FEEDING TRADITION
India's first Michelin star chef, Vineet Bhatia shares his love for the festival of lights and how his latest outpost Ziya, in Mumbai, celebrates the spirit of the season
Favourite festival memory
Festivals have always been a great time for family bonding whether it was Diwali or Ganesh Chaturthi. But nothing exemplifies the festive spirit more than Diwali for me, with sweet memories of childhood laden with mithai—barfi, pedas and jalebis— and of course crackers and lights. We used to have a small pooja at home with an arti just with the four of us and then crackers galore, followed by a great meal and late night sessions of teen patti.
Now that we are older and settled far away from home, in the UK, we are much more conscious of the futility and negatives associated with burning crackers, which is merely a show of money. One has to be more sensitive to old people and pets in the house and the nuisance to the environment. Even today, we celebrate Diwali in the heart of London, quite the same way we did back home in India, albeit in a much quieter way; we dot the house with little terracotta diyas—with homemade wicks and ghee—and with the kids back from college, we sit together for a little pooja and then food; just family time. Wherever we are. we always make a mithai, Rashima makes the halwa and I, the barfi, apart from others that we simply buy from the market. Since we are always gifting stuff to each other through the year, our gifting is not limited to the festive season.
Specials on the Ziya menu
Festive jalebi—a cardamom cheesecake ball with a heart of rose rasmalai, enveloped in rose jalebi. So basically, it looks white on the outside but is baby pink on the inside, and is cradled on a bed of pink coloured rings of hot jalebi. As always, the look and feel may be inspired and contemporary but at the heart are authentic Indian flavours. We are also putting out savoury gujiyas with goat cheese and smoked cashew nuts this season.