It is not as if millets as a food group conventionally evokes the idea of a mouth-watering meal, let alone something worth paying for. However, some enterprises in the city are challenging this notion by using millets as a primary ingredient in their preparations, promising both healthy and delectable food.
Prem’s Graama Bhojanam (PGB) in Adyar is arguably the city’s first restaurant to offer a platter of rural dishes prepared exclusively from millets.
Samai kuzhipaniyaaram, varagu idli, thinai doasai, kambu roti, kavuni idiyappam, samai thayir sadham and thoothuvalai rasam saadham are some of the dishes they offer.
Its founder N.S Krishnamoorthi, who has worked in the food industry with Hindustan Lever for over three decades, says that it took a good nine months to finalise the menu. The challenge was in ensuring quality and consistency. “Both my wife and I conducted many trials for all the dishes. However, it was cracking our most famous dish - thattu idli - that took the longest time — nearly three months, ” he says.
Srivatsa N. C., the founder of Food Karma in Besant Nagar which specialises in health food, faced a similar problem. He says, “Cooks these days don’t know how to cook with millets. Therefore, we needed to train them especially in this. ”
None the less, the demand has been heartening, they say.
Without investing in heavy advertising, Krishnamurthi has managed to attract a wide clientele of young professionals, students, and senior citizens. “Our publicity has been based on word-of-mouth and through social media. I obsessively keep tabs on food blogs, Zomato and food groups on Facebook” he says.
Muralidhar Shreedharan, who runs a food blog, observes that health food is a niche market waiting to blossom. “Places like PGB and Food Karma can cater to a public that wants both variety and healthy options” he explains.
Nithya Rajasekaran, a food photographer and blogger, however is sceptical. “Sustaining your clientele with a specific ingredient like millets is a challenge. Figuring an optimum pricing is also something these places will have to grapple with,” she says.
Here to stay or not, only time will tell; until then, millets seem to be the flavour of the season.
