6 minute read
CULTURALLY SENSITIVE. ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE.
(Images in this article are courtesy of Locavore).
Chef Thomas Zacharias shares his thoughts on forest-foraging and indigenous cuisine.
Jamyrdoh? Baskarel? Perilla? Fiddlehead ferns?
Where traditional ingredients add an unusual twist to our dining experience.
Where forest-foraged foods evoke unexpected flavours.
Welcome to Thomas Zacharias’ world with Locavore↗.
A sensitive, experienced and culture-curious chef, Thomas is on an eternal quest to discover what we can learn from our forest foods and the communities who consume them.
“The starting point has to come from a certain sense of humility and curiosity, to see how we can even begin to try and incorporate these ingredients. It doesn’t have to be a really crazy, innovative idea. Sometimes a simple idea can showcase those vegetables far better than a complex one,” he says.
A simple pakoda or paratha that allows the unique flavours of a foraged vegetable to make itself felt, creates more of an impact than a complex preparation masked with a mish-mash of other ingredients.
On a recent trip into the Garo and Khasi hills in Meghalaya, Thomas was fascinated by a wild, aromatic herb, Houttuynia Cordata, commonly known as Fish Mint in English or Jamyrdoh in Khasi. It’s variegated leaves, tinged fuschia around the edges, have a distinct flavour that resembles oysters!
Not only does it look gorgeous and taste delicious, but this herb also has noteworthy anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-inflammatory medicinal properties. It goes a long way towards keeping our gut, lungs and skin healthy. Yet, it is not the only wild ingredient that has incredible health benefits. In fact, the indigenous communities that consume foraged foods have heightened immunity and resilience to several diseases, thanks to the nutritional and medicinal properties present in their everyday diet.
Most tribal and indigenous communities will only consume what is in season, and eat a variety of vegetables, leaves, herbs, sh and animals that rarely make it to urban tables.
While Thomas was traveling through Meghalaya, he found that they regularly consumed several varieties of tiny, dried river fish such as Kha Saw, Kha Leng and Kha Bah. There are over thirty to forty varieties of fish, which are often dried, smoked or pickled. Sometimes the fish is cooked over an open charcoal fire, giving it a delicious flavour, while one of the most common preparations is Tungtap, a delectable smoked fish chutney.
The monsoon season is a great time to go fishing in the Khasi region, but communities are always extremely prudent to ensure that they fish sustainably. Overfishing is frowned upon, and young spawn are immediately released back into the water.
For Thomas, the rainy season is traditionally a busy season as well. His first foray into foraged ingredients began with seasonal foods, sourced from Palgarh’s forests in Maharashtra during the monsoon. It’s a short season, and he’s had to quickly learn how to treat, prepare and adapt the ingredients. There are no guidebooks or cookbooks that teach you how to treat and cook these foods, so Thomas prefers to go straight to the source. He often engages with locals in their homes, learning recipes from home kitchens while using foraged ingredients.
In doing so, he has gained deep respect for the know-how of the indigenous communities who source the ingredients from the forest. He firmly believes that the communities who forage and consume these foods need to be acknowledged and celebrated for contributing to the cuisine.
Apart from the cooking techniques and properties of the food, he has also come to appreciate their zero-waste ethos. Every part of the plant or animal is utilized and consumed. Even the greens of mainstream produce like sweet potato and cauliflower are cooked and eaten, instead of being discarded.
Sensitivity is key. He feels that the communities who harvest and consume these foods deserve to be respected and compensated for their expertise, and that their knowledge should trickle down not only to the chefs and kitchen crew, but also to the diner.
While working at The Bombay Canteen, Thomas often placed forest foraged seasonal vegetables on the menu. The servers were trained extensively to not only understand the culinary and nutritional elements of the ingredient, but also how it was prepared. They would then take the raw ingredients on a platter to the diner’s table, along with a note on the properties of each ingredient, to share with clients.
Educating his own team and the diner is a critical part of the process. Thomas believes that sharing the knowledge that he has garnered adds value and ups the appreciation for the ingredients and the communities who sourced them is heightened, enhancing the overall dining experience.
What he quickly realized, however, is that it was one thing to bring the ingredients and recipes to people in restaurants in Mumbai. It was a whole different ball game to take foodies into the heartland of the regions where the culinary traditions and ingredients originate. From Goa to Meghalaya, Nagaland to Maharashtra, Kerala to Assam, Thomas criss-crosses the subcontinent in his quest for culinary knowledge and experiences, taking small groups of people with him, to discover local culinary traditions that are unique to each location.
While the terroir and the ingredients may differ, there are similarities in the food practices. Most indigenous communities will only consume what is in season, ensuring that they do so in a manner that is ecologically sensitive and in harmony with nature.
One of the reasons why he is in love with the north-east of India is because ancient foods and traditional methods of preparation are still very much a part of mainstream cooking. In this part of the country, the tribal and indigenous communities are not marginalized, and their culinary traditions are at the forefront of the food scene.
They have extensive knowledge of the properties of each of the ingredients that are passed down from generation to generation. A food knowledge and culture that Thomas fervently hopes will continue to be cherished. Thomas’ own culinary aesthetic is deeply rooted in tradition. He feels that he must first master the traditional preparation and local recipes before trying anything innovative with the ingredients.
But on a recent visit to the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development’s headquarters in Rome, he highlighted the subcontinent’s indigenous cuisine and culinary heritage, while unleashing his culinary creativity and curiosity!
From Porcini mushrooms dusted with black sesame from the Khasi hills, to pairing an Italian Bacala with Tungtap (dried fish chutney) and a Puri, he ably demonstrated how local foods and ingredients can be used in combination with ingredients from other parts of the planet, to create spectacular global cuisine. So, what’s next on his plate? We can’t wait to find out what’s cooking as we follow Thomas around the subcontinent in his quest for the next inspiring, indigenous culinary experiences!
