India On A Plate: Celebrating Micro-Regional Flavours, Redefining Indian Cuisine

From yak cheese to millets, seabuckthorn to zathuk, chefs from across India are using local produce to showcase India’s rich culinary heritage.

For years, state banquets have served food that has barely transcended beyond what the world usually identifies with Indian cuisine, dal makhni, butter chicken, paneer, biryani, etc., popular in Indian restaurants abroad. However, that stereotype is now being shattered, one State Dinner after another.

In President Droupadi Murmu’s tenure, state banquets are now transforming ceremonial dining into culinary diplomacy, with menus mirroring the micro-regional narrative. Think terroir, local sourcing and more, as Himalayan buckwheat, yak cheese, drumstick leaf broths, coastal preparations, millet-based dishes elevate lesser-known ingredients as cultural ambassadors.

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In fact, Chef Prateek Sadhu and his team at NAAR recently served a state dinner at Rashtrapati Bhavan to the chief guest of the Republic Day celebrations — the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Council, António Costa.

The state dinner covered the entire Himalayan belt from Kashmir to Assam — where each dish was made with locally sourced ingredients, such as Sunderkala Thichoni (a soup course followed with Sunderkala Thichoni from Munsiyari, Uttarakhand, prepared with buckwheat noodles, roasted tomato, fermented vegetables, and a dried vegetable chutney, accompanied by yak cheese custard, bhaang mathri, and bichu buti patta glazed with Himalayan mustard and lauki), Coffee Custard with Dates and Raw Cacao (coffee from Dima Hasao, Assam presented as a decadent custard, topped with dates and Indian cacao ice cream) and more.

The good news is, if these dishes pickle your tastebuds, you don’t need to be invited to a state banquet. Here’s a list of restaurants from across India that are serving micro-regional Indian food, using locally sourced, India-native ingredients, and are rooted in local food traditions.

“There is so much of Indian food that we haven’t even explored yet," muses Head Chef Varun Totlani of Masque, which is named among Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants. Masque has been a pioneer of the micro-regional dining movement, shaping how Indian food is seen globally.

In India, in fine dining, we look at highlighting what is around us; it also helps restaurants be financially viable, says Totlani. Ingredients such as kachri (a wild desert melon from Rajasthan), hisalu (Himalayan berries), cordyceps (mushrooms found in the Himalayan region), coastal fish, millets and more are widely used in the 10-course tasting menu of Masque.

The restaurant has even ventured into ingredients rarely seen in fine dining, including red ants sourced from Chhattisgarh, nodding to eastern India’s tribal red ant chutney traditions. Gondhoraj lebu, fire ants and red tamarind are some of the regional favourites that he wants to try next on the menu.

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Chef Prateek Sadhu’s NAAR is nestled amid the pine forests near Kasauli. This 16-seater intimate restaurant serves ‘Himalayan-forward cuisine’ through a tasting menu that changes with the seasons. The menu draws deeply from local ingredients such as yak cheese and buckwheat to pine nuts and indigenous herbs and brings together the flavours of Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Kashmir, Sikkim and beyond.

“When I cook, I’m not trying to modernise the Himalayas. I am trying to translate them. For me, hyper-local food belongs to grandmothers, to forests, to seasons that dictate what we eat. The ingredient, the technique, the intention — all those must remain honest. But a cosmopolitan diner may not have grown up with lingdi, bichu buti or sun-dried turnips. If I plate them exactly as they were eaten in a mountain home, without context, the story might be lost. So, I retain the soul, but refine the language — in texture, in plating, in sequencing. I believe modernity should frame memory, not overpower it," says Sadhu.

Ridge gourd and fresh methi sourced from Mapusa market, arbi from a farm in Siolim, raw banana, red amaranth and more are found in the kitchen of Hosa, which Brand Chef Harish Rao turns into crowd favourites like Raw Banana Paniyaram with Banana Peel Chutney, Green ‘Liver’ Fry (made using locally sourced red amaranth leaves slow-cooked until they develop a rich, almost meaty depth, tossed in black sesame masala and served with ragi dosa), Pathrode (a monsoon delicacy made with arbi leaves) and more.

“Micro-regional for us begins with the produce — millets grown in dry belts, native greens that never make it to supermarkets, banana blossoms, coconut in its many forms, jaggery pressed locally. But equally important are the techniques passed down in homes: slow roasting, stone grinding, sun-curing, fermenting. It is about honouring the specificity of a place — the food of a coastal household in Udupi, a farming family in North Karnataka, or a temple kitchen in Tamil Nadu. That nuance is what we try to preserve," says Rao.

“Long before millets were rebranded as superfoods, they sustained farming communities across semi-arid regions of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and beyond," he adds.

At Ishaara, a dish becomes micro-regional when it carries the lived experience of a place. It takes micro-regional favourites and presents them with contemporary finesse. Their guest favourites include Bohri Lamb Khichhda from the Bohra Muslim tradition of Gujarat, Rialto ki Papdi Chaat inspired by a once-iconic chaat spot in Mussoorie, Byculla Kheema Ghotala from South Mumbai’s Irani café culture and more.

“Mustard oil–based slow-cooking traditions from eastern India, particularly Bihar’s Champaran handi style, deserve far greater attention. It’s technique-driven, sustainable and intensely flavourful," says Prashant Issar, Founder, Ishaara, and Managing Director of Bellona Hospitality.

At Avatara, the 16-course degustation menu is entirely vegetarian, distilled into a refined, seasonal tasting menu that is deeply rooted in India’s culinary diversity. Everyday ingredients are turned into works of art.

“At Avatara, vegetables are not just ingredients, they are the stars of an entirely new menu, the transcending journey. These humble ingredients are transformed, elevating their textures, and are presented with thoughtful components and refined plating," says chef Sanket Joshi.

The menu is inspired by micro-regions. There are dishes like Potato (a take on Dahibara Aloo Dum from Cuttack, Odisha), Bitter Gourd, which is a take on the classic Moong Dal Kachori of the Marwar region of Rajasthan, and more.

In the harsh terrain of Ladakh, monk-turned-chef Jigmet Mingur is serving a seven-course Ladakhi dinner using ingredients such as seabuckthorn berries, wild chives, wild caraway seeds, dried herbs, roasted barley, apricots and more at Tsam Khang just outside Leh, reinterpreting local flavours with finesse.

“For me, micro-regional cuisine is the intersection of place, people and survival. In Ladakh, it was about adapting to altitude, extreme winters and limited growing seasons," says chef Mingur.

The eatery serves dishes like Tangthur (wild herbs mixed with curd or buttermilk), Tadka with skotse (wild chives), Zathuk (a wild stinging nettle soup with churphy dried cheese), Guyma (sausages filled with mutton mince with fat and kosnyot wild caraway seed and thanknyar Ladakhi yellow chilli powder) and more, using techniques like slow simmering and stone cooking.

Amar Khamar Lunch Room, Kolkata

Indigenous foraged fish from the canals of North 24 Parganas, which were once abundant in the flooded rice paddies, kharkol pata bata eaten in rural Bengal during monsoons, tal gur — the summer jaggery, chui jhaal mangso made with chui, the native pepper found in abundance in erstwhile East Bengal (now Bangladesh) — Amar Khamar Lunch Room serves the cuisine of rural Bengal that has largely stayed out of Kolkata’s culinary landscape.

It showcases the prime produce of the farming community and home-cooked meals from across Bengal, including indigenous heirloom rice varieties that have been revived, and heirloom recipes.

“Many of our guests are young diners who want to understand their ingredients better. Familiar flavours with the sophistication of modern techniques are the way forward to continue preserving local ingredients and flavours," says co-founder Sujoy Chatterjee.

(The writer is a journalist. Views expressed are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.)

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