Serafina’s lasagna is made using bathua
The recent change in food safety and labelling guidelines set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has had a positive impact on the food industry in the city. Restaurants and hotel chains relying heavily on imported meats, seafood, cheeses, oils and even vegetables, have had to turn to locally available options because of the guidelines.
This has resulted in greater innovations from restaurateurs and chefs when it comes to planning their menus. From growing their own greens to finding new local alternatives, everyone is digging deep to find solutions.
Serafina, the New York-based north Italian eatery in Koramangala uses lamb from local abattoirs for their popular lamb chops, which is now called the Grilled Bannur Lamb Chops. Bannur is a small village near Srirangapatna where they rear a special breed of lamb. "In taste, the lamb is 80-85 per cent close to the New Zealand lamb chops," Chef Savardekar says. One of the few restaurants to have a Carpaccio Di Filetto (thin slices of raw beef filet), Savardekar says that they procured beef samples from Tamil Nadu and zeroed down on a particular breed since they need the highest quality meat for the Carpaccio.
Another interesting fallout of sourcing locally is the incorporation of desi greens and produce in fine dine. Serafina, for instance, has a seasonal River Green Lasagna on the menu. It's a regular lasagna but made with bathua (a leafy vegetable found during the winter months and similar to spinach).
Similarly, Manu Chandra, Executive Chef Olive Beach, Bangalore and Executive Chef and Partner Monkey Bar & The Fatty Bao, has a Spinach, Bathua Garlic soup with feta dumpling on the Olive Beach menu. "The boom in the restaurant business has meant a degradation in the supply chain over the last seven years. With many facing difficulty in sourcing, people are looking inward (for produce, and by extension, inspiration)," Chandra says. Olive Beach also serves a grilled chicken breast dish with lal saag (amaranth).
Farm to fork
For the diner, these trends are a win-win because it means more local, fresh food on your plate rather than frozen or packaged food that has travelled thousands of miles to reach you. Even for chefs there's more scope for experimentation and innovation. As Chef Chandra says he would rather serve freshly-caught Snapper or Tuna from Cochin or Lakshadweep than rely on frozen Cambodian Basa. And if Chef Savardekar has his way, you might just be chomping on Kerala arbi instead of mashed potatoes with your grilled lamb.
Aiming to become more self-sustaining, several city hotels and restaurants have set up kitchen gardens in their backyard. While these gardens can't sustain the needs of the hotel, they are helping chefs plan more seasonal specials. For instance, The Oberoi's winter menu features a handpicked selection of dishes celebrating seasonal local produce - heirloom tomatoes, baby greens, carrots, beets, micro-greens and many such products. They have a 800 square feet terrace garden where they grow herbs and edible flowers. All their European main course dishes are accompanied by a side salad — these are made with in-house produce.
Naveen MV, Managing Director, First Agro, which supplies zero pesticide produce from their farm in Talkad to 25 large hotel properties across Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore, Hyderabad says, "Food imports have become tough due to various compliances instituted by the FSSAI. Plus, many international hotels have Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of buying local and fresh produce in less than 100 km from the hotel to lower carbon footprint."
Regional specialties
When the US-based National Restaurant Asso-ciation asked 1300 chefs to predict what would still be hot in 2025, their top picks included environmental sustainability, local sourcing and healthier fare (minimally processed food). Incidentally, these three points are among 2015's culinary forecast too.
"Local, and fresher Indian formats. In other words, contemporizing of Indian cuisines," as Chef Chandra puts it, is the big trend of 2015. What this specifically means is that Indian food is no longer about the blanket North Indian / South Indian divide. The direction now is hyper local. "I feel like there is going to be a focus on the cuisines available in the micro markets," Chef Narang predicts.
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