Adam D’Sylva: The playful purist
Australian chef Adam D'Sylva on why a snapshot sums up his food
Seasoning and serving are the two important things in a chef’s life, according to Australia-based chef Adam D’Sylva. “You might have made the most wonderful food, but if these two are not up to the mark, your food will fail," says D’Sylva, the man behind two of Melbourne’s hottest restaurant/bars, Coda and Tonka. The Australian chef, who was in India recently, talks about his love for food and why he thinks fusion is not the way to go. Edited excerpts:
You grew up in an Indian/Italian family, travelled extensively around Europe and Asia, working under chefs in Hong Kong and Italy...yet you have always refused to identify your cooking style geographically.
Growing up, I always had a bowl of pasta and a bowl of Indian curry on my table. And living in Australia meant I never had to eat the same meal two days in a row. That inspired me to try out different foods. My mother, aunt and grandmother always encouraged me as a kid to observe and cook for the family.
For someone who enjoys food or likes to cook, Australia serves as a melting pot of international authentic cuisines, including Chinese, Italian and Vietnamese. I have people from diverse nationalities working in my restaurants, simply because I love the contrast and variety in food—and that is what my food is all about. Take a snapshot of any group of people in Australia—in culinary terms, that would translate into my food, modern Australian.
Australian cuisine has become a force to reckon with, after pretty undistinguished beginnings. How did it manage to merge the very diverse immigrant influences to evolve its own personality?
Nobody and nothing has united Australian cuisine as such—it has come together organically. It has always been normal for us Australians to have access to many cultures and cuisines. As a young country, we may not have the expertise of the French or Italians, but our trump card is our produce: It’s excellent and abundant. For instance, we have strawberries round the year. Our meat is halal. Seasonal produce gives us variety and is also economically viable.
The trend today is towards experimental food. What do you think about it?
I am not very much for fusion food. I’d call my food India-inspired if and when I am cooking Asian cuisine, but it is really about cooking a meal using fresh, good quality produce and Indian flavours. For instance, my modern Indian food isn’t like Manish Mehrotra’s, where I am fusing foods and producing a sort of mixed-gel. I don’t like to eat that way; I don’t cook that way.
My food uses very authentic spices and flavours and this is because I believe all these traditional cuisines are a great source of culture and history, and not to be played with. Instead of fusing things up, I would much rather play with technique or the spices. You could change the produce, and try experimenting with the flavours. So If I use a French cooking technique for an Asian dish, it is because that is how I interpret the dish.
You serve a lot of Indian dishes at Coda and Tonka. How would you define modern Indian food?
People all over the world are becoming increasingly conscious of what they are eating, and whether the food is nourishing them, besides tasting good. So modern food—and that applies to Indian cuisines as well—is how you retain the authentic taste of any dish and yet make it nourishing and healthy for the customer to be satisfied and feel good about spending money.
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