Five dishes that define India’s diverse cuisine – and chefs make them global

(CNN) – The term “Indian cuisine” covers a lot of ground. From the Himalayan peaks in the state of Uttarakhand in the north to the tropical coast of southwest Kerala, each landscape has its own climate, history, commercial relations and religious customs. And each has a unique food culture.

As a culinary destination, India offers an epic list of food. But the past year has been difficult for travel, with most of the world’s vacation plans suspended because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Indian cuisine, at least, can still travel far beyond the country’s borders. According to the United Nations, Indians constitute the largest diaspora community in the world – and they brought their delicious food with them.
In the UK, for example, tens of thousands of Indian immigrants arrived in the early 20th century, followed by an influx of Bangladeshi immigrants in the 1970s – many opening restaurants that prepared Indian curries according to local tastes. As a result, curry has become a staple and Anglo-Indian inventions, such as chicken tikka masala, are among the country’s favorite dishes.

Although curry houses with standard menus are still popular, the worldwide taste for fine Indian restaurants is evolving to encompass lesser-known regional delicacies and bolder experiments.

Indian chefs living around the world are fueling this growing movement, with menus that celebrate their family heritage, while bringing new dimensions to traditional cooking techniques and recipes.

CNN spoke to five of these culinary ambassadors about dishes that – for them – capture India’s delicious diversity.

Chef Jessi Singh: buffalo milk kebab, Punjab

Chef Jessi Singh was born in Punjab, India, and grew up between Australia and America. He brings his unique culinary journey to modern Indian cuisine, including his unique buffalo milk kebabs.

When it comes to making a kebab, milk curd is probably not the first ingredient that comes to mind. But for Punjab-born chef and restaurateur Jessi Singh, this is the best taste of the house.

Crunchy on the outside, with a soft, creamy center, kebabs made with curd, yogurt or paneer cheese are a popular appetizer in restaurants in North India.

Born in an agricultural village outside the capital of Punjab, Chandigarh, Singh found the dish – and its main ingredients – at the source.

“Even before I turned 10, I knew how to milk the buffalo,” he says.

Singh takes charge of fermenting milk for kebabs at his restaurants in Australia, including Melbourne’s Daughter in Law and Don’t Tell Aunty in Sydney. Served with an orchid and bright pink beet sauce, his kebabs may not resemble the meals he ate as a child, but the bright colors represent Singh’s heritage in Punjab in other ways.

“At home, color is not associated with a gender, certain people or a class,” he says. “The color belongs to everyone. You will see men wearing pink turbans, a red shirt … We are a very, very colorful culture. So that’s what I put in my food.”

Daughter in law, 37 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; +61 (03) 9242 0814
Don’t tell aunt, Shop-2, 414 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; +61 (02) 9331 5399

Chef Garima Arora: Millet roti, Telangana

Garima Arora is the first and only Indian cook to earn a Michelin star for her restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. Now she is putting the spotlight back on India, starting with Telangana – the southern state of India in which she was born.

Garima Arora, a Thailand-based chef and restaurant owner, has attracted a lot of attention for his pioneering approach to Indian cuisine. A former student of world famous Indian chef Gaggan Anand, she is the first and only Indian female chef to earn a Michelin star for her restaurant in Bangkok, Gaa, while the “50 best restaurants in the world” classify her as the best female chef in the world. Asia in 2019.

Not content with his own pioneering praise, Arora is taking another approach to “rewriting this narrative around Indian cuisine”.

In 2019, she launched Food Forward India, a nonprofit itinerant initiative that aims to map the cuisine of all Indian states, starting with the one where Arora was born – Telangana.
The food in this southern Indian state is often associated with the refined dishes of Telangana’s capital, Hyderabad, developed over the centuries at the royal Mughal and Nizam courts. But Arora was interested in highlighting eating habits outside the metropolis.

“There was a big difference between the way the urban Telangana feeds on rural Telangana and tribal Telangana,” says Arora. “The idea was to take this and show it to the world.”

One rustic ingredient that Arora hopes to highlight is millet. Among the first cultivated grains in the world, it is a staple food in rural Telangana communities.

Arora is giving the corn an exquisite update like a roti tartlet, stuffed with creamy frozen crab and fresh coconut. She says her “cold curry” feels “like eating something fresh, cool, earthy – but with a bite”.

Gaa, 46 Sukhumvit 53 Alley, Khlong Tan Nuea, Watthana, Bangkok, Thailand; +66 (0) 63 987 4747

Chef Deepanker Khosla: Mutton biryani, Uttar Pradesh

Biryani is one of the most popular Indian dishes of all time. Chef Deepanker Khosla is adding a new chapter to the layers of biryani history at his zero waste restaurant in Thailand.

Chef Deepanker Khosla is making success with his award-winning sustainable restaurant, Haoma, in Bangkok, Thailand. He says the concept of zero farm-to-table waste is a “prototype” for restaurants in the future, inspired by its creation in the city of Prayagraj, in Uttar Pradesh, formerly called Allahabad.

“My father has a beautiful garden,” says Khosla, “so, harvest our own produce, eat fresh, sustainable food … that’s tradition.”

A hydroponic system on the restaurant’s terrace recycles rainwater for growing plants and tilapia, while all kitchen waste is recycled back to fish feed and compost.

The restaurant farm supplies almost all products for Khosla’s “neo-Indian” menu, a modern and sophisticated version of centuries-old Indian dishes.

This includes biryani; a fragrant mixture of meat or vegetables, rice and spices, the meal is universally enjoyed throughout the Indian subcontinent. Many historians believe that the biryani originated in Persia and was brought to India by the Mughals, who controlled the area from the 16th to the 18th century.

He made his way into the gastronomy of almost all regions, each impregnating the dish with its own flavors and techniques.

Khosla makes a version known as Awadhi biryani – a very popular dish in Uttar Pradesh.

Lightly seasoned pieces of lamb and rice are layered in a pan, sealed with dough and slowly steamed for hours, in the “dum pukht” style.

“Dum pukht means slow breathing, so you let the food breathe in its own juice,” says Khosla.

With a constantly evolving menu that adapts to the seasonal products that can be grown on the farm, Khosla is excited to highlight authentic regional recipes.

What we know about Indian cuisine “is not even the tip of the iceberg,” he says. “India has 22 distinct cuisines with more than 5,000 different dishes … that’s what I’m proud of.”

Haoma, 231 3 Soi Sukhumvit 31, Khlong Toei Nuea, Watthana, Bangkok, Thailand; +66 (0) 2 258 4744

Chef Palash Mitra: fish curry, West Bengal

Chef Palash Mitra masters a variety of South Asian delicacies at his Hong Kong restaurants. But, for the West Bengal-born chef, one dish is more touching: Bengali fish curry.

To call bengali fish curry, or macher jhol, a classic West Bengal meal would be an understatement. As the local saying goes: “mache bhate bangali”, which roughly translates to ‘fish and rice is what makes a Bengali’.

Fish is a staple in West Bengal cuisine, largely because of geography. Crossed by rivers that flow into the Bay of Bengal, the state of eastern India has a huge variety of fish. And the importance of fish also applies to ritual life.

“Whether it’s a funeral or a wedding, fish is an integral part of it,” says Palash Mitra, a chef born in the capital of West Bengal, Calcutta. “The fish is the symbol of a new life, the end of life. It is intertwined.”

As director of South Asian cuisine for Hong Kong’s Black Sheep restaurant group, Palash oversees four restaurants, offering fish dishes spanning the Indian subcontinent.

“Tandoori cobia … or salmon … are very, very popular dishes,” he says.

But Bengali fish curry is the dish that is “very close to my heart,” he says. Mitra prepares her mother’s recipe: pieces of rui, a South Asian carp, slowly cooked in light broth, enriched with spices, potatoes, cauliflower and tomatoes, and served with rice. He plans to include it on the menu at his restaurant, Rajasthan Rifles at Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak this summer.

Rajasthan Rifles, The Peak Galleria, G01 G / F Store, 118 Peak Road, Central, Hong Kong; +852 2388 8874

Chef Kuldeep Negi: Tandoori prawns, Delhi

Spices are at the heart of all Indian food and Chef Kuldeep Negi understands them better than most. In his Singapore restaurant, Negi serves a piece of his Delhi heritage – with a kick.

Of course, there is one thing that defines India’s culinary legacy more than any dish. Spices are at the heart of all Indian food, with India using, buying and selling more spices than any other country, according to the government’s spice council.
Kuldeep Negi, Chef de Cuisine at Singapore’s Tiffin Room restaurant inside the historic Raffles hotel, understands India’s spices better than most. Having grown up in Delhi, he had Asia’s largest spice bazaar on his doorstep: Khari Baoli, at Chandni Chowk market in Old Delhi. This maze of stalls, full of intoxicating colors and aromas, has been supplying the cuisines of the capital of India since the 17th century.

As a child, Negi’s mother took him to the market and taught him how to select and mix spices.

“She is very careful when choosing spices because India is a country of different seasons. Therefore, each season has different seasonings ”, says Negi. “How to use them, when to add them to the dish, how long you are going to cook them for – this is very important.”

The art of mixing spices is still an important part of Negi’s cuisine today. While you are more likely to find grilled chicken or lamb in the tandoors of the closed city of Delhi, Negi wants to make the most of the seafood available in Southeast Asia.

For his signature dish, tandoori prawns, he brings the juicy and smoky flavors of jumbo prawns with his unique spice mix: turmeric, turmeric and powdered red pepper, mixed with rose petal, bleached cardamom and green cardamom.

“When you bite into it, you will feel the freshness of the powder,” he says. “It’s all about the spices.”

Tiffin Room, Raffles Singapore, 1 Beach Rd, Singapore; +65 6412 1816

.Source