When Gaggan goes gaga

How do you suppose it would taste if I added a quarter cup of red wine say a good Pinot Noir to my sambar in place of tamarind Could we call it Tambram au vin and enter it for some competition More important how do you think it would taste served with a contemporary neer dosa bite the size of a large tworupee coinCould we charge Rs 450 for this delicacy What if I placed a dot of caviar on a single large curry leaf and floated it on the sambar at the end We could now rename this as Tambram a la Port au Spain avec de la connerie and hike the price to Rs 750 Caviar isnt cheap though connerie aboundsIm not going to tell you what connerie means you can figure it out yourself Thats why God created Google But Ill tell you this a large number of Mumbais new restaurants are getting away with connerie mixing together the most improbable ingredients creating minisculptures with names you cant pronounce and that tell you nothing about the taste while serving minuscule portions on weirdly shaped plates and milking your credit card at the endMaking Indian fusion food is not that difficult I daresay I could dream up a few examples of fusion food connerie right here on the spot for you Pani puri served in a large petri dish Tuttifrutti ice cream within a layer of butter chicken gravy frozen around a spare rib Upma garnished with microbeads of gulab jamun and sprinkled with handcrushed thepla Punjabi dahi kadhi frozen into marbles and served by a circus juggler Origami samosas made of edible paper stuffed with artisanal maida mothballs fried in Bengali panch phoron and soaked in drambuieDont get me wrong Chefs do this connerie because the number of paying fatwallet customers willing to subsidise connerie in food is growing in Mumbai But mixing improbable foods is a science disguised as an art When food becomes a performance and the days special is a menu you can eat along with your dessert ice cream then someone is taking someone for a long culinary ride The infant mortality rate among new restaurants in Mumbai is high True molecular or fusion cuisine does not arise from a mixologists whimsy it requires the sensitivities and sensibilities of a say Ferran Adria or his preteacutegeacute GagganWhich brings me to the crazy and amazing Gaggan and his eponymous restaurant Gaggan in Bangkok which has been declared Asias Best Restaurant for three years running and stands at 23 among the Worlds Best 50 Restaurants in a ranking sponsored by S Pellegrino amp Acqua Panna And what does he serve Indian molecular cuisine Gaggan is a walking talking lesson for Indias molecular chefsGaggan trained for years under Spains legendary master of molecular cuisine Ferran Adria at his El Bulli restaurant After a Gaggan dinner I can say as Gaggan himself does No one would eat here a second time Because you are not allowed to choose from the menu you are served 25 predetermined bonsai dishes each one a masterpiece while Gaggan himself weaves stories of Kolkata streets as you eat Gaggans cuisine is a culinary retrospective of his own childhood sights and bites on the Calcutta streets he roamed as a boyThe Gaggan experience is food as theatre It costs 4000 Thai baht a pop Rs 7500 and has to be booked as much as four months ahead The air quivers over the teppanyakistyle surround table as if dinner will feature fireeaters and hobgoblins throwing daggers at each otherEach bitesized morsel has its own way of dismantling itself the crust crumbling and dissolving while liquids packed in layers gush and squirt out blend and merge creating eureka moments of recognition amazement intrigue and sheer delight Among my favorites was what looks like a white mushroom with foam on top which discombobulates your taste buds with direct strikes of sambar idli and fresh coconut chutneyIn Gaggans hands the paprichaat emerges as two yoghurtcolored blobs in steel spoons Pop them whole in your mouth and the agaragar wrapping breaks releasing the many complex flavours and tastes of paprichaat No crunch but what a punchThere is a lesson in this for Mumbais swashbuckling chefs Whether molecular or udipi when food is assembled rather than cooked from passion it will be connerie The pressure to be different is creating a generation of faux chefs who miss the part where love of food and genuine affection for diners come in Atithi devo bhava the guest is god has long been the guiding light of some of the countrys best restaurateurs like AD Singh and Anjan Chatterjee Perhaps one day the molecular chefs will receive this nonmolecular insightHere viewed from there C Y Gopinath in Bangkok throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai the city that raised him You can reach him at cygopigmailcom Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates