Mumbai being an experimental city in every aspect, the food landscape is constantly evolving every single day to suit the palate of every Mumbaikar. Restaurants are serving unique food and are looking to serve what hasn’t been served before. 2016 was no different. Diners in Mumbai got to experience cuisines from around the world as well as local food that is improvised on but yet retains the flavours of the region.
Celebrity chef Saransh Goila of Goila Butter Chicken shedding light on the trends, says, “Regional food and multi-cuisine eateries attracted a larger clientele along with re-invention of traditional Indian dishes using various culinary techniques.” The chef, who shares a deep love for the north Indian favourite Butter Chicken, serves the authentic dish as well as other variants. Among the popular ones are a mashup of two popular dishes – butter chicken and biryani that he uses to serve Butter Chicken Biryani, which is a rather delightful experience for anybody who loves both the dishes and is willing to experiment.
Butter Chicken Biryani at Goila's Butter Chicken that opened earlier this year.
While regional food saw a boom, organic food also made a huge entry with variants of healthy dishes. The Little Door in Andheri West sourced local ingredients, seasonal vegetables, leaves and fruits to make cocktails from exotic farms in the city. While the focus was on local produce, there are many that are crossing boundaries within India and around the world, especially meats and spices.
Adding to this phenomenon, Abhishek Jindal, AVP, Yauatcha India said that Molecular gastronomy became a big hit. Evolving plating techniques and the importance given to appearance of food on the plate was another big trend.
Rachel Goenka, Chef and Director at The Sassy Spoon highlighted how Freakshakes, or Monster Shakes like she calls them, became an instant fad adding the whole fun element to food. Desserts in savoury flavours started in 2015 but raced to a whole new level in 2016. The chef now hopes that trend of modern twists to traditional desserts continues in 2017.
Food is incomplete without some drinks, and craft beers have made it big this year with Doolally Taproom and Brewbot being the notable ones as Gateway Brewing Company poured in some exotic beer variants on tap along with the festive season special. Woodside Inn opened their newest outlet at Lower Parel to cater to the corporate crowd that is always ready to try some new delicacies and grab chilled beer to go with it. Pankil Shah, Co-founder, Neighbourhood Hospitality speaking about the beer trend said, “There was an emergence of various styles of bar chains, each providing their own experience.” Woodside Inn is also one of the few bars that serve as many as 25 varieties of beer; the highest in India, they claim.
Gola cocktails or Golaritas at True Tramm Trunk in Juhu.
Scotch, coffee, star anise and other ingredients made cocktails better. Gola cocktails or Golaritas as they are more commonly called also became quite popular this year with True Tramm Trunk and The Bar Terminal being among the most popular ones for their fruity golas with alcohol. Though the bubblegum flavoured cocktail at Madeira and Mime was a delightful new addition, the most surprising were rum cocktails. Rum cocktails are a departure from the regular combination of rum and coke, which is a crowd favourite. Nishant Joshi, Owner at ZOOBAR, affirmed saying, “Maximum priority has been given to quality and quantity of the alcohol in each drink.” With the importance for healthy eating increasing, many bars are also adopting healthy foods which were otherwise unknown in Mumbai.
Innovation was another leading trend as apart from Molecular Gastronomy, Raasta also took it step further with Bongtails or bong cocktails; potent cocktails to be sipped from small handheld bongs.
A meal is never complete without something sweet or savoury and there were many trends that made it big. Sanjana Patel, Founder of La Folie talking about them said that there were many patisseries that went back to traditional cake bases and also paid homage to the traditional choux pastry at the same time.
A lot has happened in 2016 and there is more to come in 2017. Owners and chefs at restaurants tell us to expect a few things like:
Tableside Preparations
Food preparation next to tables will give the diner a sensory experience of pouring, stirring, shaking, cracking and even lighting food on fire at your table. We are looking forward to the whole table-side visual drama.
Classic Cocktails
While many bars keep only the favourites from the classic cocktails, 2017 will see them reinvent the alcoholic drinks in their most unique style to make it more appealing.
Mom’s Kitchen with Modern Plating
Chefs going back to their mother’s kitchens and preparing traditional dishes in their own unique style, but coupled with amazing plating techniques, will add that extra zing to food.
Alternative ingredients in desserts
A lot of chefs are researching about using different ingredients that would make desserts desirable like molasses and stevia for normal sugar and potato flour or almond flour for normal flour too. Vegetables in desserts is also another major trend to look forward to this year.
