‘Encourage consumption of Indian ingredients’

Q. You have worked at Asian restaurants in biggest hotel chains in India like ITC, Maurya and others. What inspired you to bring Asian cuisines under one roof for them?

A. That was the need of the hour then. You have to keep yourself abreast with the latest trends. Similar to the progressions in fashion and lifestyle, cuisines also need to go through this kind of progression over the years. It is an organic development. Bringing diverse flavours under one roof was the main concept and giving your diners a choice of flavours was the main idea.

Earlier, there used to be mono-cuisine restaurants but we thought that what if we could serve diverse cuisines with their heart and soul in the same restaurant. What I did with pan-Asian, at ITC Grand Chola Hotel, Chennai was that I brought that element of modernity. I gave it a millennial feel. Earlier, Chinese and Japanese cuisines were known only for a couple of dishes and those weren’t trendy either. With Wasabi at Taj what I was able to do break this monotony and introduce entire Asian cuisines to India. Tian with Maurya, also goes ahead with its time by giving these flavours a plated look.

Q. What do you think has made people more open and interested to trying out new cuisines?

A. I think the major influence has been of social media. At least now they know of varied concepts, cuisines and different restaurants. People have started to travel more now; this has also led to the change. You become broad-minded and start accepting new cultures and cuisines.

But having said that I also want to talk about how we are growing ignorant to our homegrown ingredients.

Q. What do you think we can do to encourage the consumption of home produce and popularise it?

A. We need to start respecting our ingredients first. Also, as much as it is important for the diners to be educated about homegrown ingredients, cooks and chefs also need to take the responsibility of cooking it properly.

Main problem with Indian cuisine is that we overcook our ingredients and we need to take care of it. I don’t agree with the term “fusion food” and professionally I feel offended because progression and innovation is something that is organic. Flavours must be playing in your mouth and you shouldn’t be bored.