The celebrity chef is now back with the second season of his show, Lost Recipes. (Photos: Aditya Bal/Facebbok; Deisgned by Rajan Sharma)Model-turned-celebrity chef Aditya Bal, well-known for combining wanderlust with a love for discovering cuisines, is a firm believer in ancient recipes that are unique to India’s vibrant culture.
For Bal, a host of travel food shows and author of The Chakh Le India: Cookbook, such recipes are the most potent way of connecting emotionally with people, communities, history and regions. Now, after the first season of the Lost Recipes show on EPIC Channel, Bal is back with the second season where he is seen travelling across the streets of Hampi, Vishakapatnam, Darjeeling and Bodhgaya, among others.
In an interaction with indianexpress.com, the chef shares why ancient recipes hold significance, his favourite ‘lost recipe’, and why he feels nervous when recreating an age-old recipe.
Why ancient recipes?
When it comes to a civilisation as old and culturally diverse as India, we have actually done quite well, keeping in touch with our roots and traditions while adopting modern cultural elements and trends from across the globe. At the same time, many of us are not really well-versed with aspects of our culture. Food and cooking in ancient India is something that connects with people very personally, across backgrounds. I talk about the lives of our ancestors, their habits, technologies and beliefs. It’s a great way to travel into a bygone era.
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Many celebrity chefs are making an attempt to find recipes that are unique or lesser-known. Do you think the best of culinary arts stems from the past?
Over the last couple of decades, chefs have been moving steadily towards modern cuisine. The molecular gastronomy movement got to a point where chefs were formulating recipes more than actually cooking. While this style of cooking was high on drama, it did not always tell a story about the food. It was a movement that showed off the chef’s skills and technical prowess more than anything else. The going back to the roots scenario has come about almost as a counter movement to this highly ‘cheffy’ style of cooking. Chefs too seem to have understood that people love to connect with food on an emotional level. History, culture, roots, they all seem to add layers to a chef’s creation. I think it’s a super thing to have happened.
Don’t you feel nervous when you try to bring back an ancient recipe — whether forgotten, lost or simply neglected — to life in your kitchen?
Yes, absolutely! I feel nervous every time I am cooking any dish. When it comes to ancient recipes, the feeling is magnified. I go through a process I like to call virtual cooking where I basically visualise the entire process in my mind in full detail and then start with the cooking. I think most chefs, including me, actually love cooking purely by instinct. I think it’s this less structured approach that is genuinely relaxing. When it comes to recreating ancient recipes, it’s vital to understand the process before getting starting. Once you have done that, I feel it is possible to recreate ancient recipes with a fair degree of authenticity.
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Considering not many have the time to fall back on ancient methods of cooking or eating, how does one enjoy a sumptuous meal?
The single biggest learning about food is its centrality to life absolutely everywhere. In fact, in the interiors and remote areas, communities live in much greater harmony with their surroundings. Their diet seems better too. Organically grown vegetables and traditional grains replace the mass produced varieties. It’s a wholesome and simpler life. Food has a distinct religious significance in our culture with scores of dishes being created especially for festivals and cultural events through history. People do follow their own dietary preferences more strictly than us urban dwellers.
At ancient dinner tables, the meals were so simple. If meat was on the menu, then one main meat dish, either roasted or braised with a sauce or masala to accompany it, was the norm. A couple of hearty sides of vegetables, pulses, fruits and a couple of main starch elements completed the meal. We need to strive for such a balance of dishes on the table.
Your favourite ‘lost recipe’ that you can make anytime?
The ‘Umbario’ that we cooked, in Season 1, with the Parsi community on the outskirts of Mumbai is something I could make again and again. It has the flavour of ancient India. A recipe that celebrated the new harvest, where local farmers would collect baby vegetables from the fields, a gawti or country chicken would be cleaned and put in whole. Then spices and fresh toddy would be added and the clay matka sealed with a special type of grass and then with dough and a lid. They would then place the matka with its contents, upside down or ‘Umbario’. The matka would be covered with a basket full of dry mango leaves. This massive heap of leaves would then be set alight to burn down eventually to umber. An hour later, they would take out the matka from the fire, then sit around with everyone and enjoy their incredible celebratory meal.
