Costly on the palate

Anoothi Vishal dines out on the most expensive ingredients on Indian tables...and dinner for five that cost the host Rs 4 lakh.

Having grown up in middle-class, socialist India, let me confess to certain compunctions I feel talking about a Rs 40,000-per kilo fungus and the like. Chef Andrew Whiffen of the Oberoi hotel, who is helping me list some of the most exotic "" and expensive "" ingredients increasingly used by Indian chefs, tries to assuage some of that guilt.

"This is the kind of thing Westerners with a certain idea of India would say in the past," he points out, "But India is changing." And so it is.

According to Forbes, the international restaurant industry generates anything between $ 1.5-2 trillion in sales annually. The US accounts for about $500 billion of this, which leaves many billions being spent across the world, including in India, where spend on food has picked up like never before. Like the good chef substantiates, people are now splurging on their tables "" no thrift, or hypocrisy attached.

Some time ago New York's Serendipity restaurant created a $1,000 sundae. Apart from the 23 K edible gold on the scoops, the dessert was expensive because of its ingredients: vanilla ice-cream made with a blend of Tahitian and Madagascar beans; gourmet Chuao chocolate, candied fruits from Paris, truffles for the garnish, and a topping of dessert caviar. The sundae was served in a Baccarat crystal goblet, accompanied by an 18 K gold spoon!

In Mumbai or Delhi, ice-cream, fortunately, is not that expensive. But if you have change to spare, you can do worse than book a table at Hemant Oberoi's Chef's Studio at the Taj in Mumbai. This exclusive space can accommodate just six people and bills run upwards of Rs 15,000 per person "" with a DVD of the meal given afterwards.

When Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were in town, this was where they headed, running up a tab of Rs 4 lakh (for five people, with wine) and a special dish that the chef cooked up that night was ravioli with white truffles.

As far as ingredients go, white truffles (winter ones, from Piedmont; France too has them) are pretty much the thing: almost mythical "" if you consider accounts of how this rare "mushroom" is dug out from the woods by trained hounds "" and available for Rs 1 lakh in India, that is if they can be sourced at all. The winter black truffles from Italy are also preferred as luxury food.

The summer black truffles, on the other hand, are more accessible for about Rs 40,000 a kilo. Of course, your dish will probably have just a few milligrams of shavings, if at all fresh truffles are used, not the many oils, butters and pastes. You can also look at other fungi "" porcini (Rs 3,500 a kg, frozen) or morrels (Rs 7,000 a kg), fresh ones being costlier.

All the old favourites associated with finesse are more accessible too: Beluga caviar, for instance, can be procured at upwards of Rs 8,000 per ounce. And foie gras, fresh goose liver (consumed whole or as a pate), is a more understood term in India ""though I am not sure how many enthusiasts know about the birds being force-fed before slaughter, a controversial practice decried by animal rights activists.

But then, if you are not of that tribe, you can safely leave such conversation off the dining table. Indian chefs are increasingly incorporating foie gras on their menus not just because of its enhanced acceptability but also because of easier availability "" locally.

In India, fancy, imported chocolates, wines and cheeses are synonymous with luxury foods. But all over Europe, there is a different connotation that is gaining ground "" and that has much to do with local farming practices.

In gourmet capitals of the world where supermarket supplies had once ruled, farmer's markets are coming back in a big way. The most discerning chefs go to these personally and handpick each ingredient.

Often, the chefs personally know each farmer (his farm and family) and buy directly, usually ordering the entire produce of the small, organic farm. There's a huge premium on the "customisation" that follows. Even in India, this trend is making a beginning. While chicken may not be fancy food, "free range" chicken is (the animals are not fenced in), a practice now being followed at some local farms.

Similarly, everything from jumbo asparagus to artichokes are being grown organically and locally. Not to mention honey. Chef Whiffner introduces me to a Palampur-based company, Brbee, that makes a range of "monofloral" honeys in six flavours "" the bees extract nectar from just one plant species! At Rs 1,500-1,700 for 250 g, this is some expensive condiment. (White Balsamic vinegar with plenty of scope for maturing, by contrast, is available at Rs 500-600 for 250 ml.)

For many Indians, the most expensive ingredient on their plates is now fish. And we are not talking about Chennai lobsters. Thanks to the popularity of Japanese cuisine, fish such as tuna is available. But here, apart from the freshness, it is the cut that counts. Toro, or the pinkish belly, is the most expensive. Then, there are scallops off Scotland, Chilean bass, Norwegian salmon... Dine on.