Beyond Tikka Masala
Text and photographs by SEBASTIAN JOHN
""Let's try Indian food for dinner!"
You'll hear these words more often now from average Americans. Even small towns like Eureka in California (population 42,000) have Indian restaurants-two, in fact. These bastions of spice are considered exotic and different, except for the fact that most of them are the same. Every restaurant has naan, chicken tikka masala and saag paneer on the menu, and those are what the customers usually order. Most of the other dishes are a mishmash of North Indian and Pakistani cuisine, with little representation of anything south of New Delhi. While tasty for sure, the offerings need an update.
Indian food in America is now at an interesting evolutionary stage. Having gained wider acceptance, it is still seen as mostly buffet food, says Vikas Khanna, executive chef at Purnima restaurant in New York. This is because curries are generally meant to be shared, not presented with fancy garnishes on individual plates, which is the image Americans seek from a nice restaurant.
By using new kinds of ingredients, like asparagus, to take a south Indian dish like uttapam into the spotlight of Washington, D.C.'s theater district, or fusing the two countries' cuisines to please traditional diners in tony neighborhoods of Manhattan, Indian American chefs and hosts are working to expand the concept of Indian food. Culinary visionaries are doing amazing work across the country.
From busboy to owner
When 55-year-old Avtar Walia began his career 30 years ago as a busboy, he wondered why Indian food was not rated in the same category as French, Italian and Japanese as an ethnic cuisine. He soon found out: nearly every dish was created from exactly the same blend of spice-curry powder. "I have asked, 'Do you know exactly what curry means?' " says Walia. Most people think it is some kind of spice, and know nothing else about it, he says.
Walia wanted to open a restaurant where the food was authentic but trendy. So he opened Tamarind in one of Manhattan's richest neighborhoods, where he made sure that the dishes were made with fresh ingredients, and, most importantly, presented well.
"Good plating makes food look appealing, and it makes people want to eat," says Walia.
When Tamarind started, he roped in Raji Jallepalli-Reiss as his executive chef, to design the menu. She had run her own restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee, and has been credited with originating the fusion of Indian and French cuisines before her death from cancer in 2002.
Walia did not stop at the menu. He got Wid Chapman, a senior faculty member of the Parsons School of Design in New York City, to design Tamarind's interior as simple but elegant. He brought in custom-made, silver-plated platters from Rajasthan to use as dishes, and created intimate private booths for celebrity clientele.
For him, a well-trained chef who can deliver consistent dishes is the most important element. Indian food, though behind other regional cuisines, "is catching on like wildfire," he says, noting that many American customers know the exact differences between rogan josh and jalfrezzi, and expect their food to be just as spicy as they have tasted in India.
Conquering the capital
Ashok Bajaj's American restaurant, The Oval Room, is one of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's favorite restaurants in Washington, D.C. Conveniently located just a short walk from the White House, The Oval Room is across the street from Bajaj's flagship business, The Bombay Club. Open for 20 years, it was one of the first fine-dining Indian restaurants in the United States.
Opening The Bombay Club was not easy, Bajaj says. Though he had run successful Indian restaurants in London prior to coming to America in 1988, he had to convince his first landlord that an Indian restaurant wouldn't ruin the building with bad smells. They thought, "It's going to stink," he says. Finally, Bajaj took the extreme step of flying the landlord to London so he could experience the potential of high-end Indian food. Only then did he get the space. Now he owns six Washington eateries, including a caviar bar and the more modern Indian restaurant, Rasika.
"You've got to get away from the perception of ghee, heavy cream and oils," Bajaj warns.
His philosophy of spices is that though they should not be eliminated, they should also not overpower the food. He noticed when he first arrived that everyone would talk about how tasty the Indian sauces were, and not the food itself. "I want them to taste the main ingredient," he says.
Though Bajaj likes to stick with local, fresh ingredients, there is one thing he gets from India: Kashmiri chillies. Nothing can match their color, sweetness and spiciness, so he has them specially flown in. His main chefs are Indian, too, and he tries to maintain authenticity in the food despite using novel ingredients like asparagus. And the love of Indian cuisine spills over to his other establishments: The Oval Room featured a lobster vindaloo this Valentine's Day.
You'll hear these words more often now from average Americans. Even small towns like Eureka in California (population 42,000) have Indian restaurants-two, in fact. These bastions of spice are considered exotic and different, except for the fact that most of them are the same. Every restaurant has naan, chicken tikka masala and saag paneer on the menu, and those are what the customers usually order. Most of the other dishes are a mishmash of North Indian and Pakistani cuisine, with little representation of anything south of New Delhi. While tasty for sure, the offerings need an update.
Indian food in America is now at an interesting evolutionary stage. Having gained wider acceptance, it is still seen as mostly buffet food, says Vikas Khanna, executive chef at Purnima restaurant in New York. This is because curries are generally meant to be shared, not presented with fancy garnishes on individual plates, which is the image Americans seek from a nice restaurant.
By using new kinds of ingredients, like asparagus, to take a south Indian dish like uttapam into the spotlight of Washington, D.C.'s theater district, or fusing the two countries' cuisines to please traditional diners in tony neighborhoods of Manhattan, Indian American chefs and hosts are working to expand the concept of Indian food. Culinary visionaries are doing amazing work across the country.
From busboy to owner
When 55-year-old Avtar Walia began his career 30 years ago as a busboy, he wondered why Indian food was not rated in the same category as French, Italian and Japanese as an ethnic cuisine. He soon found out: nearly every dish was created from exactly the same blend of spice-curry powder. "I have asked, 'Do you know exactly what curry means?' " says Walia. Most people think it is some kind of spice, and know nothing else about it, he says.
Walia wanted to open a restaurant where the food was authentic but trendy. So he opened Tamarind in one of Manhattan's richest neighborhoods, where he made sure that the dishes were made with fresh ingredients, and, most importantly, presented well.
"Good plating makes food look appealing, and it makes people want to eat," says Walia.
When Tamarind started, he roped in Raji Jallepalli-Reiss as his executive chef, to design the menu. She had run her own restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee, and has been credited with originating the fusion of Indian and French cuisines before her death from cancer in 2002.
Walia did not stop at the menu. He got Wid Chapman, a senior faculty member of the Parsons School of Design in New York City, to design Tamarind's interior as simple but elegant. He brought in custom-made, silver-plated platters from Rajasthan to use as dishes, and created intimate private booths for celebrity clientele.
For him, a well-trained chef who can deliver consistent dishes is the most important element. Indian food, though behind other regional cuisines, "is catching on like wildfire," he says, noting that many American customers know the exact differences between rogan josh and jalfrezzi, and expect their food to be just as spicy as they have tasted in India.
Conquering the capital
Ashok Bajaj's American restaurant, The Oval Room, is one of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's favorite restaurants in Washington, D.C. Conveniently located just a short walk from the White House, The Oval Room is across the street from Bajaj's flagship business, The Bombay Club. Open for 20 years, it was one of the first fine-dining Indian restaurants in the United States.
Opening The Bombay Club was not easy, Bajaj says. Though he had run successful Indian restaurants in London prior to coming to America in 1988, he had to convince his first landlord that an Indian restaurant wouldn't ruin the building with bad smells. They thought, "It's going to stink," he says. Finally, Bajaj took the extreme step of flying the landlord to London so he could experience the potential of high-end Indian food. Only then did he get the space. Now he owns six Washington eateries, including a caviar bar and the more modern Indian restaurant, Rasika.
"You've got to get away from the perception of ghee, heavy cream and oils," Bajaj warns.
His philosophy of spices is that though they should not be eliminated, they should also not overpower the food. He noticed when he first arrived that everyone would talk about how tasty the Indian sauces were, and not the food itself. "I want them to taste the main ingredient," he says.
Though Bajaj likes to stick with local, fresh ingredients, there is one thing he gets from India: Kashmiri chillies. Nothing can match their color, sweetness and spiciness, so he has them specially flown in. His main chefs are Indian, too, and he tries to maintain authenticity in the food despite using novel ingredients like asparagus. And the love of Indian cuisine spills over to his other establishments: The Oval Room featured a lobster vindaloo this Valentine's Day.
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