A ballad called "Menu"

One could easily say that all the Idlis in New York,  Vadapavs in chennai, The Tikka Masalas in london were once the regional delicacies in their appropriate geographic location before globalisation.

Unlike Classical cuisine  where there are no definitive recipes describing right and wrong, where a country cook can play with the recipe theme, pretaining towards his geographic location and his soil fetility.

 

Regional Cusinie is real challenge, just for the fact it cannot lie, or for that matter it cannot be camofoulaged, As the country cook is the sole inspiration to us  food connoisseur who export these medivial fantasies;and incept into our chefs mind and hands which later blossoms into an art of work on the plates to Palates of our guests who later embark on this whirlwind journey.

 

Let me give an example to make one understand this in an easier proposition:

 

To Pursue a musical analogy, Learning all about Bethoween or Waltzes is not only the matter of listening to the music and taking to its creators, there is more to it, Its about exercising one'sown talent towards the art; it is about studying the scores or the roots of its enomology; Traveling to its very heart ot the Places where its been a practice on daily life, the local markets the farmers who grow them all tend to have indepth knowledge.

 

I would like to just bring up “MYTH” by saying myth it also could have been those fairytale kinda roumors,  My early days at Taj Coromandel, the legend was about the regional resturant “Southern Spice” AKA mysore kitchen ..... Legend has it that some of our chefs who are in the very midst of this gathering embarked on journeys to interior parts of uninhabited villages and regions in southern India to take notes, experince taste buds and to learn on the real works of those country men which is now the menu and the fact its got a legend status speaks volumes of its ability....( Later learnt from the scribbled rugged books in the office at Raddisson it was Chef Elango Rajendran one of the chefs there who embarked on those adventures to create this legend)

 

Regional recipies are simple using few ingredients, straight foward techiniquies; a perfect example is the traditional idli “rice +Lentils) and the process is simple steaming;.

 

In many ways regional cuisine can be said it had developed only in the last 50 years, pretaining to the fact the globalisation factor; Factors like the movement of the Mass poulation from rural to uban areas, where festivals, cultures and offcourse cusines followed , The North Madras “Atho”  the Bunny Chow of Natal province of South Africa are all remenicent of these regional delicases which ahd travelled geographical barriers and won palets of every invidual who aprreciates true senses.

 

Finding those Regional recipes and bringing to our restaurants and hotels is quite a tedious task, Yet to single out the one who will prosper in the walks of time, Is another big debate altogether.

 

Factors to consider before implementing  

Glossary of Recipes in each regions are enormous, I follow these steps and its my reaching out formula 

 -one can easily find the winner in each choosing those wisely, 

- pretaining to the avialabilty of the ingredients in the local market, 

-Numerous trial and tasting, to get the recipie as close as possible

-Presenting them which suits your establishment :the style and the art 

-Cutlery and crockery used again with the factor of adapting to your guests

- Marketing is another Key element 

-The right time magic is what i call it, Use the recipe first on your promotional events and food festivals

- Analayse thier feed back and then take a call on introducing it to the menu .

- Sustainbitly is another factor, Periodic quality checks are a must if we introduce these sleeping giants, Who knows you could create a monster like “Chicken Tikka Masala”

- This is by far the most challenging “Be Flixibale to changes providied it dose not harness the product”  so be ready to face some stern faces and palets 

 

Regional Cusine of india is quite an enormus fiesta, on parallel to the relegions,languages and cultures in this diversified country 

There are loads of unexplored regional cusines in india, quite a few of them are exhuberent in terms of availabilty of ingredients and the fact how can we incoparate into our menu, 

 

Chefs are poineers and the onus is in our hands, We are not only the Ambassador of Cusines, Yet we are the Ambassadors of culture, Having said that “It is an easy statement to make” a dirversified culture of billions is what makes it humongous.

 

On conclusion  

But lets not forget the fact we have a large Database, A country where the British in their tenure of 300 Odd years were only able to take our “Chicken TIkka Masalas” and Jhalfrezies ( and offcourse some of our chefs (on a lighter Note)) there is lot more to it and lets explore its potential.