Our own Hilsha from the other side of Ganges – served in olives and tomato on an Italian
Risotto Rice. Hyperbole? Not exactly. Not at least if you go by the experience Debapriya
Biswas had recently. Biswas, a folk singer and a foodie, went to K K’ Fusion (a classy
and plush restaurant in Kolkata, famous for fusion food) to celebrate her daughter’s 6th
birthday.
“My gosh! I jumped out of myself at the sight of it. I was expecting something new,
but as weird as this?....didn’t have the foggiest.”, recalls Debapriya. But “when I tasted
it with closed eyes I found it lip smacking” quips the urban minstrel. Manisha Joshi of
Bangalore has almost a similar story to tell. It was one of her busy days, and she was
looking for a quick lunch. She settled for Mugen, a fusion food restaurant newly opened
near her office. Being new to fusion food coupled with sheer paucity of time made her
decide to depend on the waiter to choose her food. “What was produced at my table
as Escalop of Chicken left me apprehensive.” recounts Manisha.” She too was in for
a happy surprise once she tasted the dish of chicken named Escalop of Chicken (Stuffed
Breast of chicken with cheese, marinated with chilly and coriander powder and grilled. spices. It
is a rare indo-Mexican fusion dish delicious to taste.). “I now have my lunch at Mugen every
other day, it’s a welcome deviation from the regular Indian, Chinese or continental”, says
Joshi. That’s the secret of fusion foods, unconventional to sound but unbelievably tasty to
savor.
The changing times are making themselves felt in the country. The customer who
turn out in the restaurants are well traveled, demanding and know their food, and they
certainly don’t want a meal they could whip up at home. That is the reason fusion cuisine
has come into being. Be it hilsha with olives or dal makhani on top of pizza, the master
chefs of India are harnessing their imagination and experience to dish out delicacies of
different taste, flavor and color. Food chains like Oh! Culcutta with many outlets all
over India are turning towards continentalizing their bengali dishes specially by reducing
the pungency of the mustard in Hilsha Bhape(Hilsha cooked in mustard) and other fish
preparations. The star hotels in India are also coming in league by using sweet basil,
imported from Thailand in Hilsha Bhape. From Danies pies with Indianised filling
of Hott in Pune, Ajantha fried chicken of Ajantha Fusion Food in Chennai, Mugen in
Bangalore with mouthwatering fusion between Indian and Thai or Mexican to Indigo in
Mumbai, India is now basking in the glory of experimentation with fusion food. There
is not always a set menu, if you take the chef in confidence and prefer to go by what the chef
recommends, he may come up with something which none has tried before you......exclusively for
your taste buds!
Pradip Rosario the nationally acclaimed chef, who won the Best Young Chef of India Award by
Federation of Hotel and Restaurants Association of India, has created some ripples in the recent
past with his experimentations on fusion food. With three outlets in Kolkata, Pradip is now a
name to recon with. When asked about the acceptability of fusion food Mr. Rosario said, “The
fact is that in this day and age all international combinations are acceptable. I have successfully
tried out Japanese Yakitori with Pasta & Sechuan sauce. And I have even tried familiar favorites
like Paneer Makhani and served with steamed noodles. And Dal Makhani, I have found, goes
well with Pesto Sauce. My Paneer-a-La-Kiev is a hit now. The world is now at our doorstep and
it is possible to get all kinds of international ingredients without difficulties.” If you ask him –
what is Murgh Angare, is it a new item after Tandoori Chicken? His answer will be “Murgh
Angare is only a Tandoori Chicken by another name. My Fusion Tandoori Chicken, for instance,
is marinated with world spices and cooked in a clay oven and served with Mexican sauce. And,
yes, our Guests do like it.” “I believe that my experiments with fusion cuisine have resulted in
something new, it has adapted to the needs and demands of a new era”- maintains a confident
Pradip Rosario.
When it comes to food the variety and spices have historically overwhelmed the gourmets of the
world. And India being a land of diversity the repertoire of its variety of foods is motley and
myriad. The sheer variety of spices can tempt any chef to try their hands on them and come up
with something mouthwatering. This temptation to do something new, according to the celebrated
chef Shawn Kenworthy, has resulted in the formation of fusion food. Besides, the sheer charm of
tasting the unknown has further pushed the popularity of experimentation with food. While it’s
the fusion between Italian and Thai, Japanese and Mediterranean and European and Asian food
that are in vogue in the America, in India the fusion between Mediterranean and Indian food is
doing the rounds of the specialty restaurants all over the country, says Kenworthy. Fusion
involves innovation and the chefs all over the world are creating new dishes everyday
synthesizing the ingredients and spices from various parts of the world that are now easily
available in most places. American chefs are confirmed mavericks; they don’t conform to any
kind of rules and go wild in their creations. “They can jolly well afford so, given the open and
liberal mindset of the people there” muses Kenworthy. In Australia there is a specific rim kind of
cooking by assimilating the spices from East and West. While in India chefs have to be very
careful with their experimentation in order to make the food palatable to the Indian taste buds. In
India the concept of fusion started primarily with the Idealization of the Chinese food. Even the
fine dining restaurants offer Chinese that are in some way converted to suit the Indian taste. The
formula is to use more of ginger and garlic and the sauces while reducing the amount of
powdered spices. The most commonplace example of Chinese and India fusion is the Chilly
Chicken. An interesting phenomenon that is still in an inchoate state in India is the thing called
Vegetarian Sushi. Sushi is essentially non Vegetarian and anyone outside India will find the
concept of Vegetarian Sushi improbable. But the master chefs of our country have tried their
hands at it and have emerged successful.
Acclaimed Jazz musician and equally commended food columnist, Nandan Bagchi is all praise
for the new trend that’s “gradually gaining a place in the culinary map of India”. He believes that
you need to have a passion for food and have to have proper experience in the kitchen to know
the chemistry of fusion between spices, colors and ingredients. The ultimate deciding factor is
taste as per food is concerned, and if that can be taken care of, any kind of experimentation will
be successful. Chefs are like painters and need to have a proper understanding of his palette,
insists Mr. Bagchi.
Food like music and fashion is always open to experiment and whether in India or abroad fusion
and innovation have given a global direction to the history of food. The juxtaposition of the
oriental and the occidental has given birth to numerous creations that has not only established
themselves as a form but has also gained huge popularity. Fusion food is here to stay and thrive.
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