Mirror fixes-it: For the love of food

Mirror fixes-it: For the love of food
Australian chef Adam D’Sylva and food writer Gaurang Bailoor dissect the restaurant industry.

If you have been keeping tabs on the food scene in Mumbai via Twitter, you will know of a certain @CrapFoodBlogger who takes vicious pleasure in satirising the food blog universe. His digs are sharp and unapologetically rude. His initiation on the micro-blogging site follows the increasing flak that surrounds the ubiquitous breed of food bloggers. It is still hotly debated whether food blogging can be held on par with genuine, original food critiques. Our fan, Gaurang Bailoor reserves his opinion in the matter.

Bailoor, a content manager and self-taught patissiere, decided he wanted to focus people’s attention on ‘food journalism’. Together with a few friends, he started a website, Gastro Nazi last year “to educate, and throw a critical, socio-cultural eye on food”.

When Australian chef Adam D’Sylva meets Gaurang, what follows is a loaded discussion on the food scene in India, the significance of local produce, traditional cooking styles, the difference between Indian-inspired food, fusion cuisines and molecular gastronomy. It seems only right then that this conversation takes place in the kitchen of Jyran at Sofitel.

Unapologetically, both men are suitably distracted by the preparation of a dum biryani and the grilling of tikkas nearby.

We skip the typical questions about Adam’s favourite Indian chef, his signature dishes and his appearance on MasterChef Australia. The only such question Gaurang allows himself is whether Adam has any role models. “I don’t look up to any one person. You just learn a little from every great chef you meet. I admire my mother, my aunt and my nona (grandmother),” he says.

Adam admits that his creations have been inspired by his diverse cultural background. His mother is Italian and father, Indian. He has worked in Australia, Italy, Hong Kong and America.

The chat is still warming up when Adam calls for a pint of beer and talks about his restaurants. Coda opened in 2009 and serves French and Vietnamese cuisine while TONKA opened in 2013 and serves Indian and Oriental food. “It is very difficult to make money from food,” he says. “It’s an effort to balance margins in the competitive market. You need a point of difference. You can’t just serve fantastic food.”

Gaurang wants to know why it is difficult to find authentic food anywhere beyond the actual country of origin. “Is it that it can’t be authentic because there are so many factors that have to be considered?” he says.

TONKA serves Australian-Indian food. The produce and poultry is Australian. Ghee is replaced by olive oil in marinades. For dressings, he uses sherry vinegar. Even the water tastes different, he says. “That’s the reason behind food tasting so different, that people think it isn’t authentic,” he says.

Adam puts it in simpler terms. “Take Italian pasta for instance. If you want it to taste exactly the same as it would in Italy, you would need Italian flour, Italian mineral water, Italian tomatoes and herbs,” he says.

The bright side, says Adam, is that since Australia doesn’t have a cultural history, it opens up to a lot of diversity. “We do the most authentic food of any country, far better than the country of origin. It is because everyone migrates there. It’s why we have so much variety.”

They talk about produce and how it can affect food quality. Gaurang mentions that the produce in India isn’t up to par and that’s the reason it is difficult to find good artisanal and organic food. “It is not standardised. Everything tastes the same, there is no character. It’s a struggle to try and find good produce. It is changing, though,” he says.

Adam foresees a better future and believes Delhi, has a better opportunity to lead the way, given the variety of produce available there.

As talk moves to Delhi, Adam mentions that he is eager to taste Manish Mehrotra’s food even though he isn’t a fan of molecular gastronomy. Gaurang fills him in on the molecular scene in Mumbai and how it has taken off in the past year, despite the fact that it isn’t “the real deal”.

But Adam considers himself a “traditionalist”. “My food is inspired by Indian cuisine, by its traditional recipes and methods without modernising or playing around with techniques,” he says, adding that he cooks food he likes to eat. “I don’t want to own the best restaurant in the world. I want it to be an everyday restaurant. I want to be a chef who feeds people, nourishes them,” he says. “For me, it’s all about the food.”

Gaurang nods along.