Chef Niyati Rao on bringing Italy and Meghalaya in a plate
Chef Niyati Rao’s interest in culinary arts began in childhood. It was nurtured through travel, conversations, discovering ingredients in local markets, and helping her mother in the kitchen. Having struggled with a reading disability, subjects like maths and science never really held her attention; food and its many little pleasures did. Niyati says ingredients have always been the heroes at her flagship restaurants, Ekka in Mumbai and Nonna Mei in Shillong.
Chef Niyati was in town recently for a delicious pop-up at Taj Bengal, which showcased signatures from her Shillong diner. Literally meaning ‘grandmother’ in both Italian (Nonna) and Khasi (Mei), her diner Nonna Mei brings together the warmth and techniques of Italian kitchens and the rich flavours of Meghalaya’s indigenous products in dishes like wild perilla pasta and fermented chilli pizzas. “Turning everyday ingredients into something extraordinary is what culinary art is all about,” says Niyati.
We caught up with her to know more about this unique fusion of Italian and Khasi flavours, her ideas about the craft, and more.
Apart from learning about the craft, what else is needed to become a chef today?
Management and communication, definitely. We’re in the people’s business, and we are here to make people happy through our food. You will need to hone your communication skills. If you don’t understand your numbers and costs, if you don’t keep standardised recipes, or have standard operating procedures, it would be difficult to run a restaurant. If you are not good at it, find a business partner who is. I think I am pretty decent, but many of my other head chefs are brilliant at it. Together, we hold the fort, but Sagar Neve, my husband and business partner, is the financial head. He keeps all of us in line. That’s very important.
You can’t be an entrepreneur if you are just creative, since you are responsible for your employees and their families.
Since your restaurants are ingredient-forward, are there any Indian ingredients left unexplored by the world?
Kokum is one very common kitchen ingredient in Maharashtra and Goa that the world hasn’t yet explored to its full potential. At Ekka, we make a kokum dressing and put it on tomatoes. Guests say they never knew tomatoes could taste like this. Kokum lends a sweet-and-sour edge, and no ingredient can replicate that. You get dried kokum fruit abundantly, but you also get the highly acidic concentrate called ‘kokum agal’. My mother always stores jars at home, and whenever she visits me, she gets me some too. It is strong and fermented, and I think people have not explored how great it is. So yeah, I am obsessed with kokum right now.
According to you, what would be that one underrated Indian cuisine?
Frankly, all of them are underrated. There is a difference between being underrated and being popular. People outside India know Indian cuisine by just a few Punjabi dishes, but even Punjabi cuisine is underrated. The world has not even scratched the surface of what authentic Tamil cuisine is or what real Punjabi cuisine is. In India, each state’s cuisine is subdivided into regions, communities, and even families. Indian cuisines are just too intricately detailed for anyone to judge them correctly.
How did you blend Italian dishes with Khasi ingredients?
We had always planned to open an Italian restaurant in the hills, and Shillong had the perfect setting, with a little nippy weather and a few spells of rain now and then. It just had London weather. For Italian cuisine, you need great ingredients, and I realised that the crossover happened naturally. Italian and Meghalayan cultures are similar in terms of ingredients and family life. So, our diner has Italian philosophies but all Meghalayan ingredients.
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