At chef Aabhishek Bedi Varma’s restaurant in Guwahati, every platter boasts a perfect choreography, as potatoes suit up in their jackets, millets crackle softly in applause, while moringa powder and kaji nemu (Assam lemon) dust tie the rhythm together. And at the helm of this culinary concert is Aabhishek, who speaks the language of ingredients; they bend to his will.

For Aabhishek (38), creating a dish is a dialogue, one that begins when he hand-picks an ingredient during his travels, and ends only when it finds belonging in a dish. But as the chef shares, the knack for coaxing flavours out of unassuming ingredients is a family trait — one he’s inherited from his mother, Surekha Bedi.

The family started exploring their culinary voice in the late 90s with Khalsa Parivaar, a restaurant hinged on family dining and introducing Punjabi tadkasto Guwahati.

Through the years, their menus saw a shift — Lush and Levitate in Guwahati are more geared towards Northeastern and eclectic curations — but their ethos hasn’t. Every dish continues to be a toast to the culture of the state they call home — Assam.

And on Republic Day this year, their alchemy made its way to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, in the form of dishes that were part of the High Tea and At Home Reception, hosted by the President of India, with 1,200 members in attendance, including the Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers.

Surekha Bedi is a staunch vegetarian. But the people of Guwahati, who used to frequent Khalsa Parivaar as kids with their parents, attribute the best smoked chicken (chicken slow-cooked on a charcoal grill) to her.

Surekha (given that she is a vegetarian) would never sample the dish (or any meat-based dish for that matter) to check if the flavours were balanced or if........

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