Global chefs to showcase unexplored Indian ingredients at dinner

Ivan Brehm

Bengalis are all about roshogolla and maach-bhaat. Tamils mean idli-dosa. Punjabis crave kukkad. And Bihar is the land of litti-chokha. When we think about Indian food, we often box regional cuisines within the narrow parameters of a few clichéd dishes. But do we ask - how does the food vary between Nagaland's tribes? What ingredients do villagers in the distant mountains of Ladakh cook their meals with? Or, what's a secret recipe that someone's grandmother passed down in a home in Bhopal? Sadly, we don't. And as a result some of us are left with a frog-in-the-well understanding of our own culinary culture.

Trevor Moran

But a dining experience at Masque, an experimental kitchen in Mahalaxmi, now seeks to invoke healthy curiosity about the more unexplored aspects of Indian cuisine. The event is called 8 Hand Dinner. Eight hands, because four acclaimed chefs from around the world have travelled to markets in Delhi and a farm in Pune to forage for out-of-the-box ingredients that they will re-imagine. The quartet comprises Ivan Brehm, Matt Orlando, Trevor Moran and Prateek Sadhu. All of them have known each other for a while, having worked together at global culinary hotspots like Noma. And now, they will collectively put their heads together for a two-day menu that showcases Indian ingredients in a never-seen-before avatar.

Prateek Sadhu

"All collaborations are about the exchange of ideas and techniques, and us showing them what real Indian food is all about since their perception of the cuisine is very different," Sadhu, Masque's executive chef, says about joining hands anew with his former colleagues, adding, "Their minds were blown when they saw the different ingredients and ate regional Indian food. Their perceptions, like I said, were very different and this helped open up their world."

Matthew Orlando

The chef remains a bit tight-lipped about what the menu will entail (though he does reveal that one of the ingredients they have picked up is Himalayan garlic from Uttarakhand). The element of surprise, after all, is key to a culinary experience like this one. So check out the listing details below if you, too, want to educate the next person who can't think beyond vada-pav being the food of Mumbai.

On February 22 and 23, 8 pm or 9.30 pm
At G5A Compound, Shakti Mills Lane, Mahalakshmi.
Call 49737431
Cost Rs 10,500

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