F & B

Toasting to Latin American cuisine

Suman Tarafdar

Imagine India without carrot, corn, pumpkin, squash, tomato, papaya, vanilla and of course potato and chili. That's just about the debt of gratitude owed to what is today Latin America - home to one of the richest biodiversities on the planet. Given the linkages, it is a bit of a surprise that as a continent, it was the last to make its presence felt on the Indian shores, the culinary arena being no exception.

"Indian food is very close to South American," says visiting Mexican chef, Gerardo Degadillo, who cites that as a reason for the potential popularity of the culinary region. While there are already a number of Mexican restaurants in the country, the first Brazilian restaurant, Wildfire, opened in Gurgaon earlier this year and the first Peruvian restaurant, Bembo's, is gaining attention in Bandra, Mumbai. Besides, leading hotel chains like the ITC and the Taj group of hotels have been flying chefs in for special food promotions. And the visit of the Brazilian and Mexican presidents to India may have provided a spurt to the process that even otherwise looks set to take off.

Peruvian cuisine is the current toast of the gourmet world globally. Chef Guido Gallia Paredes from Lima, Peru, is confident about food from his country, especially the vegetarian cuisine. "The cuisine from my country is divided into three distinct regions based on geography - coastal, mountain and jungle, and the international influence reduces from the west to the east."

With about 3,000 varieties of potatoes, most of which are not found anywhere else, this home of the tuber, locally called papa, offers a great diversity of this and other crops. They are often used with spices like aji pepper. Brazilian chef, Luiz Fernando Neves Sant' Anna, a master chef from Vitoria, the capital of Espirito Santo province, who visited India recently, felt adaptability would not be a challenge in India, owing to the wide range of cuisine available as well as the similarity of approach to cooking.

Carlos Irigoyen Forno, the ambassador of Peru to India, who doubles as an interpreter, stresses that despite Spanish, Moorish, Chinese and Japanese influences, the older recipes are still popular. He also mentions that Creole cuisine is very prevalent in the Peruvian capital. Fiorno is confident the cuisine will find acceptance in India as it is a melting pot with many international influences - not the least of which is South American.

Though beef and pork are significant parts of the cuisine, especially for Argentina and Brazil, most dishes offered in India take care of these sensibilities, say leading Indian chefs.

Degadillo underscores the point that Indians have not been introduced to Mexican food at all, but a very limited and unrepresentative fast food variety via Texas. A sampling of his ceviche (seafood salad in numerous combinations), definitely open up a new culinary landscape, as do soups made of unusual vegetables, including the delicious pumpkin flower! Mexican fine dining definitely has the potential to entice the discerning diner and match the success of its northern cousin. So it will be no surprise if ají de gallina or feijoada are also available here as easily as the burger or the pizza.