Dancing with Fire At

Hearth on The First

With a name derived from the furnace at home, this woodfire-driven restaurant is all about warmth, in its interiors and its food. Hearth on The First is bringing diners to Churchgate by the throng, time you paid a visit, too

Front row to the show at the open-plan kitchen

Text: Dr Nishant Kumar

Hearth on the First is located at the iconic Eros building. Following its refurbishment, Eros at Churchgate in Bombay has been restored to its former glory maintaining its Art Deco character, and yet rejuvenated and looking vibrant again. The restaurant is nestled on the first floor and maintains Eros' character with a beautiful bar, lots of wood and an interior opening into two balconies with views of Churchgate station and the maidan and an open-plan kitchen where you can see the chefs active at work, labouring on the food.

Hearth means the place in the home with an open fire or also means the lower part of a furnace. The restaurant takes its name from their wood-fired oven and grill which is at the heart of this restaurant’s ethos, interior design and gastronomic journey.
My favourite part of the décor is its open-plan kitchen with about 10 stools, allowing you a very intimate dining experience right where the food is being cooked. There are no gas stoves here and most of the cooking is done on their custom-made open woodfire grill.  Having logs burning with a grill, which is constantly being nurtured and almost pampered to get the best out of it, is certainly a delightful sight.

Most of us have grown up eating food from tandoors and charcoal grills, but this is a new way of cooking, which has got lots of traction in recent years. Probably originating in Argentina where the woodfire grills were used to cook steaks for a number of years, this method of cooking has evolved across the world and gained great favour amongst chefs and patrons because there is something very distinctive about food cooked on an open woodfire. The warmth, the charcoal glaze, the umami character from the smoke and the unique sensation of chargrill is something which cannot be replicated using conventional ovens.

Helmed by two young chefs – Mehul Sabharwal and Dhriti Mankame, there is a definite young and vibrant energy, not just in the kitchen, but in the restaurant itself.  It is an energy, which is palpable.  

Both chefs previously worked at what has now become an iconic restaurant – Ekaa.  They have also travelled extensively, working in various kitchens across the world and in India, and both of them bring something distinctive to the table.  

Chef-owners Sabby and Dhriti

The cutlery and crockery have been custom-made and I particularly enjoyed their choice of knives, which ranges from fantastic steak knives with handles made from a variety of materials to knives which would be more suitable for butchery than fine-dining. My favourite was the cleaver. There is a little bit of mischief in the way food is served and presented which is exciting.

The menu is interesting. It begins with a variety of starters with some interesting pizzas, salads and lots of the main courses, which as would be expected, have something to do with the open flame grill.  Most portions are individual portions, but there are a few dishes which are to be shared by the table.  

Our meal started with the Brie and Cherry Tomato Tart. What was interesting was that this had a tart made of almond flour, so it crumbles in your mouth leaving that sweetness and almost marzipan-like flavour filled with sun-dried tomatoes, an apple and Padron jam, tamarind gel and a Brie espuma. The Brie foam brings saltiness, tartness and umami character to this dish, which gets well-balanced by the sweetness of the tomatoes and the jam and the texture of the tart brings the whole dish together. A small bite, it is almost like an amuse-bouche to get things started –  a good start.  

This was followed by their Duck and Yorkshire, which is their take on the traditional Yorkshire Pudding served with roast duck and a confit duck leg with Scarmoza cheese. The Yorkshire Pudding is a flaky pastry, very commonly had in most English pubs with a Sunday roast.  The addition of the roast duck with the Scarmoza was an interesting addition and something different which I have not had before.  

Zucchini & Halloumi Skewer	Dirty Mushroom Rice	Pulled Duck Yorkshire

Next was their Hearth Classic – a dish which they are very proud of which was their hand-cut tenderloin tartare with chive aioli and pickled chilli served on a crisp sourdough.  I enjoyed the textures of this dish. The tenderloin tartare had that roughness and rawness, finished very well with the crispy sourdough texture and that wonderful aioli.

Hearth Signature Bread is a spiced biga bread with smoked white butter and cashew bell pepper creamer. Biga is an artisan Italian bread where the dough is fermented for 14-18 hours to achieve a nutty character and flavour and a hole-filled texture. This is cooked specially in their Hearth oven. It is the same dough, which is used for their pizzas. There is something wonderful of having freshly baked bread and this is all done in-house and a testament to their skills with their Hearth oven.

Next, we moved on to what I was most interested in which was their Truffle and Mushroom Skewers and the Spiced Lamb Skewer. Both are done on the wood-fired grill. The mushrooms are coated with a green masala, almost like a hirwa masala topped off with truffle aioli. The lamb skewer, which was delicious, is topped off with a mint cucumber salad and lemon.  Getting a good lamb skewer means that the meat has to be perfect, the marination on point, and if you under or overcook the meat, then it is ruined. I particularly enjoyed this dish and would definitely come back for more.

The skill with the open flame grills is that they need continuous adjustment and care, constantly changing the elevation of the food from the burning logs based on the strength of the flame, the temperature required to cook and then the temperature needed to char. It’s a constant dance which is customised for each piece on the grill. It's dynamic and ever-changing…

Fire-lef cooking at Hearth

Another of their most-requested dishes is the Hearth Stir-Fry. This is one of the few dishes which has nothing to do with the flame grill, but done on a conduction oven. Snap peas, bean sprouts, cilantro, Morning Glory, finished with a thecha mixture and brown butter foam. The thecha adds a certain spice and kick to this dish, elevating a normal stir-fry.  

Their Podi-Rubbed Chicken is essentially grilled chicken thigh served with white onion creamer and Gondhoraj.  The podi and the chicken go very well, but what heightens this dish is the white onion creamer. In one bite there is the succulence of the chicken, the spiciness of the podi and then the soothingness of the white onion creamer, which makes this a perfectly balanced dish.

One of the most awaited dishes for me was their Hearth Signature Smash Burger. It is difficult to find a good burger in the city, and for me all burgers are judged by the high standards of the Shake Shack Smash Burger. This one was done very well with a perfectly toasted brioche, nice caramelised onions and a beautiful patty done crisp at the edges and succulent in the middle with melted Cheddar and pickles.

Our main course, Dirty Mushroom Rice is kasundi mushrooms, rice, bean sprouts and a cucumber salad. This is again one of their sharing dishes, which adds a little bit of carb to lots of meat and grills.

Hearth Signature Smash Burger	Brie and Cherry Tomato Tart	Smoked Duck

Recently I have noticed that many Indian chefs have been experimenting with, and serving, duck. I think this has something to do with the availability of good local duck now, particularly from the farms in Nashik as opposed to previously having to import the duck from Bangkok or other countries.  

At Hearth, they have their own smoker so the ducks can be smoked in-house. For me, there was the Smoked Duck, served with a cranberry and beetroot chutney, a confit duck rice and the duck jus. The duck was finished on the grill to give it that extra charred character. The sweetness of the beetroot and cranberry with the earthiness of the duck breast, and then the really strong meaty flavours from the duck jus make this a dish which will definitely catch on.

For dessert, I had the Hearth S’mores, which was a rice cracker with chocolate and marshmallow fluff. I am a great fan of marshmallow fluff and chocolate and this dish brings a smile to the face. The Coffee Nolen Gur has smoked apples and deeply caramelised nolen gur with a miso ice-cream with toasted pecans. This is a wonderful dish, and though it seems that apples, gur and miso should not go together, somehow this dish works well.

I always remember what Marco Pierre White, celebrated 3 Michelin-star chef said, “Mother Nature is the true artist and the chef is just helping things along.”  Here you can see that the ingredients are top notch and they let the wood and the grill do most of the work without coming in the way.  

Warm interiors and intimate dining

The most amusing part of the meal was when we were leaving, instead of serving petit fours they have a small cabinet filled with treats from your childhood. For me it was the Fusen bubble gum which did it, but there is also an assortment of sweets, candies, chocolates, all from our childhood. This cupboard takes you back in time to a place where life was simpler, pleasures more affordable and satiation more achievable. A Fusen bubble gum gave me more joy than probably a Michelin-starred petit fours would.
The thing that one comes away most from a meal at Hearth on The First with is the enthusiasm of the chefs and the team.

Both, Dhriti and Sabby are young and they bring great energy to the kitchen which translates to the whole dining experience. There is an earnesty in wanting to succeed, a truthfulness about their abilities and a very warm aura around the kitchen which translates into every dish they put on the table.

You want the chefs to succeed and I personally hope they do.

Corn & Pineapple	Chocolate & Tamarind	Bone Marrow & Curry Leaves