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Molecular cuisine is trying the affordable route in India as it recreates desi classics—but what of its future?

On a humid Thursday afternoon in early August, a young woman, perhaps in her late twenties, is being served dessert. A mixture of thick sweetened milk made of puffed rice with a sprinkling of pistachio and batasha (crystallised sugar) sits pretty on a white slab. But when the waiter pours a misty rush of liquid nitrogen— bubbling at -200 degree Celsius in a sizzling jar —over this pristine whiteness, finishing liberally with thandai cream, she purses her lips. The woman’s partner is amused, daring her to take a bite. She forces a grin and proceeds, wavering, to take a spoonful; together, they devour the dish. Meet Phirni Oxide, one of the stars of Indian molecular cuisine. No culinary science-fiction, it is served up at the newly opened Indian bistro Farzi Café in Gurgaon’s DLF Cyber Hub for a mere Rs 450.

Chefs in India have been reinventing our cuisine in contemporary ways to keep up with the well-travelled desi and their adventurous palate. Just when we thought that restaurants like Indian Accent exemplified the acme of modernisation of Indian cuisine, molecular cuisine appears to be a newcontender in jazzing up Indian dishes in a hyper-modern avatar. Molecular recipes sublimate current research in food science and lab technologies to create culinary masterpieces which defy all common expectations, to sum it up for the uninitiated—though by now, these are few and far between, among winer- diners.

The technique has had a complicated history in India. First introduced in India in 2007 at Taj Land’s End in Mumbai, molecular recipes failed to catch on and is reported to have stalled in 2009. Chef Abhijit Saha’s restaurant Caperberry opened its doors in Bangalore in 2008 to present European cuisine using molecular transformations, but this restaurant too downed its shutters last year. Gresham Fernandes of Mumbai’s Salt Water Cafe fame tried molecular concoctions with Shroom which opened in Delhi two years back. This attempt, too, failed to make a mark, ending with the exodus of Fernandes. Masala Library and Spice Klub in Mumbai and Farzi Café in Delhi are the latest (and the only) entrants experimenting with molecular techniques on Indian food. While the former two serve Indian molecular recipes in a fine dining format, Farzi (by Massive Restaurants, the same hospitality group which owns Masala Library) is seeking to redefine Indian haute cuisine by offering a culinary experience without the exclusivity, elitism and pricing of an ultra fine dining set-up. Employing techniques from molecular gastronomy, this bistro seeks to manipulate our senses with unconventional expressions of food we have grown up eating at home and at neighbourhood stalls, while keeping it affordable and accessible.

So, the ubiquitous and simple chaat dish, Raj Kachori, transforms into a recipe which demands the rigour of a scientist at Farzi Cafe. Crispy mini shells stuffed with pumpkin and pomegranate are served with a profusion of crispy okra salad and supplemented with chutney foam, which bursts in the mouth pulsing with the tangy flavour of tamarind. The chemical ingredient soy lecithin is the foaming agent used to create the chutney foam. The same chemical employs fresh lemons and green chillies to work its magic on tempura fried prawns tossed in homemade mayo,  accompanied with Nimbu Mirch Air. Chemical compounds like liquid nitrogen, sodium alignate, zanthum gum and calcium citrate have entered the kitchen at Farzi Café and are used to transform the texture and meaning of food we have always taken for granted. Take their complimentary amuse-bouche, featuring the delightfully quivering orbs called Mishti Doi Spheres (products of reverse spherification made using sodium alignate), topped with strawberry jelly. Time is of the essence here, as these nifty little white spheres need to be gulped down as soon as they arrive. Once in the mouth, they explode with the familiar flavour of sweetened curd and a hint of ginger.

Zorawar Kalra, son of Jiggs Kalra— better known as the founder of Punjab Grill, a chain of restaurants offering gourmet Punjabi food—is the man behind Farzi. Armed with an MBA from Boston University and an incurable love for Indian food, he is also a technology enthusiast whose love for hi- tech gadgetry inspired him to play with Indian food using molecular techniques, even while respecting India’s illustrious food traditions. Inspired by highly futuristic restaurants like Alinea and Moto in Chicago, he is certain a molecular approach to Indian cooking can mainstream Indian cuisine, like Chinese or Thai food, in the international culinary universe. “You cannot fight technology. It is the future and will always win. Although regular Indian food will never die, in order to take it to the next level, you have to take recourse to technology,” he asserts.

Zorawar Kalra’s Masala Library, launched early this year in Mumbai’s swish Bandra Kurla Complex, has been applauded as the most innovative restaurant in India today, both locally and in The New York Times. Kalra’s widely reported ambition is to attain the coveted Michelin star for a restaurant in India. The chefs behind Masala Library have descended upon Farzi’s kitchen to reinvent traditional recipes like sarson ka saag and makki ki roti: Farzi offers a deconstructed version in Sarson Ki Galawat, Corn and Cheese Tostadas— with the sarson carved into kebabs topped with cheese and accompanied by yogurt spheres, popcorn and little parcels of wheat bread stuffed with cheese and corn—for just Rs 275.

Farzi’s team of young chefs, Himanshu Saini and Saurabh Udinia, share the vision of their employer. “Even though molecular techniques are no longer popular in the West, middle class Indians will get a great opportunity to experience this concept with Indian food today,” says Saini, while Udinia wanted a “bigger kitchen to conduct more molecular experiments.” Zorawar Kalra plans to take Farzi to other metros of the country and beyond as an international chain.

He’s not the only one with an eye on this market. Spice Klub, an all-vegetarian restaurant, has managed to garner some appreciation for their molecular takes on Papdi Chaat, Vada Pav and Kulfi, amongst people in Mumbai. While its efforts at making vegetarian food more edgy have been appreciated, several food reviewers have panned it as gimmicky and tasteless with many needless interventions.

Are there myths associated with this kind of cuisine? “ ‘Isse pet kaise bharega?’ I think is the biggest concern I’ve seen amongst Indians. Well one big portion or ten tiny portions will fill you up equally. It’s only about the perception,” says 26-year-old TV chef Saransh Goila, who anchored the popular food and travel show Roti, Rasta aur India. Although a proponent of authentic Indian food, he is greatly enamoured of the dramatic spectacle which a molecular recipe whips up and believes there will be takers in India amongst those “who treat food like luxury and a medium for entertainment.”

Kolkata-born chef Gaggan Anand, who trained under renowned ‘extreme’ molecular chef Ferran Adrià (who famously decided to close his Barcelona restaurant el Bulli when he felt his work was done) is a pious molecular practitioner. His eponymously titled restaurant, Gaggan, which opened in Bangkok in December 2010, is listed as the 17th best restaurant in the world, regularly frequented by Hollywood A-listers like Renee Zellweger and Zach Galifianakis—and he believes restaurants in India practising molecular techniques are still behind the curve as they try to woo audiences with outmoded gimmicks. Gaggan does not subscribe to half-hearted, play-safe attempts. “Indian chefs have to understand the magic of this type of cooking. It is not a new-age gizmo to impress our guests but a weapon to decode our cuisine. There is no going 50/50 in this cuisine. You either go all the way or you don’t,” he says. It looks like he is certainly attempting to: Gaggan is now planning to expand his research and development facility from 15 square feet to a 600 square feet space by the end of 2014, to make deeper forays into ultra- modernist Indian cuisine.

Purists and traditionalists who are proud of their culinary heritage still outnumber avant- garde gastronomes in India. As Sourish Bhattacharya, of the popular blog Indian Restaurant Spy, points out, “Molecular gastronomy, like all culinary fads, is going out of fashion across the world. Heston Blumenthal, the other icon of molecular gastronomy, has moved away from molecular gastronomy to rediscovering the old recipes of Britain. The chefs who have just started experimenting with molecular gastronomy in the country are clearly behind the times.” On the subject of new restaurants like Farzi Café, Bhattacharya says there are only some dishes that incorporate elements of molecular gastronomy at the cafe, such as the chutney foams. He personally believes that their best dishes are more in the mould of “inventive Indian” rather than “molecular Indian” like Bhoot Jholokia Spare Ribs, Chilli Duck Samosa with hoisin chutney and the Galouti Burger with Mutton Boti.

It is uncertain what role molecular techniques will play in the evolution of modern Indian cuisine; whether it will spawn further mutations, or give way to another trend. But, whatever the outcome, there is an eager restaurant-goer waiting in Indian cities.

Farzi Caféfood researchMolecular cuisine