Vineet Bhatia
The Michelin-starred Indian chef tells Joanna Hunter about five of his signature dishes
You might think the world’s top Indian chef would have yearned his whole life to present us with his own unique interpretation of biryani, but, as a youth, Vineet Bhatia’s vocation was far from obvious. His dream to become a pilot was thwarted (his legs weren’t long enough), so Bombay-born Bhatia turned to textile design. Cotton – quite literally – got up his nose, so he made the switch to catering college. Three months into the course, his tutors sent him to the kitchen at the Oberoi in Mumbai. It was an event that was to change his life – and the nation’s cuisine.
More than 20 years, several restaurants and an impressive haul of awards later, including a coveted Michelin star, Bhatia and his family are enjoying a holiday in Dubai – staying at the Grosvenor Hotel, home to his restaurant Indego. Like Rasoi, his award-winning restaurant in London, the city in which he is now based, Indego serves up Indian classics that have been given an often startling update.
“My food is very bold, very creative,” Bhatia says. “If you dine at Indego, you would not think the food is really Indian because of the way it looks, but, if you eat with your eyes closed, every bite is Indian. It just looks very European.
“I do that intentionally – you eat with your senses, with your eyes, your ears, your nose, your mouth. If you look at a bowl of brown stew or curry, it’s not very appealing, even though it tastes great. I think this is where Indian food has suffered. So people like me stepped in and tried to change things. We’re not bastardising the food. We still try to make it taste good, but it’s… elevated.”
Bhatia classics
Chocomosa-samosas filled with marbled chocolate
You never assume a samosa to be sweet, you always assume it to be savoury. But if you look at the chemistry of this dish, it’s hot, it’s crispy, it’s got soft chocolate and ice cream – it’s very sexy and it just blends. I love the dish’s combination of hot and cold, and I love how the combination of crispiness and softness teases the palate. It has such a sensuous feel to it. It’s something that’s really “Wow!” – you don’t expect a dessert like that. This came about because someone said to me, years back, that Indians can’t do chocolate. I thought what rubbish because Indians love chocolate. The trick with this dish is making the chocolate stay inside. When you fry chocolate, it just melts off, but here it doesn’t. I can’t reveal the trade secret, but my chocolate is never warm.
Spiced smoked tandoori salmon
This is fresh salmon, from Scotland, which we smoke with spices over charcoal. People say smoking Indian food doesn’t work, but it’s a very ancient technique – they used it in the state of Rajasthan, but for meat, not fish, and to preserve it. And they smoked it over charcoal. I thought if we can smoke meats over charcoal, why don’t we try fish? I took fresh salmon and then thought, if I smoke it, what spices would be best? It had to be a sweet spice, so we use cardamom, cloves and butter. We then cover the whole dish with foil and leave it for eight hours. Instead of cream and dill, which often accompany salmon, we make a raita of yoghurt and dill with red onion and pepper, which is served as a dip.
Biryani
A very classic dish. In India they put a copper or a steel lid on and seal the edges. Our biryani goes into a copper pot and is covered with a lid of dough flavoured with melon seeds, fennel seeds and cardamom powder. You put it in the oven for 20 minutes so the dough cooks like a crispy naan. When it’s put on the table and cracked open, the aromas waft out. It’s pure theatre.
Lamb shank rogan josh
When I was growing up, every Sunday we had a family lunch and my mum used to make a lamb rogan josh. We used to take a piece of naan bread and put the lamb on it so the bread became soggy, then we would squeeze some lemon juice over the top. Ever since then, I have remembered that flavour and have always tried to reproduce it. The best way to cook lamb is on the bone – you need a shank of lamb so all the meaty flavour from the marrow and the bone goes into the sauce. I still haven’t managed to make lamb rogan josh exactly like my mother – some people just have a certain flavour in the hands – but I’m close.
Mushroom rice and tomato ice cream
We use a rice that’s something like a risotto, but is not Arborio rice – it’s basmati. We flavour it with various mushrooms – shiitake, morels, cepes, oyster mushrooms – and make it very earthy. Then we add truffle oil, which isn’t used in India but has a nice flavour. If you have a large bowl of mushroom rice it’s quite strong, so we serve it with ice cream – but not any ice cream, this is an ice cream made from tomatoes. It is like the northern Indian sauce that is used for butter chicken – which is a sauce made from the juice of tomatoes, cooked for four to five hours until it becomes a bit like a jam. We add cream to it and chill. The combination of hot and cold gets your senses going. You see the dish on paper and think, “Yuk,” but it’s something you really have to taste and savour to understand.
THE VINEET BHATIA RESTAURANTS
DUBAI Indego (pictured)
According to Time Out Dubai, Indego “stuns with its contemporary take on Indian cuisine”. Grosvenor House, Dubai Marina, tel +971 4 399 8888, www.grosvenorhouse-dubai.com
LONDON Rasoi Writing in The Daily Telegraph food critic Egon Ronay ventured that this might be the best Indian restaurant in London. 10 Lincoln Street, Sloane Square, tel +44 20 7225 1881, www.vineetbhatia.com
PHOTOGRAPHY DARYL VISSCHER
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