredients a little bit. For instance, cook an absolutely Indian vegetable curry using exotic greens. After all, isn’t that how broccoli made its way into your curries?

“I think even toying with a bit of meat is fine and beyond that, I don’t really know whether it’s safe to go overboard,” adds in Vikram.

However, experimenting with Indian foods isn’t a new concept in India. More than a decade ago, Olaf “Picasso” Niemeier, who was then the executive chef, The Oberoi, New Delhi, who is now the head chef at the fusion Restaurant in the SIDE hotel has been known to create edible art, literally. A few of his famous creations were the Chocolate And Rasmalai Terrine and even the Baked Spicy Pineapple Rasam where he gave a finish to the rasam but putting a puffed pastry over it and baking it! Did it work? It sure did.

In 1989, a man called Avatar Singh saw the immense potential behind Indian cuisine and decided to do something about it. So he set up Avatar’s, in California, where he dishes out creations like Punjabi Burritos. Yes, sounds a bit bizarre, but going by reviews, Avatar Singh seems to have everything going in his favour. Apart from regular North Indian cuisine, he also makes Punjabi Enchiladas!

Back home, we might be far from creating desi dishes with the NRI twist — but given time, we’re certain that Indians would be more adaptable to something that we like to call, zara hatke!

How bizarre is that?

If you think, when it comes to innovative foods, you’ve seen and heard it all, read this. The dishes mentioned below are all creations by chef Olaf  Niemeier more than a decade ago!

Tandoori marinated rack of lamb served with dal kandhari sauce and sauteed apples

Duck and potato benarsi with coconut milk cappucino thyme flavoured petit duck confit and cranberry samosa

Tandoori coconut parfait