La cuisine française à la conquête des palais indiens...

French Renaissance in Delhi Kitchen (Economic Times - May 7)

French cuisine has fallen victim to its own overhype in an era when casual chic is ‘trending’ everywhere including India. It is perceived to be over-priced , over-styled and therefore, highly overrated . Indians, in particular, regard French food as bland, impossibly nouvelle (too much art, too little quantity) and full of things we do not normally eat – from escargot (snails) to smelly, ripe cheeses.

Conventional wisdom says we prefer steaming heaps of tomatoey-garlicky , carb-saturated Italian food or chilli-garlicky desi Chinese any day. Besides, people all over the world today want honest, filling meals, simple, robust flavours and unfussy ambiences and even razzle-dazzle chefs like Heston Blumenthal are going traditional.

French cuisine’s setback in Delhi can be traced to Michelin-starred chef Richard Neat’s haute cuisine at Longchamps at Delhi’s Taj Mahal rooftop in 1996. It got such a cool reception from India’s elite that Frenchstyle food remained, well, sous vide for over a decade. Consequently, other nascent Frenchified ventures stalled too, like Hardy Mitra’s cute bistro complete with brass rail and curtains, Chez Nathalie. It opened around the same time as Longchamps, but shut within a year. Though Mitra’s food was fresh and uncomplicated, it fell prey to the French image paradox accentuated by Neat’s brilliant, sophisticated and expensive creations. For the longest time afterwards, for me at least, the taste of France was limited to fresh meats from the redoubtable Roger Langbour’s French Farm, Francis Wazciarg’s lovely selection of charcuterie at his home, and the occasional visiting French chef with a penchant for traditional food. I don’t really count Greater Kailash I and II’s offerings – Café de Paris and the oddly named Nu Deli – as serious attempts.

The advent of L’Opera , a quintessential boulangerie , last year was the first real move towards a French renaissance, and a well-timed one too. Much has changed in the past 15 years. There are more foreigners in Delhi (and India, in general), so the minimum market for Continental offerings has grown. Charcuterie and cheeses, good breads and preserves find a more appreciative clientele here, both local and expat . And in that segment price is not a hurdle. Most importantly, a significant number of Indians are travelling, studying and living abroad, and returning to expect international variety in cuisines.

The resounding success of Japanese food is proof of our changing palates as it was once avoided for the same reasons as French cuisine: bland flavours, inadequate portions, unfamiliar aromas and ingredients . Now, sophisticated palates are as much a phenomenon to cash in on as spicy desi preferences. The time is clearly ripe for a French encore.

Indeed, if McDonald’s is going Indian with its fusion McAloo Tikki and Spicy McChicken burgers to entice the mass market segment, the success of Ritu Dalmia’s non-pizza-pasta-dominated Diva prophesied the debut of restaurants (and restaurateurs) like Chez Nini and owner-chef Nira Singh’s brand of authentic cookery. Providentially, the international trend has also changed.

There is a move back to the roots – quite literally in the case of René Redzepi’s Noma in Copenhagen , regarded today the best restaurant in the world – and contemporising old favourites. I was thrilled to see (and taste), for instance, Blumenthal’s take on 600-year-old recipes at dinner in London’s Mandarin Oriental earlier this year. And the French repertoire in that genre is formidable. Part of this back-to-basics move may have been prompted by recessionary belt-tightening in the West, but it has clearly tickled the taste buds of the class that has finally had its fill of fussy food characterised by Gordon Ramsay’s tetchy perfectionism and Ferran Adria’s techie manipulations .

There is nothing quite like a whiff of nostalgia – if not quite mom’s apple pie in the Indian context , at least what I had living abroad – to get the digestive juices flowing. So, India’s cosmopolitan elite is not hankering for yesterday’s molecular gastronomy any more, especially since El Bulli shut shop! It wants authenticity and flair, and luckily French culinary can offer just that. That’s why even if L’Opera’s macaroons cost a whopping . 135, they find buyers. Nor does the . 1,000 per head average for Chez Nini’s classic bistro fare deter customers.

The smoky moistness of Nini’s pork rillettes is much Frenchified, very Montreal. The French onion soup is a runaway hit. The entire menu, in fact, redolent of her French-Canadian homeland, though she is of Indian origin and now married here. That she has kept the cuisines authenticity even while using locally procured ingredients is particularly commendable . The ‘market’ has not forced her to compromise on true flavours. That’s what makes me think that a renaissance of French cuisine – at least its considerable repertoire of hearty fare – may finally be happening.