Most Indian restaurateurs insist that the transformation of the curries began in the early 1980s when the chefs flew to foreign lands and brought back international styles and kitchen standards. “Southeast Asian countries like Singapore have influenced the change that is happening on Indian platters,” says Abdul Rehman Qureshi, executive chef at The Metropolitan Hotel, New Delhi.

And these chefs have all the passion of new converts. Rahul Akerkar’s new menu at Mumbai’s Indigo brings out dishes that play on known flavours — his tuna does taste of Indian spices — but when it sits on a bed of black peas and is surrounded by clove and wine reduction, it doesn’t look Indian.

You find something similar happening to the newly drafted menu at Fire at The Park, Delhi. “We just need to tweak the final product a bit and it’s a visual delight on the dining table. Cuisines from Tamil Nadu and Kerala already boast of exciting garnishing and offer a kaleidoscope of colours. We are also bringing in New Zealand lamb shanks and Scottish Salmon into traditional cooking,” says the chef Bakshish Dean.

The calories are also going down. “We use a combination of cooking styles to keep a check on calories that go into each dish,” he says. So a tandoori raan will first be simmered in the oven with a combination of roasting and steaming to keep it juicy, and the finishing touches would be made at the charcoal grill.
Food consultant Sudha Kukreja, however, feels that the modernising of Indian food will remain a forte of swanky restaurants for a long while to come. “Other restaurants hardly risk that kind of effort and people are too busy to bother about what their ghar ka khana looks like”.

... contd.