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Chef Radhika started her career in Melbourne. After coming back to Delhi she started Ivy & Bean, where they (she and her partner) did Modern Australian food. But back in Melbourne the emphasis on local and seasonal produce really resonated with her and inspired her to open Fig & Maple.
Here is her journey in her own words. “I’m not going to say it has been easy. You meet all sorts of people and guests who will come with the weirdest requests. I’ve worked with a broken foot multiple times and then there are days you’re in the kitchen for 16 hours straight. It’s mad, it’s exhausting but at the end of the day, when you see people loving what you’ve created, you realise that’s it’s totally worth it.”
How to tell off a customer who orders a three-course meal 15 minutes before closing?
I’d respectfully tell them that the last orders have already been taken. If they insist or had to drive a long way to eat, I’d suggest some dishes that are available and can be prepared in a jiffy.
What is the one thing (tool, spice, ingredient) you could not live without? Just one?
I can’t live without my knife, my Shunis very dear to me and please don’t make me pick just one ingredient. I really can’t!
What is your secret sauce? / What behind-the-scenes secret can you tell us about your kitchen?
We have this little practice of naming a dish after the chef who comes up with it. Like we have a Tiger Chicken, it’s named after my Sous-Chef Sheru which literally means tiger!
What is your one guilty food pleasure that other chefs might frown upon?
There could be many but if I had to point one, I snack on lotus chips from my own kitchen 🤭
If you could invite any three people, dead or alive, for dinner, who would they be and why?
I’d invite Chef Dominique Crenn and myself. I don’t need a third person because I look upto her and I think I’d want to have a dinner with her all by myself to fangirl and to bounce off some ideas.
What’s your favourite tipple at the end of a busy day?
Infused gin from my apothecary and tonic.
What is your advice to young professionals seeking a career in this field?
Work hard. There are no short cuts here and you can’t run away. If you work hard it shows, if you don’t and are being lazy, trust me that shows too.
I did my bachelors in hospitality from Ihm Bhopal, moved to Melbourne in 2006, worked at a high end banquet for two years, moved on to do my first Ala Carte gig thereafter opened a cafe with chef Radhika Khandelwal in Melbourne in 2010. We ran that for 3 years before moving back to New Delhi in 2013 opened Ivy and bean in the same year in October and proceeded to open Fig & Maple with Chef Radhika Khandelwal in January 2017
Which is your favourite cuisine? Who does a good version of it, in India or elsewhere?
My favourite cuisine would have to be Lankan and coastal Indian. There’s this really tiny place in Ahangama right on the main road run by a local family don’t remember its name but they did a fabulous fish thali
If you never became a chef, in what other ways would you have used your creativity?
If I wouldn’t have become a chef I might have become a pilot. I love planes and I love travelling.
Is there anything that diners should always order at your restaurant(s)?
The chefs waffle chicken with podi that chef Radhika put on the menu a couple of months back.
The saying goes ‘never trust a skinny chef’, what do you have to say about that?
Hahahahha!! Maybe a very big reason I moved to the bar from the kitchen at Fig & Maple.
What’s your favourite tipple at the end of a busy day?
It would have to be a Boulevardier or a really, really cold lager.
What is your advice to young professionals seeking a career in this field?
Keep your head down! Work hard. Most days you wouldn’t know what hit you but it’s all worth it in the end. Keep at it and never give up.
Indian food is many things. It is historic, exotic, imaginative,
filling, familial…many things to many people. And yet,
it is never one thing: romantic. Of all the Avatars that Indian cuisines have
enjoyed the world over, the are still not the obvious choice when it comes to a
memorable meal for couples. For the country that gave the world its most sacred
text on sensuality, it is quite a pity that the myriad foods of our country are
not considered aphrodisiacal.
Modern Indian cuisine is changing in an artistic manner
And so Indian food stands derided from the art form that it is
and reduced to a life support function in a country of a billion. To pass from
being the subject of fantasies and poetry to a mere substance for subsistence,
there can be perhaps no worse a way to be relegated.
But not all is lost for somewhere in the garble of information that is life today, there remain undercurrents of the ethereal, nebulous notions of what constitutes a fine moment, one that is preserved in eternity. All romances needs two parties so Indian cuisines may just be up for some serious courtship. Time to bring in the wine, ladies and gentlemen. Yes sir romance is not entirely dead, and as long as this inexplicable illogical and yet the sweetest of all afflictions continues to plague mankind, there is still hope. Here are a few factors that can help infuse a little love into your daily ingest of Indian rations. But before we talk wine, here are a few other caveats.
Hand- Feed
It helps if you are open to the idea of eating with your hands. the best way to enjoy a proper Indian repast. If touch is means of sensory stimulus then by coming in physical contact with your food you are enhancing the possibilities of enjoyment of any given meal.
Adapt Presentations, Not Recipe
Traditional Indian dish with a modern presentation
Indian gastronomy has a rich history, to change recipes is to belie it. Rather than tweak recipes to makes them “wine-centric” (for it isn’t the ingredients or the cooking that is the problem), I’d rather we revisited presentation. Family style servings presented with as much enthusiasm as midterm papers aren’t exactly romance-inspiring. Focus thus must to present dishes in a manner thats less communal and more personal. Course-wise presentation helps in creating flavour focus which then makes wine pairing a more systematic exercise as opposed to holistic. Such service formats also allow for inventive garnishes and portion-control for there is nothing romantic about gluttony!
Chilli Threshold
Spices plays an important role in Indian cuisine
All food enjoyment in India is limited by ones’ personal capacity to tolerate heat as measured on the Scoville scale. This refers to the amount of chillies used to spruce up any Indian dish and detrimental to pairing with wine. As stated above, do not adapt recipes but adapt your manner of eating: use less curry or more bread in each bite. Try and savour instead of savagely attacking a dish. All these can help to an extent. Beyond that, a one word solution is yoghurt.
No Side-Plate
If one must stick to the conventional ‘Thaal‘ style service where everything is served all at once then placement is important. If the plate is imagined to be a watch-face, the bread or the rice lie at 6 o’clock, the meats, lentils and vegetables between 10 and 2 with salads and pickles in the remaining spaces. What this does is emphasise the role of bread or rice which will tone the spice in every bite as they envelope the dishes or soak up the gravies. without them, the pairing would be off balance. Having a side-plate puts the meats and veggies centerstage and that is not the format of traditional Indian dining.
And now for the wines; remember pairing wine with food is a great way to make any meal romantic. But also keep in mind that this exercise began in the West and there, it was an organic process, evolving through time and history, unlike here and now in India, where it is almost imposed. In such, it is best to discard all existing ideologies and to try and create newer more relevant concepts. That established, what follows next are some points that us sommeliers keep in mind when pairing Indian cuisine with wine.
Match the strengths of the dishes with wine
Always match strengths. Light wines for light dishes, and richer ones with the heavier dishes, white or red doesn’t matter. Intensity of a wine must sit well besides the dish, neither subduing it nor being overpowered by it.
If the course has no bread (like kebabs and starters) then best to deploy the big reds here. The smokiness of the kebabs can marry very well with oak-kissed wines.
Tikkas has smoky flavour that can match with oaky wines
Fruity wines are always preferable over oaky ones with the mains. As bread and rice will lower the spice quotient of the dishes, a big wine may dominate the pairing, killing the subtle spices and flavourings in the process.
It is essential to remember to pair wines to the gravies and the curries, the meat or vegetable element is largely insignificant. Pairing the ‘sauce’ is always the smarter way to approach pairing, especially given how often the same sauce is used to create a vegetarian and a non-vegetarian version of any given dish.
From the points above one may infer with Indian cuisine, wine service order is somewhat lopsided, starting with the big reds in the beginning and moving onto the softer wines. That should not be considered wrong as it follows the order of the nature of our food. It’s either this, or else get ready to start your meal with phirni and end with tikkas!
In the end, all pairings are subjective
so there is no one best rule to follow. What’s sensible is to listen to the common advice and then to try
something that you feel like for even the best match are often not the most
obvious. If gastronomy be an exercise in romance between food and wine — to take the ordinary that is
provided and transform it into the exemplary – we have consistently floundered in telling the tale of this
romance. It’s time we set
the record straight.
I don’t know who or when decided that we need someone to tell us what to drink with our meal, but that was pretty much the first sommelier on the planet. Since then, sommeliers have crowded the F&B space, dictating this, decreeing that, some matches being proclaimed heavenly, while others being snubbed.
Food and wine pairing intuitive yet subjective.
Now, here’s the truth: yes, there is an art to pairing food and wine. But it’s an intuitive art. It’s also subjective, which means that it’s alright if two people agree to disagree. There are, however, a few basic cardinal rules and they are listed below. Outside of these, anything that steals your fancy is fair game.
Light wines go with light dishes
Keep in mind the intensity of flavours while matching it with food.
This transcends the veg/non-veg debate. You can have fish with red wine if the preparation is rich enough to require so. Similarly, certain lamb dishes can be had with luscious barrel-fermented and aged white wines. Match intensity of flavours, not colour or principle ingredient.
Nothing is worse than being served a dry wine with sweet dishes.
The old Champenoise (people from Champagne, not people who drink too much Champagne, mostly because there’s nothing like too much Champagne) are much to blame. They keep trying to serve dry (Brut) Champagnes with desserts and ruin both wine and cake for us. The simple rule of thumb: the wine must be comparably sweet with the dish at hand, else the dish will make the wine seem astringent and sour. So avoid a dry wine with a sweet dish, no matter the colour or occasion.
OK, there is one thing worse than the point above and that’s serving a tannic dry wine with sweet dishes. Nothing strips away at the balance and harmony of your palate than being asked to spoon the chocolate mousse with whatever remains of the main course red. If it were up to me, I’d sip through the wine and finish it before ordering dessert.
Sweet wine with a savoury fat-rich dish
Acidity in wines balances greasy element in food
However, can be done. This is because a sweet wine isn’t just about the sugar, but also a lot about the acidity, the crisp tartness that, hidden as it may seem, is what keeps the clawing syrupy aspect of the wine in check. It is this acidity that balances out the greasy element in the dish. Heard of foie gras and Sauternes? Well, this is the principle that guides that classic pairing.
Soups and eggs are best off not being paired
The reasons are simple. Eggs leave an unmistakable smell in the glass (once you eat an egg and sip from a glass) so it ruins the wines bouquet. And with soups, the hot-cold temperature isn’t always a pleasure. Also, as soups shrink from being a legit course to mostly a course-breaker, or a palate cleanser in some cases, there is no need to dedicate an entire glass of wine to it. Either continue the previous wine (from the starter) or serve a wine now to lead into the next course.
The best pairing for a successful evening is the company it is enjoyed with.
Follow these cardinal rules and you will never get it too wrong. And always remember the most important rule of pairing: don’t impose your choices on others. Your likings may not correspond with your guests’. Accommodate for this. The best pairing for a successful evening is the company it is enjoyed with. Don’t lose out on that in the long run.
We got to know and work with Udit in certain projects and it gave us an insight into how his mind works and just how infectious his love for all things gastronomic is. Needless to say a lot of wine bottles were uncorked in the nurturing of this relationship. So here are a few questions answered by Udit in his inimitable sincere and humble manner.
My journey in this industry has been a really unusual one. I studied law & worked here and there for a couple of years. Not being entirely happy with what I was doing, I decided to pursue the one thing that I loved – food. I pursued the Grande Diplome from Le Cordon Bleu in London where I was trained in the hot kitchen & patisserie.
I have been working with Café Lota & the Melting Pot Food Company for 6 years now & have recently set up a restaurant in Aerocity called Monsoon. Monsoon celebrates regional Indian food & produce along with some great wines & beers.
What inspired you to become a chef?
The obsession with food. I was obsessed with it even before I joined the industry. I even remember what I ate when I was 4 or 5 year old. Someone told me that you should only do something that you are really passionate about. That made me think that food was something that I was really obsessed with & should pursue a career in it.
What’s the ideology behind your recipes?
Firstly, it has to be delicious. Second, it has to be something out of the usual. Third, it has to be well balanced. If the primary flavour is sour, it has to be balanced with something sweet. There should be a range of flavours & textures in each dish.
The guiding path for my recipes is using obscure & long lost ingredients, cooking techniques etc.
What’s the most unique dish/ingredient you have tasted?
There was a green coloured, almost ‘barfi’ kind of sweet dish that I had eaten in Langkawi in Malaysia. It was a dessert made from potato!
This was sometime in 2009.
Chitterlings
I also had this dish in Paris. It’s called ‘Chitterling’. I confused it for a ‘chipolata’. Chitterling is basically a kind of sausage made with a pig’s intestine lining & stuffed with chopped up pig’s intestine. Even eating it with a whole lot of moutarde, it got the better of me.
Monkfish, rhubarb (had never seen or heard of it in India), rabbit, venison, foie gras.
Is there a dish/ingredient chef Udit hates?
Chef Udit’s has revived unexplored Indian ingredients in his recipes.
As far as ingredients are concerned, I absolutely hate methi dana. I cringe every time I bite on one. I also don’t like ‘Daal baati’. Even though I am a Marwari and it’s made at home quite often, there’s always something else that’s made for me because I just won’t eat it
Who is your role model?
I don’t have any role models as such. But Chef Manish Mehrotra is really cool! It is really admirable that someone who had never worked with Indian food has done such a great job of reinventing it.
Which is your dream restaurant or chef to work with?
But also having seen David Chang’s shows and reading about Momofuku, I would give an arm & a leg to work with him & pick his brains about food.
How relevant is beverage knowledge for an aspiring chef?
In today’s market & scenario, its extremely important. Guests these days are increasingly looking for a holistic experience and beverages are a very important part of it.
Chefs often pay attention to only food and not much to beverages. Good beverage pairing is what will set great restaurants apart from the good.
What is your favourite tipple at the end of a busy day?
Whisky sour, in any form. For me, there can never be a bad one.
What is your advice to young professionals seeking employment in the kitchen space?
I see a lot of youngsters looking at only the romantic things in the industry. But, like everything, its not all romantic. There is a lot of hard work & grind that you have to do. Kitchen work is mostly very monotonous & repetitive. Do it only if you are really passionate. If you aren’t, you won’t last.
Twist to regional Indian authentic cuisine
One more thing that I would say is that avoid being gimmicky with your food. Foams, smoke, etc. will only get you this far. Customers can often see through the gimmicks. First ensure that your food is delicious, the gimmicks can come later. And please don’t modernise dishes just for the sake of it. If the contemporised version of the dish isn’t better than the original, there’s no point in doing it.
