Past on a plate
Celebrity chef Floyd Cardoz is inspired by the
roadside flavours of Bandra's vendors
When a celebrity chef comes all the way from New
York to start a res taurant in Mumbai, it's natural to expect a menu crammed
with Norwegian salmon, Australian lamb, and Italian truffle. So Bombay Canteen
throws up its first surprise when you open the gaudy account registers that
serve as menus -and find Mallu drumstick soup and maska pao, besan ka chilla
and murgi aur chaawal. Not to mention low-onglamour ingredients like turai,
kaddu, arbi and lauki.
The second surprise is that this eatery is
charming rather than swish. The water is poured from old Rooh Afza bottles. The
plates are the clunky stuff of Irani restaurants, and the floral teacups could
have belonged to our grannies. The menus feature advertisements from old copies
of Femina and Woman's Era.And the prices are affordable -certainly not what
you'd fear from an eatery directed by a hotshot New York chef, cookbook-writer
and winner of the Top Chef Masters TV show in 2012.
“It would have been easy for me to open a
restaurant in a five-star hotel, using totally imported ingredients,“ says
Floyd Cardoz, who grew up in Bandra and still finds enormous inspiration in the
roadside masala chana, memories of kheema pao at the St Xaviers's canteen and
boiled-egg vendors outside shady bars in Bandra. “But I'm known for using local
and seasonal ingredients. Also, I strongly feel it's time to give Indian
regional cuisines their due.“
Bombay Canteen -which is about a month old -has
generated a buzz for many reasons. Its food and mood are playfully
nostalgic.Its attempt to give a contemporary twist to Indian cuisine is in
keeping with the big trend of the moment (as all those menus featuring
deconstructed pav bhajis and jalebi caviars will testify). And, of course,
there are the international credentials of its culinary director.
Cardoz grew up in Bandra, where he enjoyed
messing around the kitchen. He was studying biology at St Xavier's College
when, one day, he picked up Hotel by Arthur Hailey in the library . The
potboiler about a New Orleans hotel propelled him into the Catering College at
Dadar. Next, Cardoz worked at the Taj and then headed to Switzerland to study
some more.
In 1998, Cardoz and restaurateur Danny Meyer
opened Tabla in New York. Rather than follow the roghan josh route that most
Indian restaurants employ, Cardoz experimented with American ingredients and
came up with dishes like Goan guacamole and smoked chicken samosas.
In Bombay Canteen, Cardoz uses the same dogged
how-do-you-know-gulab-jamun-won't-work-with-rum-till-youtry-it strategy. As do
his two partners, banker-tur ned-foodwala, Sameer Seth, and Pune lad Yash
Bhanage. “We wanted to take a fresh look at Indian cuisine. At the moment,
Indian restaurants are where you go with your parents,“ says Seth.
Agrees Cardoz: “We want to change the perception
of Indian food, and create a space that is fun and casual. Somewhere you can
drop in often without feeling that you have to dress up.“ Somewhere to try a
seafood bhel, juicy with calamari, clam and shrimp and crunchy with sev. Or a
masala chai popsicle. Or a sublime guava tart topped with chilli ice cream -a
dessert that instantly triggers childhood memories of soggy newspaper wrappers
oozing peru and chilli powder.
Shabnam
Minwalla
TOI22MAR15
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