“I believe that food must evolve but stay rooted to tradition,” says Chef Kashmiri Barkakati Nath, who has flown in from Guwahati to oversee an Assamese food festival in the city. When I ask her to explain that statement, she elaborates that access to better quality of ingredients and gadgets could help prepare a traditional dish in a finer manner today.
Chef Nath is self-taught. “Food is a big part of my life. I wanted to do hotel management but back then girls were not allowed to work in hotels,” she laughs. Married at 21 and living on a tea estate in the early 1990s, she found a mentor in her cook. “He was an old man who had worked for the British. He taught me everything about baking and desserts and Continental cuisine. He made the best soufflé, vol-au-vent, and éclair,” she reminisces. “I learnt about measuring ingredients; he used only ounces and pounds because of the British influence. He didn’t turn a hair even if he had to cook for 100 people. He would just say, ‘Okay. We'll make a chocolate soufflé or a lemon soufflé.’ And it would be the best.”
Slowly, as she began her journey as a foodie and baker, she also became more aware of what was happening in the food industry. The preponderance of fast food and its easy availability worried her. “It was so in your face that it pushed us to forgetting about our own foods.” When she realised how much junk had gotten into our diets, she began to look back at the foods she ate as a child. “My father played a pivotal role here. He was also very concerned and would tell me how they grew things and take me to the market to show where each item came from.” She recalled meals in her grandparents' home as fun times with lots of conversation and merry making. “My grandmother was a fabulous cook. I began to ask older cousins — I am among the younger ones in the family — how grandma would make certain dishes. I began to search for recipes.”
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Assamese food is ingredient based, she affirms. “We do not use many spices. Our cuisine allows the core ingredient to speak for itself.” She makes it a point to emphasise the cuisine’s non-spicy nature; “even though the bhut jolokia is grown here, our dals and curries are not spicy
What rouses her ire is the general perception that Assamese food comprises insects and worms. “I do not do tribal cuisine,” she says firmly. “My focus is on regular food. Whenever we talk about Assam, the media and most people think ‘tribal’ but 80% of Assamese society is non-tribal.”
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So what are the core ingredients of Assamese food? A lot of rice; there are hundreds of traditional varieties, she says. Many have been forgotten but are available. Joha, black rice, red rice, sticky rice..., she names a few. While researching, she also found that the cuisine uses a lot of souring agents. This, she believes, has to do with the hot and humid climate. “It probably helped prevent food from going bad at a time when people didn’t have refrigerators. And most souring agents have a cooling effect on the body. We also have a lot of fermented foods.”
She waxes eloquent on the greens. “When the rains come, Assam becomes a verdant land. Hundreds of thousands of greens sprout and we used as many as possible. Of course, not all are available now. But we still use the fiddle head fern and heart leaf. The latter is used as a tea in Japan. Our ancestors knew what to eat and when. Local and seasonal are the best because it helps the body absorb nutrients more easily.”
When it comes to the non-vegetarian part of the cuisine, she points out that meat was something that was reserved for special occasions and festivals. “Pork has become popular only over the last 20 years or so,” she says. “When I was a kid, we were not allowed to even bring it into our homes. Chicken was also not so popular. What we did eat a lot of was fish. Our rivers — the Brahmaputra and its tributaries — were full of fish. Almost every house had a pond in its backyard.”
Her journey has not been easy, she admits. But she wouldn’t exchange it for anything. "I learnt on the job. For example, working with people from five-star hotels taught me about measurements and operations. I’m a curious learner; wherever I go, I’m looking to learn something. Of course, it is arduous work to stand before a stove for hours. Unless you truly love it, you would not want to do it everyday.”
The Assam Feast
“I am trying to offer a variety through the thali.” She mentions a dish made with badami aloo, a special kind of baby potato grown only in Assam. She will also present a sherbet made of thekera, which is similar to kokum. “It is used a coolant in summer and used for stomach ailments.” A kheer made with black rice is another speciality.
Some vegetarian dishes will be showcased as starters. “Starters and desserts are Western concepts,” she says wryly. “A sweet was made only during festivals of special occasions. But this is what I mean by evolving. You can use a concept from another place to show off certain things that you might not be able to otherwise.”
The Assam Feast is on for both lunch and dinner at That’s Why Food, TV Samy Road (East), RS Puram, until May 13. A vegetarian thali costs ₹650 and a non-vegetarian one ₹750. Call 04224365118 for reservations