Be it procuring cheese from small units in Manesar or sourcing cold processed meat from the outskirts of Gurgaon, chefs are choosing local produce to add fresh flavours to their dishes. Executive chef of The Imperial Vishal Atreya tells Divya Kaushik why some have started growing herbs in their kitchen
If someone tells you that you can procure some of the best varieties of cheese from Manesar and organic produce from the fields in the villages of Uttarakhand, it may sound like some discovery to you. But it surely is not. Going for local produce is the new mantra for chefs to add fresh flavours to their dishes. While many chefs (mostly of Italian restaurants) have started growing commonly-used herbs in their backyard or kitchen, some have been extensively travelling across the country to discover the places from where they can source ingredients which so far were only imported. Chef Vishal Atreya from The Imperial belongs to the latter category. The chef who is back with The Imperial for his second stint was in Bengaluru before this. While there, he came across a lot of organic farms producing ingredients that were mostly imported. He realised that using them for his cooking is not only adding flavours and making his dishes healthier but is also helping him spread the word on the use of our home-grown produce. “While in Bengaluru I met a farmer who has his farms in Palakad region. The brothers left their lucrative jobs to grow organic produce in their own farms. Using our home-grown produce is also like giving back to society in your own way. It is a sustainable option and it seems like the most sought-after option, too, keeping in mind the restrictions that we have to face for importing major ingredients,” says the chef, who grew up in Shillong, which was no less than a Mecca for him to discover some rare ingredients which the rest of the country would possibly not know about. “Not many would know about ingredients like bhat karela, which is a karela but doesn’t taste like one. Then there is a variety of herbs and spices. Only now people have come to know about the chilli called bhat jolokia that can add a completely different flavour to the dishes. There is also a treasure of local produce in the southern region of the country. I don’t think there will be any need to import so many ingredients if we find out about our regional, rare produce,” adds Vishal.
When Italian chef David Rocco visited the country, unlike many foreigners he wasn’t just visiting the spice market or gorging on greasy samosas or piping hot jalebis in the bylanes of old Delhi. He was touring the cheese factories in Haryana. He was pleasantly surprised to find out that he can easily find the best variety of cheese, that too produced locally, in India. Chef Vishal says that the company called Flanders at the outskirts of Delhi is manufacturing some fine European cheeses. “They probably have the best mozzarella,” he says. He gives another example. “There are German butchers who have set their base in India in the last few years and have set up their own farms producing the variety of cold processed meat. A French farm outside Gurgaon run by Roger langbour is known for the finest quality of pork meat,” says the chef.
If you thought that dining at a five star hotel means compromising on simplicity that you may prefer in your food, then you may be wrong. Chef Vishal says that simplicity is the key to win the guests’ hearts. “When we say that hotel is the home away from home then why can’t the same apply for the the food. People want food that tastes just like the food cooked in their homes. They have an emotional connect with food. Who would like to return to dine at a place where he had a meal that he did not enjoy or was not able to connect with the food that he hadIJ So to offer them something that can win their hearts, it is important that food should be cooked in a simple way and with ingredients that are fresh and healthy,” he ends.