RESPONSIBLE PLATING, MINDFUL EATING
Over the past decade, India has witnessed a rise of healthy, gourmet dining experiences. Globally, it began with the French, with the introduction of the “nouvelle” or new cuisine that sparked off what most of us classify as gourmet today. In the US, Alice Waters pioneered the farm to fork movement out of California, marrying the importance of organic, locally grown food with a gourmet dining experience.
Over the years, this dual focus on cooking responsibly, for both the environment and your health, has gathered momentum, and chefs build on those who came before them, adding their own inspirations and techniques to make it “fine”. In India, the onset of the trend has a lot to do with an increased accessibility with exposure to knowledge, techniques and flavours from all over the globe, both for chefs and consumers. To focus on quality, sustainable ingredients and to make local, regional food cool is what healthy and gourmet is.
For me, it’s always the ingredients that take centrestage. It’s about taking the freshest ingredients, understanding how and where they’re grown, and turning them into a beautiful plate without marring their true flavours. When you start paying close attention to where your produce comes from and knowing the hands that grow it, that’s half the job done. It’s certainly the use of fresher ingredients and the general rise of health awareness around the globe as well. Consumer palates are (slowly but surely) adjusting to lighter meals with more finesse, particularly when opting to dine out. The rise of ‘superfoods’ has definitely also contributed to this, though it’s important to keep in mind that we have our own local versions of these that we need to focus on.
At our Mumbai restaurant Masque, the ethos is to harness the abundant Indian produce and intertwine it with global techniques. We’ve focused on sourcing the produce, because I believe it is key to know where your food is coming from and who’s growing it —that dynamic reflects on a plate. When the produce is that good, it really doesn’t need too much intervening, so we keep the plates light and fresh without mucking around a lot. What we also want to showcase is that Indian produce and Indian-inspired dishes can easily be lifted to “international fine-dine standards”.