“What is your fondest memory of food?” executive chef James Reppuhn of JW Marriott asks me. An image of a cold, comforting plate of curd rice my mother fed me as a child flashes before my eyes. Did my mouth just water? “Home food,” I say, nervously.u00a0“Exactly. That’s what people remember. When I go home, I never step into the kitchen. I want to eat what my mother makes. Classic, simple dishes never go out of style. Chefs all over the world are realising that now,” says Reppuhn.

According to food blogger Saee Koranne-Khandekar, grilling, steaming, sauteeing and stir-frying are really catching on, while baking and braising seem to have taken a backseat. “There was a phase in India, when a lot of heavy international foods, like those belonging to Mediterranean cuisine, entered restaurant kitchens. Chefs were focusing on serving, rich, flavour-laden foods. Now, the focus is on fresh produce, one-flavour ingredients, and simplified techniques,” she feels.

“Even five-stars are toning down their use of elaborate techniques and complex flavour combinations. Recently, I dined at an Italian restaurant. The menu carried almost no heavy sauces, but chose to focus instead on locally available, fresh ingredients. Each dish showed off just a few star elements as opposed to adding 10 fancy ingredients to each recipe,” she recalls.

According to food critic Rashmi Uday Singh, one of the surest indicators of the fact that globally, restaurants are moving towards simpler cooking styles and flavours, comes from The London-based World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards (LWBRA).u00a0“They are no longer focusing on molecular gastronomy, which refers to experimental restaurant cooking driven by the desire of modern cooks to explore the world’s wide variety of ingredients, tools and techniques,” she says.

“While molecular gastronomy expert Ferran Adrias of El Bulli has been voted the world’s best four times in a row in the past, for the past three years, it has been Rene Redzepis of Noma, who has focuses on foraging in the backyard and using local produce,” says Singh, who is also the LWBRA chairperson for the Indian subcontinent.