A contemporary take on southern flavours

Cauliflower crunch, pomegranate and mint at Avartana
Cauliflower crunch, pomegranate and mint at Avartana

Summary

Following a global trend, progressive south Indian has emerged as an interesting subset within the genre of modern Indian cuisine

It is early hours on Wednesday even ing and yet Avartana’s latest outpost at ITC Maurya, New Delhi, is buzzing with guests. Even as the activity picks up, the team of chefs, visible through the glass partition, go about their work calmly, with a meditative stance. And that energy seems to thrum through the five degustation menus available at the progressive south Indian restaurant—the seven-course Maya, the nine-course Bela, and Jiaa featuring 11 courses. Then there is the 13-course Anika, and the seafood special Tara.

This is the fifth outpost of Avartana, after Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and Colombo (Sri Lanka), and at ITC Maurya, it offers a dinner only service as of now. We choose the Bela tasting menu, with umpteen servings of the signature French Press rasam, interspersed with dishes such as the tomato and millet salad with a rice crisp, pork cracker with banana and chilli, and seafood fritter rice with ses ame and palm nectar. Each course features small mouthfuls in artistic servingware, be it the pristine white spherical bowls or rustic asymmetrical earthenware.

The portion size makes it feel like an imaginative journey through the flavours of south India, without leaving you cloyingly full. The combinations carry whiffs of familiar flavours and newer ways of looking at ingredients. Evidence of this is in the Coorg coffee espresso cocktail, Salem chilli picante or but termilk served as a mousse in a dish of stir fried chicken and curry leaf tempura, spaghetti-like strands fashioned out of bottle gourd, and gongura fermented and transformed into an emulsion for a steamed sea bass and sticky rice dish.

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Progressive south Indian has emerged as an interesting subset within the genre of modern Indian cuisine. Besides Avartana—which was part of Asia’s Best Restaurants list 2024— some of the restaurants making a mark in this sphere include HOSA in Goa by the EVH International group, and Kari Apla in Mumbai run by Mathew Varghese and Ebaani Tewari.

Avartana's raw mango and ghee candle
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Avartana's raw mango and ghee candle

Internationally, this journey began a little more than a decade ago, with Campton Place helmed by chef Srijith Gopinathan in San Francisco, and Quilon in London winning accolades. Today, Semma, which opened in 2021 and is run by chef Vijay Kumar in New York, is on the list of nearly every discerning Indian traveller visiting the city.

According to Raaj Sanghvi, CEO, Culinary Culture, a culinary rating, events and content platform, the menu is a tribute to Vijay Kumar’s roots in Tamil Nadu and the spotlighting of lesser-known recipes that tell deeply personal stories. For him, a standout dish is the river snails in a tangy tomato gravy—a recipe inspired by Kumar’s grand mother’s cooking on the rice farm where he grew up. While snails are not associated with the traditional cuisine of Tamil Nadu, and is usually foraged for in villages, Kumar’s version has become the restaurant’s signature dish in New York. “Avartana brought this trend home, first in Chennai (2017) and now around India," he adds. “Unlike many restaurants that follow a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, Avartana offers multiple tasting menus of varying sizes, cater ing to different appetites and preferences. This flexibility has not only worked in their favour but also sets them apart."

This change is, in a way, a natural progression. With travel to domestic destinations increasing, and with people realising that there is so much depth to the culinary repertoire from the southern states, there has been a yearning for dishes beyond cliches and stereo types. Restaurants such as Karavali in Bengaluru, and Kappa Chakka Kandhari, helmed by chef Regi Mathew in Bengaluru and Chennai, have been bringing well-researched menus from homes and streetside shops into the fine-dining space.

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Progressive south Indian is another chapter in this journey. “Avartana identified an opportunity in India to elevate South Indian cuisine through innovative techniques, catering to a discerning, high-end audience. This concept tapped into a growing appetite for regional Indian flavors presented in a modern, sophisticated style," states Sanghvi.

For Nikhil Nagpal, Chef Culinaire, Avartana, ITC Hotels, the restaurant is a fine culinary symphony where both food and service come together and offer a unique blend of their skills. This chemistry sets off wonderful innovations on the plate creating seamless and memorable dining experiences—offering nuggets of information and back stories of the dish, its ingredients, techniques and trivia to the diner. “Since the dishes are imaginative, it is important to communicate the same to the diners with knowledge and panache— be it a diner who is from the region and can relate to flavours from home or an uninitiated traveller, whosimply enjoys the cuisine without being overwhelmed by the spices," explains Nagpal.

Avocado thechha paired with potato papad at Kari Apla
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Avocado thechha paired with potato papad at Kari Apla

The subset of progressive south Indian food allows for chefs to combine their extensive training in international cuisines with a mosaic of flavours from the region they have roots in. The result is a playful and unique chef-centric menu. Take, for instance, the team of Varghese and Tewari of Kari Apla. While the latter has previously worked at Bastian and Taj Santacruz, Varghese worked at The Orient Express at Taj Palace, New Delhi, before joining Comorin’s opening team under chef Manish Mehrotra. “Whatever I had done until joining Comorin had been very European, and technique-based, where ingredients were handled with precision and delicacy. Within Indian cuisines, the recipes are not standardised and streamlined. At Comorin, I learnt to streamline everything and then cook it in large batches," says Varghese.

That helped when Tewari and he decided to open Kari Apla in 2023, which focused on flavours from south India, a region that both their families hailed from. Every dish that they put on the menu is inspired by research backed by stories gleaned from trav els or conversations back home. They then follow a scientific process—from testing to standardisation. “It is a long process, but also the most fun," he adds.

And from thereon begin artistic splashes of creativity—matching souring agents with fish curries, working with indige nous varieties of rice, turning the idea of chip and-dip on its head with an avocado thechha paired with potato papad, and transforming kadala curry into hummus, garnished with crisp curry leaves. Kari Apla is a completely electric kitchen, with no fire involved. In her 2023-piece, writer Roshni Bajaj Sanghvi wrote: “At Kari Apla, these juxtapositions aren’t messy or fussy, their flavours ring clear and true.

Meanwhile, in Goa, chef Harish Rao has been trying to highlight the oft-forgotten recipes from south India through bold inventive techniques. Hosa, which celebrated its second anniversary last year, has a new menu featuring dishes such as shimeji mushroom varuval with mushroom pate, an aubergine steak in a peanut sesame curry topped with a yogurt sphere, and a slow roasted Madurai lamb shank paired with potato noodles and traditional pathri bread.

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“It is the creative interpretation that makes all the difference. Take a ubiquitous combination such as potato and cauliflower. We look at ways of interpreting it that ultimately makes sense on the plate," says Rao. So, he and the team have come up with Cracked Potatoes, featuring cauliflower mousse and hibiscus dust. Then there is a rendition of toddy shop prawns—traditionally eaten along the backwaters in Kerala with raw mango slices slathered with red chilli and salt. “We have created an accompaniment of raw mango salad. Anyone eating it will be assailed with nostalgia, while also recognising it as a contemporary dish. The repertoire of food from the south is vast, but some aspects have been tampered with or not showcased at all. Take, for instance, the Maratha influence in Thanjavur cuisine. This year onwards, we will be showcasing a lot of micro cuisines, to get to the roots of every state from the region," he says.

Just like there is no ‘singular’ south Indian cuisine, but a tapestry of vibrant flavours and recipes, there is no one way to define a Progressive southern Indian menu. “This diversity, in a way, gives chefs the freedom to draw inspiration from their personal experiences, local ingredients and cultural roots, creating dishes that are both authentic and innovative," concludes Sanghvi.

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