What’s fermenting in chef Vanika Choudhary’s Noon Restaurant?

Chef Vanika Choudhary at Noon

I used to work in market research when I started this blog 16 years back. I was an outsider writing about the world of food then.

I moved to full-time food writing 10 years back. I have been lucky enough to meet many talented and accomplished chefs and restaurateurs since then. I learned to appreciate the nuances of food better through my conversations with them. I found inspiration in their life stories and world views. 

Take chef Vanika Choudhary for example. I met her recently when she invited me over for lunch at Noon. I was as impressed by the food that afternoon as I was with the passion and belief that she brought to her work. 

I had heard of Vanika before I went to Noon. My friend Dr Kurush Dalal, is a big fan of her cooking and would praise her profusely. I took his words very seriously and had planned to visit the restaurant for a while.

Fermented and foraged food lies at the heart of Noon, which is a fine dining restaurant.

“Why is fermentation so important to you,” I asked Vanika when we first met. I expected her to talk about drawing inspiration from famous international chefs,  chefs of the sort who feature in Chef’s Table-like documentaries. While this was true to an extent, her grounding lay elsewhere it seems. In the many bottles of pickles that she as a kid would see her grandmom make back home in Jammu. The process of assembling seasonal ingredients in pickle jars, putting them to sun on the terrace, and opening them once ready to see them in their final form is what piqued Vanika’s interest in fermented food. 

The food used in her grandmom’s kitchen was sourced from local markets and was seasonal in nature. Nothing was wasted. This memory manifested itself in the virtues of sustainability and foraging that Chef Vanika lives by today. Virtues that make her spend a considerable amount of time exploring the flora and fauna in Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, the Sahayadri range and the Malvan coast to find inspiration for her menus.

The food coming out of the Noon kitchen smacks of modern culinary techniques and I was surprised to find out that Vanika had not been to culinary college. She was a media professional who changed tracks to become a chef. Vanika says that she had picked up her initial kitchen skills while watching her grandmom cook. ‘The rest I learnt on the way,’ she said. I am sure that she was being self-effacing and that a lot of hard work, partnered with a keen desire to learn, has gone into her developing her cooking skills. This includes the time she has spent cooking in residencies in progressive restaurants across the world. Or the time she spends with her fermentation guru, the Korean monk Jeong Kwan.

Noon represents a fast-disappearing facet of what defined Indian kitchens of yore. The connection that it had with its natural habitat. The supermarket retail economy, followed by the online shopping industry, has helped us transcend the space and time continuum when it comes to sourcing food. We can now get anything, including pickles, anytime and anywhere. Noon reminds us of our roots which we have left behind. It makes us reflect on our relationship with food.

It will take time for us to get re-acquainted with the world of fermentation. This is rather funny given that fermentation is not new to the Indian kitchen….and no, it is not just about pickles! Fermentation features in our kitchens in various forms…dahi, dosa, dhokla, naan, jalebi, panta bhaat, etc for example. So what is fermentation? I confess that I had to look up the internet for answers.

Technically fermentation is defined as the conversion of sugars and carbohydrates into alcohol (beer, wine etc) or preservative organic acids and carbon dioxides. It promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria AKA probiotics. In terms of health benefits, it is said to aid digestion and build immunity. In other words, all the stuff your doctor wants you to have. But how does fermented food taste? Or, how do food where fermentation techniques have been used taste? 

The problem with owning a niche is that one tends to be defined by it. Think Noon, and you are more likely to think of ‘fermentation’ and ‘foraging’ first, not its food. This does a disservice to the talent of the chef.

I quite enjoyed the meal that I had at Noon. I tried the non-vegetarian tasting menu. Most of the dishes on the tasting menu left me with an experience that was novel and yet evoked nostalgia. I found the tales of the provenance of the ingredients to be of particular interest. I must confess that I have yet to understand the world of fermentation well enough to appreciate the true worth of what was on offer in terms of fermentation. My response to the meal, as always, focused on the taste experience and then the backstory

The first dish on the menu was a harbinger of what was to come. Black buckwheat tartlet, Jerusalem artichoke, Chiaggo beats, Goat cream, Sichuan pepper, black garlic, sea lettuce salt. A very disparate set of ingredients, each with distinct and different textures and flavours. And yet the result was a many-layered and harmonious experience which put one in a very happy frame of mind at the start of the meal.

Oyster coconut milk curry at Noon

The oyster coconut milk curry leaf podi was another favourite of mine. It drew on the flavours of the southern coasts of India and exuded a sense of comfort. The oyster was from sourced local waters and tasted quite fresh.

Guchhi, Noon

Given her Kashmiri heritage, it is perhaps no surprise that the guchhi, millet miso, heirloom tomato and saffron shio koji, wild fermented koronda goat yoghurt and basil oil turned out to be memorable. I have yet to come across a guchi (Morrel) dish that harnesses the umami flavours of this rare Kashmiri mushroom as brilliantly as this.

Lamb with pumpkin kasundi, Noon

The succulence of the lamb in the lamb, Kashmiri red chilli hot sauce, pumpkin kasundi, and fiddlehead fern achar was drool-worthy as the cliche goes. The accompanying sauce and kasundi were quite sharp and I’d advise using them sparingly to ensure that the quality of the meat shines in its full glory.

Tiger prawn, ragi bhakri

You cannot define the food at Noon as ‘Indian’ food. Yet there were local touches that were interspersed through the meal. Giving a local and rustic touch to the menu, for example, was the sprouted ragi bhakra, tiger prawn, chana dal miso, Malvani masala kanji spiced shallots, karanda achar and bombil chutney. The dish spoke of the stories of all the time that Vanika spent on farms in the state. The tiger prawn was rendered juicy.

The only false note in the entire meal was the trout in the khombir roti, where the trout was a tad overcooked and dry. I must admit that for us Bengalis, fish features before meat and prawns in a meal and the trout was at a disadvantage when served last to me. But it was rather dry.

There were two desserts of which the mawa cake, kosnyot, sea lettuce and goat milk ice cream was particularly hard to resist. There were some other interesting dishes on the tasting menu and I did not describe them all here. The menus at Noon are seasonal and you might end up with a different set of dishes from mine.

The reaction to the food at Noon is mixed from what I gather. This is not entirely surprising as the food represents a genre that our tastebuds are not familiar with. Fermentation is all about time and patience. I guess that this would be the case with Noon too.  Being patient while continuously striving for perfection in terms of a great meal experience is the way to go.

My advice is to not get too cerebral if you go to eat at Noon. Do not try to isolate elements in a dish and look for the presence of ‘fermentation. 

Food, as in most things in life, is made up of the sum total elements and not just one element alone. Magic happens when everything comes together and Chef Vanika seems to be adept at making this happen.

 This was a hosted meal.

Address: 

B102, Ground Floor, One BKC Building, G-Block, Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai