How Indian chefs are riffing on traditional flavours to serve sustainable, healthy dishes to a new generation of worldly diners
- In recent years, well-informed young Indians have started to move away from fast food in favour of fare prepared sustainably and with locally sourced ingredients
- Chefs from New Delhi to Goa are responding by taking diners back to their roots, and serving new spins on dishes enjoyed in regional communities for generations
Nestled in a mango grove on a 37-acre farm, Farmlore is the latest addition to the thriving food scene of Bangalore, India’s tech hub in the south of the country.
The 18-seat restaurant opened in 2021 and offers a 10-course seasonal farm-to-table menu curated by three chefs who have worked at Michelin-recommended restaurants: Johnson Ebenezer, the former executive chef of Nadodi, in Kuala Lumpur; Mythrayie Iyer, who worked at Noma, in Copenhagen; and Avinnash Vishaal, formerly of Frantzen, in Stockholm.
Farmlore does not peg itself to any particular cuisine; the food is made with indigenous produce and respect for the traditions of South India, but with a contemporary twist.
Dishes might include Bannur lamb – known for its fatty texture – rubbed with salt, wrapped in banana leaves and smoked for two days; or comfort foods like ambali – a meal of buttermilk, ragi porridge and lime pickle, and mappillai samba and horse gram khichdi – a rice and lentil dish – topped with peppery duck.
Even the restaurant’s desserts make use of local ingredients like curry leaf, jaggery and cow colostrum.
In the last decade, more restaurants like Farmlore, where chefs experiment with local ingredients using international techniques, have popped up across Indian cities.
