The Hindu Business Line : One for the taste buds

Young Indians, particularly in our metros, are eating out with passion. Buoyed by economic liberalisation, luxury cuisine is now a lifestyle choice.

What's on the plate of urban Indians today? A sumptuous affluence of choice. The evidence? Thousands of burgeoning restaurants. Whether it's Bengali home fare at Kewpies or prawns in a coconut shell flambéed with Malibu at Saffron in Kolkata. Or rich stuffed parathas in the old Delhi gallis or the delectable grill at the Hyatt Regency. Even rasa-vadai at Chennai's Woodland's drive-in or the rooftop Aqua at The Park in Chennai, with its experimental New World notes from Australia or New Zealand. What of Mumbai? If the ubiquitous Thai cuisine is now a bore, there's always the fusion cuisine of Rahul Akerkar's brilliant Indigo.

Indian metros have rediscovered eating out with a passion over the last decade. Buoyed by economic liberalisation, fanned by annual vacations in Phuket or Paris, the Indian palate has come of age. Beyond investments in duplex apartments or annual car upgrades by age 25, luxury cuisine is now a lifestyle choice. Perhaps Bangalore, the IT/ BPO haven, symbolises this phenomenon most dramatically.

In this city of eight million plus, options range from a spongy set-dosa at a stand-n-eat `darshini' to a Sunday champagne brunch at the seven-star Leela Palace. Their primary clientele could be the expatriate influx, business diners, the youthful tech-savvy crowd (creating an estimated 30,000 new local jobs annually), and double income no kids (DINK) families. In their lives, home cooking has increasingly been relegated to the backburner.

At Koshy's on busy St Mark's Road, Bangalore's favourite adda since the 1960s, its third generation proprietor, the affable Prem Koshy, observes over chilled jasmine tea, "There's a newfound freedom in the air. We now have large parties for the young, earning Indian, some just 20 or 21. They come in huge gangs, maybe even a whole office. All of a sudden, our older customers are seeing a new kind of confident, vibrant youth, who know they can sit down in a restaurant and easily pay for what they drink and eat."

Deep pockets

In lifestyle terms, this translates to monthly salaries of anywhere between Rs 20,000 and Rs 2 lakh for young achievers. They are fed up of ghar ka khana or mess meals. The office food court, teeming with pizza and burger outlets, cola and coffee machines, palls within a month or two. That's when sizzling platters cast their spell, largely on the 18-40 age group. So do the throbbing pubs, with imported liquor and wine now accessible at upper middle-class restaurants.

Lekha Gondhkar, 24, is part of this evolving picture. A senior software quality engineer, this Bangalorean is a foodie enough to set up an office food club. On an average, she eats out about seven meals a week, occasionally round the clock.

"The fact that many youngsters now have a disposable income, makes it easy for them to indulge./ This can be largely attributed to the well paying IT and ITES sectors," she says.

"I initially began eating out because of boredom over homemade food," she stresses, gauging her monthly gastronomy budget at about Rs 4,000-5,000. "I often eat out with friends, colleagues or family... I haven't had too much time to experiment with cooking. That's something I intend to explore later."

Another case in point would be 30-plus couples like development worker Anasuya Sengupta and software professional Ashwin Mathew. "We eat out, or order out, about twice or thrice a week, typically when we're too tired to cook. Or when we're going out somewhere on a weekend," says Anasuya. Unlike the executive segment, they "don't spend as much on individual meals, and hardly eat any pizza."

What else defines the Great Indian Gourmet Boom?

Arjun Pandalai, Sales Manager at the mid-budget Taj Gateway, says there's been a 20-22 per cent spurt in food and beverage sales in recent times. "Bangalore today has the largest number of expatriates, a drastic change in the profile of people it is attracting. Our hotel guests today have travelled the world over, know about food, and are willing to experiment."

A menu in a jiffy might toss up Malabar fish curry with muslin-fine, Mangalorean neer dosa at the Gateway's Karavalli restaurant or a multi-course buffet at the Mainland China chain. Perhaps falafel or sushi. Even goulash or Korean pork with kimchi. Washed down with Chianti or a single malt whisky.

How has the influx of a new clientele impacted Bangalore's upper crust restaurants? The Park's executive chef Abhijit Saha muses, "Indians now travel abroad often, so they're more open to food choices. Even young couples are beginning to invest in fine living, beyond the earlier generation's choices of fixed deposits or gold."

At the upmarket i-Talia restaurant, with its selection of poached redolent chicken breast, orange and mango salad, or its roulade of duck with olive potato mash and porcini sauce, he notes, "They might come in once a month, to try just a single dish. After all, you don't go on vacation every day... "

Responding to the market mood, however, the boutique hotel's more informal Monsoon eatery offers a late-night buffet at Rs 300 plus taxes — including biryanis, appam and stew, Thai curry with rice/ noodles, and even pizzas till 2 a.m.

Adds Koshy, "The restaurant business is built on a symbiosis. Among the younger crowd, which literally eats three meals a day at Koshy's, is a young lady who's single and working very hard. So, I've planned a balanced, low-calorie diet menu for her. I help out with that."

If people like him didn't, the toll in health terms could be terrifying. With erratic exercise patterns, disturbed sleep cycles, and stress-triggered heart attacks striking younger people, the writing on the wall is clear. Obesity, soaring cholesterol and triglyceride levels and physical burnout before 40.

Cooking up excuses?

What's the scene beyond Sodexho passes, with single-meal expenditure often totting up Rs 400-2,000? Food critic Ajit Saldanha observes one aspect, tongue-in-cheek, "I think most DINK couples are caught up in this corporate hot-shot image: no time for fripperies like food. Instead of hitting the malls, seconds outlets or property marts, they could try cooking. It's a natural stress buster."

Magazine-perfect, European-style kitchens fitted with every appliance of desire are often not enough to get the kitchen fires going. Nor is the availability of bottled ginger-garlic paste, packaged dahi, pre-diced supermarket vegetables, and heat-n-eat dishes that are microwave minutes away. Could that be thanks to a dearth of trained domestic help? Or insufficient weekend energy to expend on a weekly cook-and-freeze exercise (a la America)? And would such fare survive desi power cuts?

Despite bottled ginger-garlic paste, packaged dahi, pre-diced supermarket vegetables, or heat-n-eat dishes that are microwave minutes away. He or she is reluctant to essay grandma's traditional cooking. Nor have they allowed frozen foods like dosas and vadas to take the market by storm.

Their sure-fire option is a door-delivered meal, just a call away. Anasuya and Ashwin can order from their Koramangala neighbourhood Chinese food from Chung Wah, Kubay's Mangalorean choices, Bengali dishes from Lazeez, fiery Andhra fare from Bheema's or quasi-European dishes from the popular Casa Piccola chain. Or fall back on the time-tested pizza!

Mumbai apart, the dabba system has yet to make headway in other metros. So, takeaways prove popular. Such as desi noodles from a Sukh Sagar, Tandoori roti-chicken from Aangan, or Caribbean dishes from Sue's Food place.

As food options multiply on the double, food critic Chippy Gangjee looks beyond the chic scene, "Only a small proportion of Bangaloreans are found at the more exotic joints. That's why even the existing traditional food places have expanded as chains — such as the Pais, the Sukh Sagars, even the Imperial and Empire biryani places."

Will restaurant chains signal the business future? Referring to his popular eatery, with its trademark red-check tablecloth, adjacent to his more swank Jewel Box dining space, Koshy says, "Folks have told me: `This is a winning combination. You should open all over the country, franchise around the world.' I don't think that'll ever happen. This is about the personal touch." He is now trying to slowly switch to using organic vegetables and fruits. "We're going to be pesticide free... Do you know that we do an organic broccoli salad, sprinkled with powdered spirulina? With high fibre rolls, it's very good for you."

Lekha has a parting reflection: "Eating out and exploring food is great fun. But it could leave one with a deep hole in the pocket, health problems, and even boredom. The value and excitement would be more if it was a spaced out activity."

Or, as Anasuya suggests, tweaking the issue, "Ashwin and I would very much like to cook for ourselves a lot more. Should we open a restaurant?"

Picture by Shaju John

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