Indian food, Aussie style

Indian food has fascinated Australian chefs for some time now, and is only growing in popularity. But what is it about this cuisine that attracts Australian chefs? Matt Moran, Curtis Stone, Christine Mansfield, Kurma Dasa are just a few of the many Australian chefs who have been caught up in the flavours of Indian cuisine from its myriad of regions.

For Mansfield, a lover of Punjabi food, it is one word that keeps on bringing her back to India and Indian cuisine, and that is ‘spice’. Her first trip to India was in the mid 1990s when she was invited to be a guest chef at a restaurant there. “That was the starting point of a life-long love affair,” admits Mansfield to a source. “It’s a country I just ‘got’. It got under my skin!” She now has “an enduring emotional connection to its beguiling, seductive and addictive flavours”. Mansfield is one of Australia’s most celebrated chefs, and is considered to be one of Australia’s culinary experts on India cuisine. She is an author, food writer, food manufacturer, presenter, teacher, gastronomic traveller, and is even doing a one off event as part of the Good Food Month. Some of her books include Stir, Spice, Christine Manfield Originals, Christine Manfield Desserts, Fire - A World of Flavour, Lantern Cookery Classics, Fire & Spice and Tasting India.

Another lover of Indian cuisine is one of Australia’s celebrity chefs, Curtis Stone, who has numerous cookbooks and television shows that showcase his talent. “I love Indian food!” he says with undoubted enthusiasm. “I have cooked Indian food too, but to me authenticity is very important with regards to cuisine,” he reveals. Which is why he went to the source to learn how to cook it. “A cuisine represents a culture, and in India the culture is so vast, with so many languages, religions, geographic and climate conditions... these differ from place to place, so there is a lot for me to learn,” says Stone.

Kurma Dasa on the other hand, was drawn to Indian food, and in particular vegetarian cuisine, by his first experience of the food prepared in the kitchens of a Hare Krishna temple in Sydney’s Paddington. Dasa began his career as a chef in these kitchens by cutting vegetables, grinding fresh herbs and spices and assisting in the preparation of their wellknown Sunday feasts. Since those humble beginnings, Kurma has gone on to teach his own style of stylish and eclectic gourmet vegetarian cuisine.

Dasa describes his style of cooking in three succinct words, “Vedic vegetarian cooking,” where the process of creating dishes is an act of devotion. Dasa was the head chef at Melbourne’s vegetarian restaurant Gopal’s for many years, and is the author of numerous cookbooks, including Great Vegetarian Dishes, Cooking with Kurma and Quick Vegetarian Dishes He has over a million books in circulation, which have never gone out of print, and has even had his first cookbook translated into Farsi, the language of Iran, which is quite an accomplishment. Dasa has appeared on television cooking shows and currently teaches cooking classes.

Both Dasa and Mansfield question what contemporary Indian cuisine could actually be, because the nature of Indian cuisine is regional. “Australians might have a very narrow perception of what Indian food is, but there is enormous regional variation,” says Mansfield. “It would be great to see those variations translate into a separate restaurant cultures in Australia”. For Mansfield, Indian food is all about “the balancing of flavour and texture as well”.

Dasa believes that Indian food on the lower end of the spectrum is never quite as good in Australia, as it is in India. He recommends the Hare Krishna experience for quality Indian food in Australia, at the organisation’s new centre on Sydney’s Broadway, near the University of Technology Sydney; or Govindas in Darlinghurst, which he describes as true contemporary Indian-Australian food (if there is such a thing). Or for those who live in Queensland, there are many Hare Krishna places to eat which are doing a great job of popularising vegetarian Indian food in Australia.

“You do get Indian food in Australia, but it’s not the same; it’s spicier and more fragrant in

India,” says celebrity chef Matt Moran, co-owner of ARIA restaurant in Sydney and Brisbane, ARIA Catering, Chiswick Restaurant, Riverbar & Kitchen, and Opera Bar. He is also host to several TV shows including From Paddock to Plate. “That’s because the ingredients are fresher,” says Moran, of Indian cuisine. Savouring the flavour and cooking with local produce is a mantra by which Moran swears by.

“A lot of Indian food is timeless because it has such a strong, ingrained tradition,” says Mansfield. But “even in India, the food that you get for tourists is very different to the authentic experience”.

“Australian cuisine is very relaxed and has multicultural influences, including those from Asia and Europe,” says Stone.

“Indian cuisine has complexity, and the balance of spices for particular dishes in particular regions is a major factor in India.”

Curtis says that a number of Indian dishes including daal-baati, biryani and chicken tikka are among his favourite dishes.

When asked about what his favourite dish is, Dasa quickly answered with khichari, an every-day comfort food enjoyed throughout India, which is a nutritious combination of rice and dal with various seasonings including fresh coriander, turmeric, fennel, chilli and more. In some regions the steaming hot

Kurma Dasa on the other hand, was drawn to Indian food, and in particular vegetarian cuisine, by his first experience of the food prepared in the kitchens of a Hare Krishna temple in Sydney’s Paddington dish is served with a dollop of ghee (clarified butter) on top. The dish almost transcends all regional barriers, and he has done justice to the dish by including the recipe in all three of his books. It is a wonderful thing to eat at any time of the day.

“India is a visual feast and a gastronomic paradise, seducing with its food and contagious hospitality. Modern India has 29 states, each with distinctive food,” states Mansfield. “The Indian table is an extraordinary feast for the senses, spices are to the tastebuds what colour is to the eyes, and the symphony is magical and powerful,” she claims.