As chef Ben Ungermann gears for a gourmet tour of India, he tells Chahak Mittal that the country’s cuisine is nuanced and complex
For all those who think that life after being the runner-up for Masterchef Australia would be a bed of roses, need to do a reality check. Ben Ungermann, who stood second in 2017, has been “living out his suitcase” thanks to his world tours. But it has paybacks in terms of his profession. He says that travelling has made him delve deeper into various cultures and cuisines. It has “certainly increased my ability and efficiency to make food. The more I travel and trace boundaries, the more I explore food.”
He has come to India as a part of his Johnnie Walker Gourmet experiences tour to create a variety of culinary dishes and desserts for the Indian audience with a touch of European spices.
He believes that it’s important for a chef to have done some touring or dealt with international cuisines closely.
While travelling has indeed brought him near to some innovative culinary habits, there are some global food movements that he has observed. Especially, “Something that is happening in a lot of Western countries as well as in India is the movement towards ‘vegetables’ and trying to make vegetarian dishes where protein becomes the hero of the dish. I have also seen a real increase in the use of alcohol in food too. It’s one of those products that has a real depth of flavour and can be quite intense.”
But how did he zero down on India for his showcase? He feels that as a foreign tourist, it’s always important to make sure that the food that you consume in another country is flavourful and has a perfect grouping of spices. “I found Indian cuisines to be one of the most complex among all the other countries that I visited.”
He expresses his love for the country and its culinary culture that he is immensely fascinated with. He says, “When I was a part of the show in Australia, I received a lot of support from the Indian people. It was always one of the countries which I wanted to visit for my world tour. And once I did, it was really worthwhile. So when I was asked to choose, I zeroed down on India for the tour.”
He will be travelling to four Indian cities, where Ungermann will liaise with one partner outlet per city to inspire a drink-led menu paired with select appetisers.
The chef lists some of the gourmet delicacies that he will be presenting at the tour, “I have created toasted coconut ice-cream with raisins to pair with Johnnie Walker Black Label. An earthy toasted coconut, rich in flavour, will be paired with the black label with soaked raisins to give it a strong essence. Also there will be the whiskey samba where a new fusion is created with the Indian cuisine. I am going to pair them up with some Asian dishes, which I believe are fresh and have a lot to offer.”
The chef who has Dutch and the Indonesian lineage talks about the direction that global food trends are actually headed towards and names Indian food to be the one which is becoming globally popular. And there are reasons. He says, “The rice of India has a number of flavours that can’t be replicated anywhere else in the world. And every variety of it presents an all-new taste.”
He applauds how India, being such a huge country, has “food that varies every 100 km and as you travel the cuisine changes. So it is very diverse. Hence, I believe that the Indian cuisine is actually making a real impact on the world stage.”
The chef who was tagged as ‘The ice-cream king’, at the show narrates the story behind it. When he went to the Masterchef show, the contestants were advised to work on their weaknesses and “as a savoury cook, I started working on my desserts as they were my weaknesses. I was never sure I’d survive the competition, but honestly, my weakness did become my strength.”
The chef calls cooking food an art. He recalls the rockstar chefs in Europe these days, “who are not just cooks, they are scientists, they are everything.”
Ungermann feels that the greatest cause of failure in a chef’s dish could be worrying and thinking about pleasing others instead of “telling a story and portraying what you want to on the plate.”
He shares his idea of the Indian food. “The flavours from the country offer an amazing palate. Its spices and textures makes European cuisine look a bit dull at times. But if you know how to merge the two together, you’ll have a cuisine that would probably trump all the other cuisines.”