SUMMARY
Chef Naren Thimmaiah on the rise of regional cuisines on menus and his restaurant Karavalli.
Naren Thimmaiah, Executive Chef of The Gateway Hotel in Bangalore, is a very happy man. Not only did he pick up the Time Out Food Award for Favourite Coastal Restaurant — in Delhi last week — for his brainchild Karavalli, but the restaurant was also a new entrant in this year’s list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, published by Restaurant Magazine, considered a definitive guide to restaurants globally. The spate of awards has catapulted Karavalli, an institution in Bangalore, into national prominence.
“It’s a great feeling to be recognised on such a large platform. This award is a reiteration of the fulfillment of the pact we made 23 years ago to our guests, wherein we promised authenticity, and heartwarming and soul-endearing food,” he said.
Thimmaiah and his team have spent more than two decades researching the cuisines of all the sub-regions and communities in the south-western coastal belt, coming up with an eclectic offering of south Indian and coastal fare. There is a combination of dishes both fiery hot and genteel, whether it’s Moplah-style ghee rice and chicken curry, steamed and served in a green banana leaf, a piquant Meen Vevichathu (seer fish in a thin chilli-based gravy) or a gentler Camaro Con Cilantro, a Goan dish of prawns with coriander and saffron. Given its proximity to the ocean, seafood has a starring role on Karavalli’s menu, present in all shapes, sizes and types from crustaceans to shellfish to cephalopods, served grilled, curried, skewered, all of them as fresh as Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
The restaurant is designed like a mansion, typical of the region, complete with high wooden ceilings, antique furniture, colonial bric-a-brac and lantern-shaped lights. Several dishes are served in a particular, ritualistic manner, harking to the place of their origin, by liveried servers.
According to the soft-spoken chef, it is partly the trending of regional foods which has spurred Karavalli’s success. “Most of the earlier food menus in Indian restaurants hardly reflected the variety in India’s cuisine. It used to be only food from Punjab or Chettinad that found a place of prominence in restaurants. Now, we have interesting cuisines, such as Mangalorean, Bengali, Gujarati and Malabar weaving their magic. We have also started talking about and serving Coorgi, Bundelkhandi, Malwani, Rampur and similar cuisines, which is very encouraging,” says Thimmaiah. “Earlier, a restaurant mainly catered to the hunger quotient. Now, a meal in a restaurant has become experiential and that calls for variety to begin with,” he adds.
Thimmaiah believes that maintaining the authenticity of food while cooking and serving also helps in preserving the traditional cooking for future generations. “Tradition should not have to be preserved only in museums or archives. As we evolve, we should look at using all avenues to preserve our tradition and culture. That is where the authentic regional restaurants come into picture,” he says, “Like museums, restaurants also preserve traditions.”
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / Indian Express / Home> Cities> Delhi / Shantanu David / March 30th, 2014
