Why doesn’t India have a Michelin Star restaurant yet? That?s a question many well-travelled (often, RNRI) foodies in the metros routinely ask these days. The answer is simple, of course: ?Because the inspectors haven?t got here yet.? Meaning, of course, that the tribe of allegedly under-paid, stressed out, trained, anonymous people who visit and revisit restaurants in selected cities routinely, and file detailed reports on the basis on which restaurants (not chefs, as is erroneously believed sometimes) are awarded one, two or three stars in the prestigious Michelin red guides. The Michelin guide began as a handy guide for motorists (something that was apt for a tyre company to start no doubt). It was first published in the early 20th century.
Today, it is the oldest and, despite competition, the most influential guide to restaurants around the world. Why hasn?t Michelin started bringing out its guides to the Indian metros, yet? China, with whom we in India automatically start comparing ourselves as a rival Asian giant, has been graced by Michelin reps in Shanghai and Hong Kong?the only two cities to be featured in the guides. So why not India? That, of course, is a more complex question. Despite being a highly evolved culinary civilisation, India?s restaurant market per se is still a nascent one and many contend that it is still not ready for the Bible of restaurant ratings, which allegedly only considers ?poncey? or Frenchified restaurants around the world, according to the many allegations against it.
There are various myths that persist about how and on what are the criteria on which individual restaurants are rated. Amongst some that I have heard are vague notings as to how there should be at least three waiters serving one person for it to qualify as a three star Michelin place. Or, how the inspectors only consider a restaurant worthy if it does ?pure? cuisines, not inventive ?fusion.? And so on.
The inspectors themselves are reputedly encouraged to be so discreet that they are not even supposed to tell their families about their occupation. It has only been more recently that Michelin allowed two anonymous ones to be interviewed. But if you go to their website, the ?how they do it? guidelines are fairly clear.
?Does the food?s plating stimulate the palate and is the portion size appropriate? Do the aromas of the dish please and entice, or overwhelm and repulse? Even sound comes into play with a delightful crunch of an item. We like flavours to be pronounced or subtle, depending on the circumstance. And there is also the question of value: Is our level of enjoyment relative to the price of our meal.? These are some of the criteria a restaurant is judged on and they all seem sensible to me and pretty much similar to how most reviewers would approach their task.
So that brings us back to the larger question as to why restaurants in India haven?t made it to the even the ?no star? mentions list. And how does a Michelin star winning chef approach his craft vis-?-vis others? This was a difference I was keen to explore as I sat down to a meal put together by Igor Macchia, a young, Italian chef who was visiting La Piazza at the Hyatt in Delhi. Macchia runs La Credenza in Torino, which is a one Michelin star restaurant. As such, it was interesting to see his approach and philosophy of food as opposed to the kind of cuisines served up by our own chefs across genres.
But first the food that the chef served up: The first course comprised a rather simple asparagus salad with potatoes, tomatoes and carrot sauce, lightly seasoned with olive oil and salt. It opened up the palate without overwhelming it so that when the second course came up by way of tender squids nicely offset (in their texture) by fried prawns (crispness was provided by an innovative polenta batter with which the prawns were coated without frying) we were raring to go. A ginger and water cress dressing went along with it?the chef?s argument being that an ?acidic? flavour like ginger early on in the meal keeps the interest of the diners alive as the palate is not sedated with heavier flavours. In that sense, I found the chef?s modern approach to food bordering on chemistry and not alchemy, (!) which is the way we in India often tend to approach cooking.
In many ways, traditional Indian cooking is totally opposed to how the West approaches its flavours, which are put together with clean, clinical precision, even while juxtaposing opposite flavours, textures, colours to stimulate the palate. But if what the chefs call ?clean? flavours are critical to modern western cooking, most Indian cooking, on the other hand, is almost like a raaga of Indian classical music, where there are diverse notes, a few dominant ones, others more subdued, but where everything comes together to form a medley.
It?s an approach that western cooks and gourmets don?t find easy to understand, far less emulate. And that?s one reason why we are unlikely to have any serious Michelin ratings for our formal Indian dining any time soon. (Note how ?contemporary? Indian restaurants, on the other hand, in London, Chicago and New York, where chefs use Indian accents and Western formats have won their share of Michelin stars.)
Chef Macchia feels that it is important for the food to reflect something of the chef?s personality. In his case, he says, he is a ?square? personality?pretty clear and to the point in his interactions with other people. The meals that he puts together?whether it was the salad or the squids or our third course of risotto, revved up with a surprising dash on the side of a very salty anchovies sauce?reflect that precision and simplicity.
But if the modern accent in global cuisines is on simplicity and honesty (as opposed to fancy plating and the gimmickery of gastronomy), innovation too, is a key quality in a chef, which is likely to bring him stars and fans both. The main course the otherwise ?square? chef presented that night was truly a ?wow? dish. The chef brought out lamb marinated in Italian Lavazza coffee for 24 hours that was then cooked in a sweet corn sauce, the bitterness of the coffee and the sweetness of the corn coming together deftly.
And it is here, with innovation of this kind, that I feel Indian chefs can definitely score. With a wide variety of ingredients available to us, along with a diverse range of spices, cooking traditions, recipes and so on, innovation comes naturally to a chef in the Indian kitchen, whatever cuisine he is attempting. Already, we have a handful of brilliant young chefs wowing the newer generation of Indian diner with their creativity. The catch, of course, is to be totally sure of your basics because any successful innovation is based on an appreciation and understanding of the classics. That apart, the world is our oyster?stars or not.
?The writer is a food critic