Chettinadu
“I wanted to bring traditional food into mainstream in Tamil Nadu cuisine beyond chettinadu fare” explained by Chef Saravanan, who gave up his management trainee post at ITC GROUP HOTEL 2007 to take up research work.
Starting from Tamil Nadu’s old food recipes region in the research, Saravanan has found documentation dating back to the third century with indicators and descriptors of the cuisine. He added a most tremendous item for preparing a chettinadu special “While pepper forms the base for Chettinadu food, groundnuts, sesame seeds, roasted turmeric and dried ginger are key to Kongunadu cuisine,” he adds. Food from this region is not found in city restaurants. It calls for a unique use of ingredients – like the halwa with cotton seeds (paruthi tal), rice made with betel leaf (vetrilai poondu saatham), and chicken curry made with a young hen (chintamani).
After studying the south of Tamil Nadu (Chennai to Kanyakumari), he found that the South indian cuisine from this region is characterised by coriander powder – a mix of roasted coriander seeds, raw rice, Bengal gram, curry leaves and asafoetida. Some of the dishes include Madurai mutton kolambu (curry) which is spicy and dense due to the powder, and manjal thanni (spicy fish soup), which is prepared for breakfast by fisher folks and eaten with day-old rice.
Another staple is the saalna (curry with coconut as base) which is made with meat, vegetables or fish and is ideally eaten with parathas. saravanan, by tying up with hotels and restaurants, began to introduce these cuisines along with many other regional recipes through food festivals. Needless to say, feeding guests wasn’t the only aim; equal importance was given to educating them on appreciating the subtle differences between cooking styles and the cultural influences behind each cuisine.