Eateries get a taste of local with Covid-19 pandemic impacting supplies

Imported fare makes way for homegrown produce

If you’ve ever had tuna at Olive Qutub, a Mediterranean and European restaurant in Delhi’s old-world Mehrauli, it is likely that the fish came from Japan. Or if you’ve tried the chocolate torte here, chances are the accompanying raspberries were flown in from some country in the West. But that was before the pandemic.

As Covid-19 forced countries to secure their borders and the supply of imported ingredients dried up overnight, restaurants have had to tweak their menus or go local.

So, Olive Qutub now replaces raspberries with falsa (black currant) from Uttarakhand whenever it’s in season. “Even when it’s not in season, we don’t immediately switch to raspberries, but are constantly on the lookout for good-quality berries grown in India,” says Dhruv Oberoi, head chef at Olive Qutub and Serai, a culinary cocktail bar in Mehrauli.

As for the tuna, it now comes from the Andamans. And to prepare gherkins, the chefs now use kundru (ivy gourd) in place of imported cucumber.

The shift has meant tying up with farmers and local vendors to source freshly grown seasonal fruits and vegetables. “I run a cuisine that is very international, and this shift is an opportunity for me to use fresh local ingredients,” says Oberoi.

He’s not alone in this. Over at the Taj Mahal hotel in New Delhi, executive sous chef Rajesh Singh says, “A lot of imported fish are either in short supply or are unavailable. So, more local fish, like river fish, have been placed on the menu.”

Fish supply was once considered extremely stable and reliable but has now become volatile. Some recent news reports even suggested that the Russia-Ukraine war had hit the supply of filet-o-fish burgers at McDonald’s, but the fast-food chain told Business Standard this was not the case. Turns out, the burger is indeed available.

Localising the supply chain is also a tremendous opportunity to help the environment by reducing shipping and storage needs, emissions and energy usage, says Satbir Bakshi, corporate chef at The Oberoi.

The Oberoi group now sources fresh fish and seafood from the Andamans. It was also among the first hotel brands in India to introduce burrata cheese on the menu, “which was made by a priest in Bengaluru,” says Bakshi. They have also tied up with a farmer who cultivates local fruits like mangosteen, rambutan, heirloom tomatoes and avocados. “We have managed to get our imports back, and now have a steady mix of local and imported products,” Bakshi adds. 

Like elsewhere, at The Claridges, New Delhi, the pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war caused difficulty in sourcing imported meat, cheeses, sauces etc. “We have now shifted to high-quality locally produced cheese from Uttarakhand and Gujarat,” says Vivek Rana, the executive chef. The shift did not result in any change in the menu. “We continue to serve items if we are able to maintain accuracy with local ingredients. Otherwise, we take them off the menu,” Rana says.

Chef Neeraj Tyagi, director of culinary at Pullman and Novotel, New Delhi, has, meanwhile, taken the supply problem as an opportunity to play with the menu whenever possible.

“We work very closely with artisanal farmers to source our ingredients. This allows us to change our menus often, based on what’s in season, when earlier we would do it just once a year,” he says.

Other concerns, too, had chefs rethinking what to put out on the table. For instance, “imported frozen produce held ambiguity because you don’t know when it was frozen,” says Tyagi.

The pandemic also made people more aware of the quality of food they consume. “That’s how we got to introduce an amla salad, which is a big hit among patrons,” says chef Oberoi.

Not just legacy hotels, new entrants, too, have had to urgently rethink their sourcing strategies. Take the case of Loci and Toot, a European café and winery that came up in Mumbai in January this year. Says its owner Mohit Balachandran, “While we have to rely on imports like olive oil, the availability and price of some items became an issue.” So, instead of using imported sausages, they have now started home-curing the meat and are sourcing fish from Kolkata instead of using imported salmon.

Chef Vanshika Bhatia, at OMO café, an ingredient forward place that opened in Gurugram in March this year, adds, “Things like parmesan cheese, avocados, asparagus and celery root were suddenly unavailable (because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict). But we had to keep serving our patrons, so we got in touch with a few farmers and found that there are good-quality local alternatives available for almost everything.”

“Now we proudly write on our menu that our avocados come from Manipur and vanilla is sourced from Coorg,” Bhatia adds. The artisanal cheese, earlier imported, is also now home-sourced.

The shift to indigenous produce has not necessarily reduced costs for some.

“The sourcing cost has increased substantially since all the imported products were supplied to us in bulk,” says Rana. Now, while the supply is unadulterated and high-quality, the quantity is limited, so the cost is high, he adds.

Chef Prasad Metrani, director of culinary at Conrad Bengaluru, however, says that since locally sourced ingredients are readily available, it reduces the cost of import and warehousing. Whatever be the case, the pandemic has made a strong case for restaurants going local.

Organic shift

The shift to local ingredients has sent the demand for seasonal organic produce skyrocketing. “We have seen a 75-80 per cent increase in our B2B business in the last two years,” says Achintya Anand, founder, Krishi Cress, an urban farm in New Delhi that delivers micro-greens, fruits and vegetables to hotels and restaurants across the country.

“We supply a lot of stuff that was earlier being imported —  baby carrots, Indian asparagus, and different kinds of mushrooms,” he adds.

For Kavita Bagga, director of Delhi-based KARA Organics, too, business has doubled in these pandemic years. “Catering to gourmet restaurants and chefs who want good-quality produce has definitely increased. Also because people are more conscious about the quality of what they eat.”