At the launch of his book Indian Accent Restaurant Cookbook, celebrity chef and restaurateur Manish Mehrotra shares details about his restaurant and the inspirations for the dishes there. He explains to R Sharma how he replaced ravioli sheets with khandvi sheets for a dish
Seven years ago, he opened his restaurant Indian Accent which changed the dynamics of Indian cuisine. In his words, “People started going back to the cuisine that they had forgotten about. This is the best service a chef can do to his own cuisine,” says celebrity chef Manish Mehrotra. Now, he has written a book, Indian Accent Restaurant Cookbook, documenting the recipes and experiences of the restaurant and global Indian food. In a freewheeling chat , he shares that within three years, people will learn about real Indian food
So, what are the contents of your bookIJ
If you see, it is a recipe book. More than a recipe book, it is a book about Indian Accent and it is about experience. It is not only about food. The book is also about inspiration for these recipes, photography, styling of the dishes and presenting Indian food in a global and modern way. It is about an experience of global Indian food and not just a recipe book.
Have you mentioned any of your experiences in the bookIJ
All the dishes that I have mentioned in the book, I have given a story behind each one of them. Why the potato spearchaat is the potato spear chaat, why pork ribs are pork ribs — all of this is there. like, potato spear chaat — chaat is so important to our culture, I would say. My wife is a Tamilian and I know she loves chaat. So, I find chaat as a complete dish because in one dish, you have all the flavours — sweet, spicy, savoury and sour. You need colours in the dish, (raising his eyebrows), we have (counting on his fingers) red, green, white, orange and what not. You need texture like a creamy yoghurt, crunchy aloo ki tikki and a dressing of salad on top.Chaat is one of the most debatable topics because everyone says (getting all excited) chaat from his city is the best. If you stand on a chaat vala place, you will see how everyone gives their combination of flavours, ‘baiya meri tikki crunchy karna, dahi zyada dalna,’ so you can see, it is a very a versatile dish.
Was your restaurant a precursor to your bookIJ
I would say, it is the documentation of the restaurant. Seven years ago, when we started Indian Accent in India, it was nothing like what it is today. Now, you can see how contemporary Indian restuarnts are coming up not only in India but all around the world. So, with Indian Accent, people have started going back to Indian restaurants which they had stopped going to. What better service can a chef do to his own cuisine. That is what we wanted to document in the book. I always wonder that the reason why Indian food is not here where French food is because we have never shared our recipes. We are used to hiding our thing that is why we have lost so much; it is high time that we start documenting.
Have you given the recipe for your global ingredients that you usually lend to an Indian dish in the bookIJ
It is the global Indian food that we have written about. There is a dish in the book, Goat cheese and khandvi ravioli (Italian stuffed pasta). We have used khandvi sheets instead of ravioli sheets and added the goat cheese. Now, a foreigner who would not touchkhandvi on its own, may hear of the familiar ingredients like goat cheese and ravioli and might just try it. You are supposed to do your dishes in a way that people can relate to.
Where do you think the Indian cuisine stands at the global platformIJ
It stands at a very good place right now. It is ready to run. Within two to three years, Indian food will be everywhere and I mean the real Indian food. People will forget chicken tikki masala and say, ‘I love dosa,’ and, ‘I love yellow daal’.
Also, the cover of the book looks really funky, who designed itIJ
I did it. For the book, we did a shot that was completely black and were spray painting. This black plate had some sand and I spray painted on that. And, in my restaurant, we use some wooden spoons so I spray painted those spoons also and put it on the sand and water and spray painted the sand also. And Rohit Sharma has shot it beautifully.