How chef Johnson Ebenezer went from cooking in ships to culinary stardom
Summary
Bengaluru's Farmlore was named ‘One to Watch’ by Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list this year. The creative force behind its success is chef Johnson Ebenezer, who polished his culinary chops in cruise liners, five-star hotels, and internet cafés
In March, Bengaluru’s Farmlore was named the ‘American Express One to Watch’ by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards 2025. The list recognises a dining institution as a rising star in Asia with the potential to break into the world’s best restaurant list in the future. Nestled amidst an approximately 30-acre farm in Sathanur Village, Bagalur, Farmlore is a long drive from the city, 23 km from MG Road. At night, a solar-powered pathway leads you to the imposing black double doors. During the day, you can walk around the 12 hydroponic greenhouses.
Once inside, what instantly strikes you besides the floor-to-ceiling glass wall is the calm. First-timers will admire the painted mural that covers one wall – a tribute to Bengaluru. They serve only chef tasting menus for lunch and dinner, with prior reservations.
Farmlore came onto the culinary scene in 2021 with food that fuses hyper-local ingredients, sustainable practices, and cultural narratives to create a cuisine-agnostic dining experience, with a strong side of story-telling. It begins with Anjaneya, the custom-created fire pit in the kitchen named after the mythological story of Hanuman’s (Anjaneya) burning of Lanka. This is seen in dishes like Seataphor, with its messages to ‘save the ocean’. This featured snapper with two sauces – a blue one made of spirulina representing the sea, and a black sauce to represent oil spills, made ingeniously with coconut oil and charred coconut shells. It’s finished with a cover of potato starch created to look like the plastic that fills our beaches.
Also read: How to serve local flavours and stories
In this 18-cover restaurant, the first course signals the beginning of a perfectly synchronised culinary experience. Dishes are plated, garnished, swiftly brought to your table, and their story narrated. The chefs calmly crisscross each other, rarely speaking yet so attuned to delivering the experience. The maestro behind this culinary orchestra wears a signature 1920s-styled beret and stands in the thick of things. He is chef Johnson Ebenezer, also the co-founder of the restaurant.
Ebenezer, 45, grew up in St Thomas Mount, Chennai. Hailing from a family of policemen, he was enamoured by the life of one uncle, who chose a different path: working on a cruise liner. Wanting to emulate him, Ebenezer chose the culinary route.
Unable to join a hotel management course because of the family’s financial constraints, he opted for a craft course (skill-focused certification or diploma programmes) in bakery and food production after his 12th grade. In 1998, he worked in the butchery and continental sections of Taj Coromandel in Chennai. “At Taj, I met chef Kiran Selvaraj, who often threw interesting questions at me – why is a tomato red, why does aubergine turn black on being sliced, etc. I would rush to the internet cafés close by in Nungambakkam, research, and return with the answers. I loved it all," he recalls.
In 2000, Ebenezer joined the cruise liner Carnival Triumph as an assistant cook. In 2003, tragedy struck: a fire gutted his home in Chennai. From then until 2007, when he returned to India, he worked hard to earn enough to rebuild his home and then joined Radisson Blu Chennai.
Ebenezer’s curiosity was piqued by one chef’s unused collection of molecular gastronomy texturas (products that can manipulate textures in cooking). “I would go down a rabbit hole looking each one up, experimenting, and making notes. I placed things like spherified olives on the buffet table," he says.
After two more stints aboard cruise liners, Ebenezer was back in Chennai. During his time with Radisson Blu Hotel & Suites GRT, he connected with Kaushik Raju, Founder-Owner of Farmlore, for the first time in August 2016. Raju was looking for a chef for the private event of a friend, and Ebenezer fitted the bill perfectly.
In September 2016, Ebenezer was roped in to conceptualise Nadodi, a South Indian degustation menu restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It went on to be mentioned in the Singapore Michelin Guide in March two years later. However, wanting to do something in his own country, he reconnected with Raju and found they had similar thoughts.
Raju says Farmlore's vision was to use the power of storytelling through food as it engages all senses and memories. “Johnson understood this and was not constricted by a particular cuisine, as stories shouldn't be limited to just one type," he adds.
Ebenezer completed his stint at Nadodi in 2018. To kickstart Lore—as Farmlore was earlier known within the team—he began ideating, researching, and executing story-based, multi-course degustation pop-ups at various venues. They did the ‘Circle of Life’ - dishes that told a story from birth to death, at the Courtyard in Bengaluru; another on the ‘history of Goa’ for Sol de Goa, among others. This was the run-up to the opening of their restaurant Lore.
Covid-19, however, had other plans. “Everything that happened then on was in response to the pandemic. Rents were high in the city with no returns, and so we moved to the Sathanur farm owned by Raju’s family. Thus, Lore was renamed Farmlore," recalls Ebenezer.
To help the farm work better for the restaurant, Raju got Hydrolore going - a hydroponic set-up for vegetables to grow all year round in a controlled environment. Today, based on the seasons, the farm provides up to 80 percent of the restaurant’s vegetables. Vertical farming systems maximise space.
Ebenezer’s team today has grown to 18, with chefs Prajwal R, Vineeth Kumar M and Babilesh Rajan as chefs de partie (heads of various sections). Their current menu showcases seasonal mangoes, octopus, red mullet, ice apples, raw jackfruit, and ridge gourd.
“Going forward, I want to take the philosophy of Farmlore around the world. We want to visit places like Korea, the Middle East, and Africa, cook with the local produce using our spice blends, and invite their chefs to our restaurant. Also in the works is a book, which will be part memoir and part recipes. All these recipes are in the DNA of my journey; they are just born at different times," says the chef.
Also read: Squid cocktails and bone marrow shots at this new bar in Mumbai
Ruth DSouza Prabhu is a features journalist based in Bengaluru.
