A Toast to the Local...
Bengaluru's Toast & Tonic
becomes the first big `pop' brand to debut in uber-stylish international
cooking, using all regional and seasonal ingredients
I am the first diner to
step inside Toast & Tonic (T&T), on Bengaluru's Wood Street, one
hush-hush evening. The promise has been of many (unusual) Negronis and some
easy conversation.And I am determined not to pay close attention to the food.
Instead, just “sit back, relax and enjoy“, as I replay in my head (strangely)
the muffled, clichéd instructions of the Jet Airways pilot, on the flight from
Delhi, just a couple of hours earlier.
That flight of fancy should
have taken me much further. It begins to do just that once the food arrives on
the table.But first the drinks... Unlike that last disastrous experience of the
Negroni at Santo Spirito, Florence, having drunk the deceptively innocuous
cocktail out of plastic glasses to bitter results, this one is immensely
sophisticated. The Campari, gin and Martini Rosso hard-hitter comes with a hint
of strawberry shrub. In beveragespeak, “shrub“ is an acidulated concoction of
fruit juice, sugar and vinegar; the last often made in-house by determined
“shrubbers“, using local fruit and natural yeast -at the best artisanal
international bars, at least.
It is a far more complex
(and arty) touch than using a syrupy flavour in your cocktail, like most Indian
bars tend to do. And it is exactly touches like these -that may in fact escape
the scrutiny of the average drinker and diner in middle India -which define
T&T, one of the most sophisticated culinary and bar experiments in the
country, toying with the local and the artisanal, making all these accessible
to a younger, casual audience.
International yet Casual
T&T, which launched
this Monday, has been quite an under-the-wraps brand in the making. Chef and
restaurateur Manu Chandra, its architect, who also helms Olive Beach in
Bengaluru and the Monkey Bar and The Fatty Bao brands pan-India, has been
quietly working away in the space (which was the first Monkey Bar),
experimenting, developing a formidable supply chain and back kitchens. All, to
cater to a restaurant that uses -almost exclusively -locally grown and sourced
ingredients to arrive at food that is international yet casual, fit for a
younger, democratic audience instead of the fad-driven elite, or the
“causerati“.
T&T surprises in many
ways. Not the least because it is “Monkey Bar for grown ups“ -just like the
tonics and gin it toasts! Gin bars, of course, have been quite the
international darlings for two to three years now. Gin has been overtaking its
colourless, odourless competitor -vodka -in popularity, at least with
discerning drinkers, who prize the complexity of juniper notes, and of other
herbs and “botanicals“ that mixologists and artisanal distillers have been
putting in to produce different types of gins and tonic waters
(G&T).G&T in fact is no longer the afternoon drink of prim old ladies.
Such is the image makeover.
Though T&T does not
claim to be a gin bar, G&T is a must if you visit it.The tonic waters are
made in-house and flavoured with such things as cin namon and pomegranate,
strawberry and clove, jasmine tea and elderflow er, balancing the tinge of
quinine in subtle ways.
There are no cheap thrills
by way of foam and smoke guns; no syn thetic, sweet, teenage flavours. Just a
den downstairs and a leather couch to sink into with a complex, slow drink...
“I like those European liqueurs like Chartreuse,“ says Chandra, in a separate
conversation, “because of their complexity“. The French, of course, make that
with a legendary 130 herbs and flowers. But it is the same complexity, the same
“layering“ of notes and inspirations that makes up everything at
T&T.There's not a doubt in my mind that this is the most sophisticated bar
space in the country just now. The bar however comes second to the food,
still...
Prizing What's Ours
If “artisanal“ is a strand
running through the restaurant, “local“ is its biggest theme. For those who see
food as lifestyle, local gastronomy is not an unknown concept. Restaurants like
Noma and almost all of Californian, Italian, French and Spanish gastronomy
celebrate the idea. Chefs have made it their style statement to be working
closely with farmers and foragers, sourcing crazily elusive ingredients (even
harvesting “local rainwater“ in one instance), putting them on expensive
plates. But if this is an entire “lifestyle industry“ in itself globally, in
India we have contended with the other extreme -a premium on the imported, a
vanishing of the local.
This is, in part, because
of low consumer receptivity and abysmal supply chains. As also because of lazy
chefs who often do not know what grows in their own backyard.
“I sent two of my chefs to
the mandi to get everything they did not recognise. They came back with things
like cholai and zimikand (elephant foot yam) and even red carrots,“ says
Chandra, before asking me if I remember the “kachche makhane“ -or lotus seeds
before processing -that could be found by the riverside on the drive from Delhi
to Ghaziabad till a decade or two ago. Some plates in some restaurants have
been changing in the last few years. But the experiments have been sporadic,
insufficient, as also more confined to “Indian“ restaurant formats. Now,
Chandra has gone the whole hog and built an entire restaurant to prove that not
only can supply chains be built but also that the food can be sophisticated yet
“cool“.
When the food starts
arriving, my flight of fancy takes me to California, to Sacramento, the hub of
the farm-to-fork movement, where the likes of The Kitchen take dining with
local ingredients and kitchen theatre to exceptional levels. The original
Randall Selland restaurant (the chef is one of the fathers of Californian
gastronomy) is spread out like an arena. Diners sit around an open kitchen,
where chefs cook live, dinner is served in five “acts“, and people regaled with
insider knowledge on ingredients. It made up a $500 per person, three-hour
meal. That's the kind of set-up one imagines for the food that streams out of
the T&T kitchen. Chandra however wants to keep it all firmly mid-market
-`1,000 per person, “resto-bar“.
Boho-chic, Spic-and-Span
His inspiration is
Manhattan's East Village, with its boho-chic-ness. The menu does have the sense
of a pop art work or even a Rushdie (early) novel. There are references and
details that may not be immediately apparent to everyone, but the whole is
enjoyable.
On the other hand, for
those who look for intricacies, this is cerebral entertainment too.With salads,
soups, tostadas, poke bowls, barbeque, tempura, ramen -and of course the
homemade breads -the menu can be loosely dubbed “international“.
But if generic
“international“ menus are the bane globally, this one showcases its Indian
context cleverly, including in the flavouring.So, the tostada comes spread with
kathal, or a tender “kathali“ cooked in a familiar way, with smoked cheese; the
jackfruit sourced from a neighbourhood tree. There's a tuna poke bowl with
sticky Gobindobhog rice, fried onions and chia seeds, sourdough toast with soft
eggs, Creole Andouille sausage (made inhouse) and smoked Bandel cheese (from
Kolkata). There's the highly seasonal ponkh (from Gujarat and Maharashtra) with
fishcakes. And an absolutely brilliant take on fish and chips, with tempura-style
baby mullet, sweet potato chips and beer batter being referenced with hops
(local) infused tartare! This is uber stylish cooking that could have taken
centrestage at a “lifestyle“ restaurant in any of the global dining capitals.
To find it in a Bengaluru bar, particularly one that hopes to replicate itself
in other cities, is surprising. The labour-intensiveness, for one, is colossal.
The pastrami done in-house takes 16 days; including brining it for 15, then
smoking for six hours and slow roasting for four to five hours. The “very slow“
smoked BBQ ribs use a Louisiana technique of smoking, finished with a char siu
glaze. Skill, exposure and imagination intersect.
If context is important to
art, fashion or writing, it's important to food as well. By using everything
local -from chocolate sourced from Annamalai to ajwain (caraway) leaves, bathua
(Chenopodium album), cherry radishes from a Mysuru farm, noren gur, all seafood
and meats -Chandra manages to speak a confident, nuanced, globalyet-desi language.
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Anoothi Vishal
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ETM21FEB16
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