Chef Saurabh Srivastava talks to Saimi Sattar about how a Western touch could also be given to Navratri fasting food and keep you ‘with it’
Who said Navratri fasting had to be a dull boring affair? Sure the platter is meant to be detoxifying. But eateries in town are giving them Continental twists and an upper crust by toggling with materials such as quinoa, guacamole and water chestnuts and tossing them up as fancy relishes, caviars and salads.
Saurabh Srivastava, Executive Chef, Aloft New Delhi Aerocity, has given a twist to the food that will be served during Navratri. “One type of food consists of the common favourites like Sabudane ki kheer, pakode, kuttu ki roti, aloo and parwal subzi made in tomato, kaddu and more which people like to have at home. The second is where there is a bit of a twist. It is food in the modern version.” So he has whipped up Buckwheat and new potato gnocchi with caper sauce and Sago and peanut gallot which are two of the five innovations he has placed on the menu this season. The gallot is served with some raw banana fritters and tropical fruit salsa. “The whole plating and food concept consists of a number of components which gives a feeling of being out in a five star hotel, that too in a season when there is limited access to food,” he says. The plating, concept and ingredients are the focus.
Despite the innovations, he has ensured that the food is saatvik. “During fasting, people like food that is light and easy to digest. There is abstinence where anything that is heavy on digestion is avoided. The scientific reason behind observing Navratri is that the season changes and heavy food can make you sick. So people avoid grains, alcohol or wheat,” says the chef who studied at the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering and Nutrition, Lucknow and passed out in 2003.
Srivastava says that since he has been doing this for long, he knows which ingredients to use. “I create something new which takes time but it is not too difficult. I work one or two months in advance. I had started the trials, compiling the menu, getting the ingredients together and putting everything together a month before. I create the menu on paper, then slowly and gradually move towards procurement of the ingredients, dishes and execute them with the team,” he says.
There are some things that are kept in mind while planning the food for the season. “The ingredients have to be fresh and fall within the parameters of the festival. So no grains are used, the salt has to be sendha. We ensure that we use separate pans, pots and ladle while ensuring that the area is kept clean,” says the chef, who is orignally from Kanpur.
Post his hotel management, he worked at the Jaypee Palace Group Hotel in Agra when the Vajpayee-Musharraf summit took place. He worked with The Oberoi, New Delhi, for four years and then got through OCLD, the management programme of the group. In between, he worked at the The Oberoi Rajvilas, Jaipur, The Cecil, Shimla as well as The Trident and The Oberoi, Gurgaon, before joining the Marriott group recently.
Srivastava’s speciality is contemporary and modern food as he believes that he is good at combining ingredients and plating them. “People also like the modern take as nowadays people eat more with the eyes and less with mouth,” he says. As for him, he prefers food that has simple, clean flavours and is not overtly complicated. “I like authentic Indian food. I cook a dal in the style of Punjabi dhabas. I prefer two-three flavours which come clearly through rather than too many flavours at one go,” he says.