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!

Achieving Iconic Status
Yellow Contractor
Fiesta (Calangute-Baga Road)
Old timers in Goa, like me, still remember a waif-like pretty girl riding her horse on the Candolim beach. That was Yellow, in her twenties; daughter of an Indian married to a German lady. Yellow carries the best of her Anglo-Indian heritage – a perma-tan, delicate features and clear brown eyes. She also inherited German determination from her mother and an Indian flair for style from her father.

Yellow got together with Maneck Contractor – an energetic young Parsee boy, who was into sailing boats – and together, they started Fiesta. The beginning was modest, with Xeroxed invitations and basic décor. In the decade after that though, Fiesta has attained iconic status. A place where you go to eat as much as to be seen, Fiesta is very much a place for celebrity shoulder rubbing. Take a look at the ‘celebrity list’, on the Fiesta website where you will find celebs faithfully recorded under easy headings like Actors, Actresses, TV personalities.
Fiesta is located opposite Tito’s – the mega night-spot. A weary sentry at the door points you to the narrow path which leads to the cloistered world of Fiesta. A large Ganesh at the entrance has his eternal benevolent expression. The restaurant space flows onto various levels, down garden paths, around plants, under a tree. It will take you a while to note the details – soft lighting, potted plants, seats created out of old boats, carved headboards as chair backs and the crunching of gravel underfoot.
Fiesta offers wood-fired pizzas with interesting toppings, including a non-cheese pizza. Yellow’s speciality of garlic and chillies pickled in oil and herbs are excellent – do remember to ask for an extra helping. The beef carpaccio is as thin as it should be with shavings of parmesan. The steaks come with a choice of sauces and are very good. The menu also includes popular dishes from around the Mediterranean, including a Spanish paella and Greek moussaka.

Yellow’s food affair started when, as a young girl, she was exposed to good cuisine, trailing her parents to restaurants of note round the world. “I always cooked ever since I can remember. My parents loved going to restaurants and for me it was the nicest and most exciting thing to do. I always visited the kitchens and watched the chefs and staff in there busy at work and loved the feel of restaurants in every aspect. I wished to have my own restaurant one day.” Maneck, her husband and a partner, has played a key part. “We compliment each other totally,” says Yellow.
Although Yellow didn’t have any formal training before Fiesta opened, she now attends regular cooking lessons from the famous (and controversial) chef Alfons Schuhbeck in Munich, Germany.
The journey of a small restaurant from a shaky start to today’s exalted status has to have made an enormous impact on a person as well…. After a bit of hesitation she says, “Yes…. in a way, the success changes you. You become harder as a person, you have to! I am an emotional person. In the early days, if I found out that some staff was cheating or there was some pilferage, I would get really hurt. I would also find it extremely difficult to fire such a person. Today I have accepted that such things will take place and as the owner, firing has to be done. It still remains a tough thing for me though.”

Creating Sublime Pasta
Ayesha Madon
J & A’s Ristorante Italiano (Baga)
“Our restaurant is an extension of the way we like to eat,” says Ayesha Madon. “Robust, no frills food made with the best possible ingredients combined in the simplest ways.” This is true – not just about the way J & A like to serve food, but also about the way they look at life, full of adventure and the conscious desire to do something enjoyable rather than something that makes ‘sense’.

Jamshed and Ayesha left Mumbai in their trusty, banged-up Maruti 800, their mission, to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and start a new life in Goa. And, to set up a pizzeria there! The results were more far reaching and spectacular than the young duo could have dreamt. J & A’s Ristorante Italiano today is one of the finest eateries in Goa, which in a small area, crams a number of fine dining places. Discerning clients, including foodies and Michelin chefs have dined here with relish. The attraction is the simplicity of the food and the lack of pretensions.
“An area where I give in to a bit of whimsy is with the pastas. By adding natural colours using spinach and beetroot to basic pasta dough, you can come up with an un-ending variety of colourful pasta.” Ayesha is being modest. Her handmade pastas are a visual delight, with swirls of pale green and pink, adding an altogether new dimension to simple pasta, elevating it to another level.
Ayesha has been a journalist, a potter at Auroville, a spiritualist, a home maker, landscape artist and more. In her no-nonsense way, she says, “Since I have no formal training in cooking, it would be pretentious to call myself a ‘chef’. Having said that, I can remember the early days when my husband and I would find ourselves peeling a mountain of prawns or stirring a huge pot of tomato concasse because a cook had gone AWOL!”

Besides serving some of the best Italian food in the country, in a simple, eating at home style, J & A’s is a wonderful place to spend an evening. A golden Goan house forms the centre, while around it in the garden, the tables are laid out – under the stars, under large tiled spaces, some in a pavilion, others under a slatted bamboo roof. Well placed potted plants create pockets of seclusion and calm. The place has an elegant yet welcoming feel. But, what most guests cannot see is that J & A’s creativity doesn’t stop at the restaurant or the delicious food. Jamshed is a keen auto-person, having designed and built a powerful yellow jeep from scratch. He has been on the Enfield Bullet Himalayan Odyssey, driving through some of the world’s most inhospitable terrain in Ladakh. Together, he and Ayesha have built a home of singular beauty.
Ayesha’s passion for food makes her try out a recipe a dozen times before it appears on the menu. She reads about food the way other people read best-sellers. “Globally, food trends seem to change by the month and certainly not always for the better. Invariably, I find myself going back to old favourites for inspiration – The River café women, Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers and of course, the inimitable Jamie Oliver. I am drawn to Ruth Reichl, Marcella Hazan, Elisabeth David and M F K Fisher, for their understanding of the importance of simplicity and seasonality in food.”