How the pandemic is changing Indian kitchens

Chef Prabhakar Nagaraj, managing partner, Elior India, speaks about the changes seen in kitchens in terms of safety measures, ingredients, and waste management.

This pandemic has taken away the exoticism of food from the menu. The masses have switched to basic meals, keeping away from complexity in its preparation and the ingredients used. Food consumption has become a cautious habit and people are highly conscious of what they are eating and where it is coming from. Food is safe when it is handled by as few people as possible and cooked close to the hour of consumption. The pandemic has allowed us to explore ways to keep food simple, nutritious and how it can be transported safely from one place to the other with limited human handling. We can also use flash-cooking methods. Flash cooking involves cooking ingredients on a very high flame so that the outer surface of the ingredient gets sealed, eliminating any loss of internal juices and thus sustaining the nutritive aspects of the ingredients.

As Indians, we like to bite into food that tastes Indian but looks very Western. For example, if you bite into an apple pie, it may not just have apple inside; instead, it may have fig badam halwa. These are some of the innovations that can be brought especially when there is a growing importance to match the taste buds of consumers in India.

The cooking process stays the same, but you need to start mapping ingredients accordingly. Once you use fig badam halwa as a substitute ingredient for a pie filling, it should have good consistency, so that the dough doesn't become soggy. Otherwise, the whole purpose of using different ingredients gets defeated. From an outsider's perspective, it is just a pie until you bite into it to relish the fig halwa. Indian foods can be very nutritive, though it all depends on the way you cook it.

This process is being mapped with ERP (enterprise resource planning). Whatever the food requirement for any client-site is, it comes to the ERP. Based on this, the production process is initiated, and the dispensation takes place. This is then tracked basis the sales on the site and if there is a huge difference in expected versus delivered outcomes, the on-site head is responsible for it. By doing this, we have witnessed a tremendous reduction in food-wastage and this is something we follow as a process where ensuring minimal food wastage is concerned. This drives complete information about the quantity of production that should take place and the raw materials that need to be used to fulfill production. Then, requisition happens based on the raw materials where the purchase happens accordingly. So the complete end-to-end process is tightened.