Eating Out
Rhythm & Magic
at Avartana
Technique, creativity and flavours woven with the magic of traditional South Indian ingredients come together in delectable gourmet storytelling at Avartana, ITC Maratha
Text: Farzana Contractor
I can’t help but think that chefs these days, especially at fine dine restaurants and more, especially at restaurants situated in 5-star hotels must be under tremendous pressure to come up with new concepts to please their guests, keep up with the competition. With diners themselves becoming more discerning, more demanding, the task at hand can't be easy.
Three hours and a 13-course lunch later, I could do nothing more than sit back and marvel at the culinary creativity these days. I was at Avartana at the ITC Maratha, Bombay, indulging myself. I won’t say I was at a noisy feast, far from it, but I was certainly at an elegant and delightful luncheon. One that was created with untold imagination that surpasses what Bombay may have yet seen.
So what is Avartana, pronounced without accentuating the last ‘a’ all about? “What does avartan(a) mean?” I enquire looking at the attentive server at our table. “Ma’am, it's got a lovely meaning; it’s a Sanskrit word which personifies fusion, rhythm and iterations, and we plan to do just that. Through all the manifestations of our chefs’ creations upon your platter, within every course of your meal.” Wow, that’s impressive. The little speech as well as the thought behind. How well-spoken each of the servers turned out to be during the entire length of the elaborate meal, explaining nuances as we went along.
Between the three of us at lunch, we decided to try both the non-veg menu and the veg one. Both 13 courses. The restaurant is open all nights of the week for dinners, but lunch, or brunch – it's only on Sundays and has a limited menu. However, you have a lot more menu choices at dinner time. How many?
Well, Avartana offers five carefully crafted experiences redefining and reinventing South Indian cuisine. There is the seven-course Maya, the nine-course Bela, the eleven-course chef-driven Jiaa, the thirteen-course Anika as well as Tara, which also offers 13-course iconic presentations from the coast, predominantly seafood. All these menus showcase a star-studded cast of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian delights and the choice of customisations to include dietary restrictions and preferences. For us, bell peppers and pork were a no-no.
So what menu did we savour? Sunday lunch like I mentioned is a restricted menu, though if you ask me, it’s quite enough. We were going to attempt and hopefully go through all of the 13 courses of Kimaya. In effect we were about to go through a 26-course meal because like true Indians we were going to taste both veg and
non-veg from each other's plates. And we did manage to do that, with subtlety and good manners!
But here, now, I am going to stick to delving into the vegetarian options, for quite honestly I liked it more. Yes, more than the non-vegetarian menu with its lobster and seabass! Though I will touch upon a few of these at some point.
To set the ball rolling, very gently they placed in front of each of us, a pretty bowl of yellow flowers atop which sat on a stick, a concoction… This was the amuse bouche and had all three of us go, “Aww…”
And then began my 13-course veg journey. The first, Tempered Bottle Gourd, cleverly turned into a spaghetti form, was marinated with some coriander, mint and raw mango sauce. Accompanied with plum chutney and multiseed crisps (flax, sunflower and pumpkin). Hmm…nice, delicate…different.
It was followed by Cauliflower Crunch. Thinly-sliced cauliflower, roasted and standing in the plate on a delicate foamy mousse, like an art installation. I notice there is just a touch of this or that, a little whiff of an ingredient, in the two dishes that I have had until now. In this one it’s a touch of mint, a few grains of pomegranate. In the first dish, there was a delicate sprig of crispy curry leaves, presumably fried with a hint of light batter, stuck on the gourd.
That seems to be the concept at Avartana. To demonstrate the magic of traditional ingredients inspired by the authentic flavours rooted in South India. So you have the chefs and the kitchens delve into the distinct tastes of the different regions; treasured ghee from Kerala, Uthukuli butter and mango ginger sourced from Andhra Pradesh, sago and jaggery from Chennai, mochai beans from Tamil Nadu, tamarind from Telangana and of course the ubiquitous curry leaf that is freely used all over south India.
Continuing with my lunch, I now have in front of me Beetroot and Curd Cheese. It is served in a white porcelain dish and looks very attractive. Served on the bed of home-made curd cheese along with dusting of dehydrated curry leaf powder and puffed rice crisp, the maroon of the beetroot seems totally enhanced. It was as good for the palate as pleasing to the eye.
The Drumstick Dumpling with a dash of moringa broth, didn’t do much for me, so I will skip it. But the Jackseed Fritter with chunky tempered pineapple was a winner. Crispy, tangy and perfect to conclude with the Orange and Ginger Sorbet that followed. The dainty, miniscule little pink flower perched most precariously on the foam became a topic for conversation!
That's what such meals are all about, right? Conversations and gourmet storytelling.
If the beetroot was the most attractive dish until now, the Spiced Aubergine, which looked a bit messy with all the red Bedgi chilli emulsion circles, turned out to be the tastiest and the most favoured! I don’t know how the chefs managed to wrap the aubergine in a roasted eggplant sheet and serve it on a bed of tempered yogurt, but they did. You have to cut through the sheet, get at the aubergine mash, mix it with the chilli sauce and have it. Amazing. Just proves you must never judge a book by its cover!
To be honest, seeing the size of the portions at the start of the meal I had thought I would get through the 13 courses with ease, now after the aubergine I was not too sure. And there were six more coming along!
Asparagus, most of us love, but asparagus on a bed of idiyappam drizzled with some coconut stew, ah delectable! And then to totally change the taste in your mouth came some Crackling Spinach and Sweet Potato sitting on a sauce made of fermented sesame and jaggery. This is the height of culinary creativity. I was surely enjoying it all because these are all my favourite ingredients; sweet potato, sesame, jaggery!
Have you heard about Uthukuli? It’s a place in Tamil Nadu famous for white butter. For the next course, Uthukuli Morel, the chefs at Avartana made a puffy mini Malabari parotta, placed it on a bed of Uthukuli morel gravy and served it with butter toffee wrapped in a beetroot sheet. You open the toffee and allow the content to just spill on the parotta or the gravy, whatever you prefer, and scoop bits of it in your mouth. The fork becomes redundant. Fingers work better.
Talking about forks, spoons and knives, you know when you are at a table, in a group and going through a 13-course meal, it does get rather busy. Servers come along, trying discreetly to place all these plates and bowls of different shapes and hues, and also keeping an eye on the cutlery, seeing who needs another fork, a knife... it does become all too much. Why don’t they just place a very attractive container with a bunch of forks in it so we can just help ourselves as and when we need it! I am certain it will not take away from the experience of fine-dining, not in the least. Will just help reduce a few server trips... Well, that’s an aside and a small customer feedback.
Okay, so now, I have the Colocasia Rice that I have to go through. Which is sticky rice steamed in banana leaf and served with okra yogurt, delightful! But I am doing a swap with my neighbour! I would like to try the Lamb Rice. Same, same, with the only difference being the peppered lamb. And I love lamb!
So, I will now meander into a few of the non-veg dishes. The Pan-Seared Lobster tossed in Guntur chilli served with spring onion emulsion and accompanied with tapioca crisp was very different from how one eats this seafood. It was a bite-size lobster bit, perfect as a starter. The Lamb Brain Fritter tossed in brown butter with scallions along with a dusting of dehydrated beetroot powder was a revelation. Even those who feel squeamish about eating an organ would overcome any inhibitions. The Steamed Seabass served on a bed of tempered butter rice along with fermented gongura emulsion and garnished with fried gongura leaf was the only disappointment on the menu, not from the taste point of view, but the lack of seabass. The fish came in a thinly sliced portion.
But let’s get on to the last two on the menu, common to both, the Raw Mango Pudding and the Citrus Coconut.
As it states the first is a pudding made from raw mango. It comes with a charred papad on the side, with a tiny candle and a wick complete. Pray, what is this candle and what is it doing there stuck in the middle of the pudding? Well, it’s an edible candle made of ghee and the wick is made from a lotus stem. As the server comes and lights it, it actually comes aglow. He instructs you to let the candle melt and then crush the papad on the pudding, mix it and have it. The pudding is served in a dish made of polished granite, with two circular bowls fashioned into it. Neat. And the drama is appreciated, too. Coz when you go to dine out on a meal like this, it is for the total sensory experience, right?
Now for the finale; the Citrus Coconut served with coffee ice-cream, I can swear it was the best filter coffee I have ever 'eaten'. Perfect ending to a South Indian meal. As for the little piece of iced citrus coconut, it really had me fooled. What are these chaps in the kitchens up to these days? Are they chefs or chefs practising fine arts?
For sure, Avartana deserves an applause. The restaurant surpasses gastronomic paradigms in a testament to the marriage of tradition and innovation. To find a perfect balance, to smoothly serve 13 courses, to satiate all your senses, make you feel just right, not over-stuffed, not longing for more – except perhaps longing to get there again, and soon – is great credit to serving more than satisfying fare.
Avartana
ITC Maratha, Ashok Nagar, Sahar, Andheri East, Mumbai 400099
Ph: 022 2830 3030