Chef Prabhakar Nagaraj explains how going ‘glocal’ or globally local can be innovative and birth a new cuisine altogether
The ongoing pandemic has led to a paradigm shift in the food preference of people and the way they consume food. Chefs and food experts are therefore trying to create menus that are primarily based on local produce rather than those being sourced from other states or the country at large.
Collaborative cuisine
Hence, in the near future, we are going to witness many international dishes being given an Indian twist and vice versa. The millennial generation is well-travelled and ready to experiment and innovate with food, thus giving rise to collaborative and fusion cuisines. In short, collaborative cuisine is about combined ingredients, native cuisines, cooking techniques and flavour combinations and dish out magic on plates.
Typically, the pandemic has taken away the exoticism of food from the menu. The masses have switched to basic meals, keeping away from complexity in its preparation and the ingredients used. Food consumption has become a cautious habit and people are highly conscious of what they are eating and where it is coming from. As an answer, a switch to pre-packed meals with limited variety will be given more importance over the lavish buffet spreads during the pre-COVID times. However, we assume that this is going to be short-lived. Although this step has restricted the inclusion of many dishes during every meal, safety measures are in place as this reduces the number of human touchpoints. Food is safe when it is handled by as few people as possible and cooked as close to consumption. The pandemic has given us an opportunity to explore ways to keep food small and how it can be transported safely from one place to the other without much human contact.
Constant innovation
With working on a collaborative cuisine comes the responsibility of being at our innovative best. The different taste profiles of consumers provide chefs an opportunity to explore the possibility to innovate and differentiate from those who are following the same, old approach even now.
The financial luxury of clients certainly acts as an advantage to continuously innovate and be ahead of time when we talk about our mundane menus with typical components that we hardly ever think of changing. The new chef-led model should act as an enhancer to explore any opportunity to satisfy hungry tummies. At the same time, a look at a change rather than usual food is important.
Western but Indian
Investing in food which is completely different from what is served usually is what the consumers are looking for right now. For example, a basic Aloo-mutter samosa can be changed into a Chicken-fajita samosa, in which chicken is mixed with fajita seasoning and flavour and the dough with cumin. This way, the samosa has a Mexican flavour to it but is still a part of the Indian cuisine. This kind of samosa, then, instead of mint or tamarind chutney, can be sided with the salsa sauce. This is the kind of innovation that we need, which will become the differentiating factor, especially in food when it comes to cafeteria services. It is a major requirement right now because when you present to a corporate crowd who is well-travelled, they don’t want to have the same rice and dal and the basic, chapaati. They look for something different and wish to explore newer cuisines.
Another dish is Vegetable Au Gratin — a famous Western dish, in which you mix vegetables with cream sauce, grate cheese and bake it in the oven. For some innovation, instead of using the cream sauce, we can substitute it with the Makhani sauce. It is typically very creamy but at the same time a bit sweet. You mix it to the right consistency, add grated cheese and paneer on top and gratinate it. This dish acts as Au Gratin but it actually is now Veg makhani. However, the presentation becomes completely different.
Similarly, for strudel, I have used flour as an exterior coating for the ingredients and cooked in oven so that it turns out like a roll, which has a crusty exterior. One can change the ingredients in this mixture and prepare it as a different dish which is still going to be liked by people as it is unique in nature. People are aware of the health benefits of vegetables and fruits and they insist of having them in their daily menus. Such a dish can provide the same vegetables or fruits cooked in a different ways or mixed with a different sauce to make it attractive and at the same time, more interesting.
As Indians, we like to bite into food that tastes Indian but looks very Western — one of the major reasons why ‘glocal’ (globally local) is becoming the new food trend. For example, if you bite into an apple pie, it may not just have apple inside, instead it could have Anjeer badam halwa.
These are some of the innovations that can be brought into corporate cafés. The cooking process stays the same but chefs need to start mapping ingredients accordingly. Once you use the halwa as a substitute ingredient for a pie filling, it should have good consistency and so that the dough doesn’t get soggy. Otherwise, the whole purpose of using different ingredients gets defeated. From an outsider’s perspective, it is just a pie until you bite into it to relish the Anjeer halwa.
Indian foods can be very nutritive though it all depends on the way one cooks it. For stir-fried vegetable dishes like Palak mutter, for example, instead of cooking it for too long, we can use the flash-cooking method. Flash-cooking involves cooking ingredients at a very high flame so that the outer surface of the ingredient gets sealed, eliminating any loss of internal juices and thus sustaining the nutritive aspects of the ingredients.
Well, if we can Westernise our daily, Indian meals with some mini twitches and innovations, aren’t we creating a whole new cuisine altogether?
(The writer is chef and managing partner with Elior India.)