Enticing The Senses
Sumera Bhalla
I 95 (Calangute)
Imagine four youngsters, full of pep, working on a cruise liner, crossing the seas to many continents and working hard almost 18 hours a day. Sumera, the executive chef; James, the sous chef; Sunil the maitre’d and Tina. Friends all, they would spend long hours discussing what they all really wanted to do. Turns out, they all wished to open their own restaurant. Why not do it together then and in Goa? The idea took root and Sunil, with girlfriend Tina, zipped off to Goa, their favourite holiday destination for years. When they saw Art Chamber, an art gallery located in a charming, quaint bungalow in a quiet part of Calangute, they knew they had found ‘the’ place for their restaurant and thus was born 195. Why 195? I ask. I discover that on the cruise liner, they had to have a document on them at all times, called I95. Familiar to them all, the restaurant was given that name. An excellent ice breaker, with every new guest, I discover.

Sumera says, “I always wanted to be a chef and worked along with Mom learning the culinary basics. Dadar Catering was literally my formal learning ground and with wonderful support and guidance from every corner within the institute I just knew that I had to own and run my own restaurant some day. I have always wanted to showcase my cuisine and have a place where food would be the forefront and would speak for itself.

Being through so much formal education in cuisine and food, I have an utmost respect for food. My Chef’s Coat is my identity and you will hardly ever see me in anything else. (For this shoot, it took the combined powers of half a dozen people to get her to shed that coat and wear something else!) “I revere it – to me, it is almost my secret shroud. At 195, you won’t see me too often because I am almost always nestled away in the kitchen orchestrating each dish to perfection. Since James, my better half, is a chef and always at hand, each minute in the kitchen is a joyous experience. His, and also the unconditional parental support, have helped me smooth out being a woman chef in a largely male dominated industry.”

Sumera loves the ‘yin and yang element in cuisine’. “I like to combine flavours and textures so that together they entice all the senses. I definitely do not like to play around with too many flavours within a dish, but like the basic flavour enhanced by some complementing spice or herb. Fusion Cuisine is a term that I have almost begun to detest, because I feel that a lot of chefs really abuse this creative freedom given to them and disrespect food in the bargain.”

What are Sumera’s own favourite dishes? Star anise rubbed, warm sliced chicken breast with papaya, pickled ginger and wasabi. “This dish, with its combination of flavours and temperatures, with chilled papaya with warm grilled chicken, is a feast.” Her other favourites from her menu are the seared tuna with cilantro risotto, naam pla prik and sweet chilli and the bacon wrapped blue cheese stuffed tornadoes with burgundy jus.

The restaurant provides a unique mix of Goan palm thatched pavilions and loungy, deep chairs and sofas – inviting guests to kick off their footwear and sit back against the colourful cushions. The lounge area is perfect for a pre-dinner drink or to linger over a post dinner coffee. The dining tables are simple, with well chosen colourful covers. Sunil seems to be in 10 places at the same time as he suggests wines and dishes. Tina stays in the background, ensuring that the stewards are attentive.

And from the number of well presented dishes that flow out of the kitchen, one can safely assume that chef Sumera is firmly ensconced there.

A Love Affair With Food
Aakritee Sinh
A Reverie (Calangute)
Before entering A Reverie, you will have noted the enormous expanse of red tiled roof which seems to be suspended in the air with twinkling mirrored balls hanging from it. If this is your first time here, you may be excused if you are a bit overwhelmed. The many images that greet you include bubbling water, white pebbles, sinuous curves of yellow floor, the dull sheen of copper, pavilions…. Allow a while for it all to sink in.

A Reverie, the love child of Aakritee and Veerendra Sinh, is doubtless one of the grandest looking eating places in Goa. Everything from the swirling logo to the chandeliers is one of a kind. This place demands that you make a meal here an ‘evening out’, preferably in the dressiest outfits that you have carried with you to Goa. “Even though I have no formal culinary training, my husband’s faith in me inspired me to take the plunge; it wasn’t about mechanics; it was about a feeling…. It worked as a healing process with my health issues,” says Aakritee, who worked with the Taj group for many years, not in the kitchen as you may expect, but in systems management, while Veerendra habited the Front Office. He is a calm young man, from a royal family in Guajarat. A Jodhpurs-clad ‘Veeru’ is often seen moving around the restaurant, making sure guests are well looked after.

While opening a gourmet restaurant was a dream for both, the trigger was possibly Aakritee’s health. Fainting spells, swollen joints, extreme fatigue, led to the painful discovery of Lupus. A potentially serious and crippling affliction, the news was a severe blow to the young couple, just starting their life together. Ironically, it also made them re-think their priorities and decide that dreams have to be fulfilled now rather than later. Leaving their high paying, secure jobs, they started working on making their dream come true and A Reverie came about – literally a dream dreamt with open eyes. “We spent all our money and savings and started A Reverie, an eighty cover restaurant, six years ago. Then, and now, we insist on hiring staff with no previous work experience, professional qualifications or kitchen training. Our concepts in food are so radical that we feel it is better to work with clean canvases. Of course, it was a big risk, but then again what isn’t a risk? Each time one uses 10 different ingredients in a dish, it involves taking 10 risks. All elements are very different in taste and texture; they must be combined, but one can get it wrong. Finding the correct balance is the key.”

Influenced by studies in Molecular Gastronomy (progressive cuisine), where the science of food is paramount, “it’s not just limited to creating a wacky expression with savoury jellies, froths, panacottas and such like. It’s about condensing the best possible flavours on the plate. For us, that’s one of the important things about cooking – what was good enough yesterday may not be good enough today,” says Aakritee who believes that humans need constant change and therefore are on the look-out forever for stunners and adventure in entertainment, clothes, in relationships and obviously, even in food. How otherwise can one explain the complex dessert plates which would have “at least three different preparations effortlessly complimenting each other without creating confusion or khichdi!” she asks.

A Reverie is as much about stylish living as about food. From the logo recreated by using eccentric components like mosquito coils, match-sticks, twisted ropes and jigsaw pieces, to crystal strings attached to lampshades, to beaten copper sheets used in chairs and tables, all these have been created by them. This involves trips to Moradabad to source crystals, Mapusa metal workers’ yards to choose copper sheets and forays into local markets for strings of glitter and sequins.

And her most memorable moment, in the restaurant? Her most humbling one, she says, was when Amitabh Bachchan arrived for dinner with a big group. While Aakritee was taking down the dinner order, a process which can take up to 15 minutes, he stood up, the mark of a true gentleman giving respect to a lady!