And there will be pakodas made of different ingredients, which would depend on the season.”

The chef who first put chocolate into samosas creating the really popular chocamosas back in 1994 is Chef Vineet Bhatia, who has recent-ly been pouring Masala Chai from a gaily painted kettle at his swish Michelin-starred Rasoi by Vineet in London. His Onion Bhaji re-imag-ined is quite a hit at the Grosvenor House in Dubai, served with black olive chutney and complete with

yoghurt spheres. From Olive and Red Onion Vadas at Indego by Vineet to Beetroot Idlis for

Qatar Airways diners, he

has

been reinventing our street food like a man on a mission.

According to Chef Vineet though, this is something that he’s been doing for a long time. In fact, right from his menu for Zaika in 2001 (the year the restaurant won the first Michelin star for Indian food ever), there’s been a marked street food influence, he points out. One of the first dishes he created then had Bombay Chowpatty Bhaji at its core. “The bold flavours of the mixed vegetable bhaji from pao-bhaji pair well with a flat fish like sea bass lightly grilled with lemon,” he says. But his most inventive dish, the Samosa Chaat that was created

in Zaika about 15 years ago, was the first one to be

described as full-fledged street food

on the menu. It’s also the most popular — apparently the Bahrain royal family love the ver-sion with a

cheese and smoked cashew-

nut stuffing, as does F1 driver Jenson

Button! Street

food packs a punch and gives peo-ple a sense of comfort and satiety. Chef Vineet says, “In every culture, street food has a strong emotional connect and you can’t go wrong if you have those robust flavours and textures on your menu. But how do you ele-vate simple street dishes to some-thing that adds value in a fine-din-ing restaurant where people are paying a hundred pounds a head for a meal? It’s often about chang-ing little things here and there. For example, in my Tikki Chaat which I use as a Main, I add peas, carrots

and aspar-agus to the

basic aloo tikki. Instead of bread

crumbs, it’s lightly crusted with toasted almond flakes.

The chhole is used as a bed, sweetened yoghurt is drizzled

on, and sev is sprinkled over it. Another surprise element is the Tamarind Sorbet, which is making the usual imli chutney but taking it beyond the ordinary by turning it into a frozen sorbet.” Actor Pierce Brosnan is a big fan of the Dahi bhalla chaat at Rasoi by Vineet in London’s Chelsea, often stopping by to relish the cold and not too sweet dish comprising tiny dump-

lings with dahi bhalla ice-cream served in a martini glass.

On another continent, Chef Rohan D’Souza, channels his con-siderable culinary creativity into an Indian barbecue restaurant called Spice in Brisbane, Australia, which should open at the end of winter down under. He says, “I’ve always wanted to do some modern Indian food outside India. Most of the dishes will be done on the bar-becue and we will use Indian mari-nades for everything.” He is excited that he will have the Indian street food element feature in several of the 15 or so appetisers that he plans. The ideas are just nascent right now. “I’m thinking aparagus, crab and mushroom samosas and chicken tikka and mint chutney baos. I can do dehydrated onion and kale pakodas with mango chut-ney, where I won’t use water in the gram flour batter. The white onion you get in Australia extracts a lot of moisture already and if you don’t add water, then the pakoda becomes very crispy and tasty. And then there’s the ever popular Vada Pao. I’ll probably reduce the spices and do the vada in a slider,” he muses. Now, who wouldn’t love that?

I want to show how Indian food need not be greasy

as is commonly perceived

— CHEF FLOYD CARDOZ

Chef Vineet

Bhatia’s Chaat Mix

AMRI

TA D

IWAN

JI

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