Dish It Out Ruta And Amande

How do our food experts cook and eat? This week, Superfood

Café’s Ruta and Amande takes our Q&A! Husband and Wife duo, Amande and Ruta share a passion for a healthy lifestyle that reflects in their café of 3 years. Showing that opposites do truly attract, our interview with the couple reveals their clashing food philosophies and cheat day meals that aren't really cheat-day material at all (we meant chips and fast food – you guys!).

Are your tastes in food similar or opposite?

Ruta: Absolutely opposite. Honestly, when it comes to food, we have polar opposite preferences. You ask us sweet or savoury – he'll say savoury and I'll say sweet. He likes spicy food while I would not touch anything spicy, he'd want it saucier whereas I'd like it with less sauce so we actually have totally different taste in food.

Amande: She prefers a sweet touch to anything and everything, like she would mix fruits in her lunch and I just don't get that.

Running a business together is not easy – how often do you clash?

Amande: We clash most of the time! But that is exactly what our products are about – a combination of both our tastebuds and preferences where we've somehow managed to put the two together to create pretty cool dishes that everyone likes.

What ingredient is underrated?

Ruta: I think coconut vinegar is one of the most underrated ingredients. Everyone knows apple cider vinegar and they praise it and pay huge amounts for it but it's totally unnecessary. If you give it another 5-10 years, coconut vinegar will be the next superfood because its alkalising, its really good for you and whatever you use apple cider vinegar can be substituted by coconut vinegar. It's also a local ingredient and I think we all should look into using more local items.

What was your favourite childhood meal?

Amande: I would say achcharu. This was something we'd eat right after school where we would go out and wait for the achcharu man to come to the gates. We'll have mango or pineapple or whatever seasonal fruit there is with chili powder, salt and pepper and it was so delicious!

Ruta: Taking a sweet and making it chilly? I don't get this at all! This is why we say our tastes are opposite!! For me, a favourite childhood meal would be strawberries with milk and a little bit of sugar. When it's berry season from May – July, it would be the only time we would have strawberries in abundance and we just always eat them. A childhood memory is going to my grandma's house, then to the strawberry fields and handpicking the berries and eating them.

If you had Rs. 500, what meal would you make with it?

Amande: I'll make some rice, some dhal and some pol sambol and if the budget fits – add some karawala! Ruta: Mash potatoes with some mushroom on top and some sour cream.

What item in your fridge would you rather not admit to having?

Ruta: Ready-made sauce Amande: Processed meat.

What food trend do you hate right now?

Ruta: Dalgona coffee

Amande: I'm not a hater…i think everything has a creative aspect to it so whatever is trending right now means there's some good to it in some way.

Where would your last meal be?

Ruta: I would choose Italy or France to have something seasonal…. like a vegetarian pizza with truffles.

Amande: I'll keep it super local I just love my rice and curry. So, my mom's salmon curry with rice would definitely be my last meal.

Easiest meal you’d make to impress each other?

Amande: Oh, that's pretty easy. I make a pretty good carbonara so I think I've impressed her with that. Ruta: I learnt how to make really good kiribath and a salmon curry.

I made it once on a Sunday morning and Amande was not convinced at all that I made it and kept on asking me where I ordered it from!

Did the quarantine curfew period whip up any new recipes?

Ruta: Yes and no I think. We were really short on ingredients during curfew but I can happily say that I now have yeast for the next 7 years. So I did try my hand in making bread burgers that turned out well.

What’s your cheat day meal that’s definitely not healthy?

Ruta: A good sandwich…and Chinese! Amande: A really good egg benedict with hollandaise sauce which is not very healthy since it's made out of butter but hey, since it's a cheat day?

If you aren’t at Superfood - what would you be doing right now?

Ruta: I'm sure I'll still be involved with food…but honestly, I can picture myself doing pottery too! It's something I've always wanted to do and I've been eyeing some pottery classes here……

Amande: I think I would do something with sports. I was also doing event management back in the day so maybe something mixing both sports and event management.

The biggest misconception about eating healthy that annoys you?

Ruta: I think it's the fact that we have to keep on proving to everyone that it can be tasty. Everyone thinks healthy food is just bland vegetables. It's a really annoying misconception.

Amande: That eating vegetables doesn't mean it's healthy – it's all about how it's made. We want to push a clean eating experience so we are very focused on not using unsaturated fats and want to make every meal clean in any way we can.

What’s the most special feedback that a customer has given you that stuck with you?

Ruta: I think when customers recommend us and put us in a level with restaurants that are really well established and are great – that's huge for us.

Amande: We started off super small and for us to be given a good recognition is something we hold close to us.