Chef and author Christine Manfield at Taj Bengal on Monday with her new book Tasting India. Pictures by Amit Datta

Renowned Australian chef, owner of the critically acclaimed Universal restaurant in Sydney, food and travel writer, culinary teacher and an aficionado of spices with a range of mixes and condiments to her name, Christine Manfield is a woman who stirs many a pot. Recently she was guest chef and judge on MasterChef Australia 2011. Christine was in the city on November 7 and 8 with her sixth book, Tasting India (published by Lantern, an imprint of Penguin Books). t2 spent a sumptuous afternoon chatting about flavours, fish heads and favourite authors...

How did the idea of Tasting India come about?

Well, India is a place that I have been travelling to for close to 20 years. I bring people travelling here every year — small groups — and food is a very important part of the experience. I do the food itinerary, a diverse mix that one wouldn’t come across as a first-time traveller. The book really came about through from that. And also spices. Spice sort of underpins the kind of cooking I do at my restaurant [Universal, in Sydney].

I have had this long familiarity with India… and I love the diversity. Australia seems so sedate once I go back!

Tasting India is not just a cookbook...

Yes, it’s in equal part a travel book too. I want people from outside of India to read it and get really excited and want to come here. Also, food should have some context. I didn’t want, you know, a bloody recipe book! I wanted my book to be much more complete and thorough. I wanted to explore how food fits into the context of culture — you’ve got all the regional differences, the religious differences and I wanted to show that incredible diversity. You know, Indian food is not just about tandoori and naan, that’s what I wanted to tell people.

We are very happy to see that you started your culinary journey in this book with Calcutta…

(Smiles.) The reason I started with Calcutta is because I wanted to dive straight into the deep end! Calcutta and Mumbai are sort of the book ends, the beginning and the end. In a way, starting with Mumbai would have been too predictable, because that’s usually the port of entry for everybody. And the two cities are so different… like polar opposites! Mumbai is, you know, big, it’s got money, it’s much more cosmopolitan, it’s much more international. Whereas, there’s this whole other side to Calcutta… it’s not as international, you don’t have the same amount of tourists or corporate culture or Bollywood. But there are other things here — scholars and universities and a great cultural centre. It’s sort of a heartland in an urban way.

You’ve written that of all Indians, Bengalis seem the most obsessed with food…

Yes, yes (laughs). I have friends here, Indians, and they are always talking about food. They are eating lunch and already discussing what’s for dinner! Yeah, yeah, they are always planning the next meal…. They really celebrate food. It’s a tradition that you all must preserve… don’t give up those customs and beliefs….

So, did you enjoy eating fish-head dal?

Yes, the first time I had it was in Chowringhee, at a small restaurant on the other side of New Market. And then we cooked it at my friend’s place. We got up early and bought the fish from Park Circus Market.

Using fish head is very common in Asia — Malaysia, Singapore in particular, less so in Thailand. Also in Indonesia and China.

You wrote about going to Nizam’s (near New Market) as a “pilgrimage”…

Their rolls are great for a snack, you know, when you are walking around. Or you can have two for lunch! When I take groups of people around, I stop there so that they can get a taste of Nizam’s too. My favourite is the chicken roll; I’ve tasted them all but I think I like the chicken the best — very juicy.

What about the rest of India?

People ask me was it hard to collect the recipes and the information and I say quite the opposite, you get run over with enthusiasm! It’s easy to strike up a conversation with any Indian over food. I say, ‘if it’s not cricket, it’s food’!

India is so vast and diverse, it’s impossible to cover it all. I’ve tried to sort of pick the eyes out and give a comprehensive view of the country without covering everything. That’s impossible, I think. There are so many places that I have seen after this book was sent to the publishers… that’s the beauty of this place, there’s so much! That’s part of the challenge, part of the thrill. You can’t say that about very many countries of the world.

If you had to open a restaurant in India, which place would you pick?

Oh, hard question (smiles)! Maybe Delhi, maybe Hyderabad. Because with the kind of cooking that I do, I’d be looking at a greater mix of people….

You have included many fiction titles in the section ‘Essential Reading’ in Tasting India…

For the last five years, I’ve done nothing but read Indian authors. I love them. When I’m in a place, I try and read authors of that place, it resonates with your travels, you can relate to the places. When I bring groups of people here, I give them books by Indian authors and ask them to read them while they are here.

Being here and reading The Sea of Poppies or The Hungry Tide makes sense. I love The Hungry Tide and The Glass Palace. I’ve just picked up his [author Amitav Ghosh’s] River of Smoke, which I am about to start while I am here. Then Rohinton Mistry and Kiran Desai — reading that up in the mountain was great. William Dalrymple, he’s not Indian but I really like his work. He has really got the essence of the country, he really understands it. That first chapter on the Jain nun in his Nine Lives is, I think, one of the best things I’ve read.

Tell us about your restaurant in Australia…

It’s called Universal. It represents flavours of the worlds, that’s why the name. The way I cook is inspired by flavours from all around the world. I don’t replicate traditional recipes… I don’t have an Indian dish, a Japanese dish, a Thai dish on the menu. You can see where the idea may have come from, the starting point, but the dish has been refined and changed to, sort of, become mine. I work with spices and I am drawn to countries that are about spices. The aesthetics, the look of my food is quite Japanese. It looks very simple but there’s a lot of layering and a balance of flavours and textures. And I choose wines from around the world to go with the food that I cook.

Is there any wine you would suggest with Bengali food?

Any wine! Just about anything.... Big, big wines, you know, full-bodied reds are said to be a little hard to sort of blend in with spices but that’s the kind of myths that I try to break in my classes and writing. The idea that all you can drink with spices is beer is such crap!

When did you start cooking?

Well, it’s 25 years that I am cooking. It’s my third career. First I was teaching in school. And I was travelling a lot anyway… that’s one of the advantages of teaching, you get so many holidays (laughs)! Then after travelling and writing for a while, I started cooking, sort of jumped in head first… mid-life crisis (smiles).

What does being a chef mean to you?

It’s a very satisfying job. But it’s more than a job. Food and travel are my reasons for living. I’ve always spent all my money on food. But being a chef is very hard work. On TV it’s all very glamorised but it’s not all, you know, la la la… you need a lot of physical, emotional and intellectual energy and you need to be incredibly resilient.

What is your signature dish?

You could pick any dish from my restaurant menu and it would be fine. But I’d say my desserts. We have people coming in just for the desserts; they are very striking. Usually as a chef, you do either sweet or savoury. But since I didn’t have any formal training, I was never really cautioned about this. I feel the desserts on the menu have got to link in, they have to be a part of the whole picture. But too many places have separate dessert sections, where the pastry chefs write their own menu and that might not have any relationship with the main menu. I mean you may go to a place that serves Asian-inspired dishes but for dessert, there is crème brulee and I’m like what?!

And your comfort food?

The food that I cook. Like a curry. I can’t live without rice and chilli. I have to carry chilli with me to places that don’t make them!

Christine Manfield. (Amit Datta)

You are often called the Mistress of Spices. How did you discover spices?

I think I have always had an affinity with spices. I don’t like bland food. I love flavours and the diversity of flavours you get from spices. It’s something I started experimenting with long before I even started travelling. So, you know, coming to a place like India, it just made a lot of sense.

What are your favourite spices?

There are so many! There’s obviously chilli, then saffron, turmeric, mustard seed and cumin.

Five must-haves in your kitchen?

Mortar and pestle, a good blender to get a really fine paste, good knives, a decent stove, like you know induction heat, and a good wok, which is like a kadhai…

Five things one will find in your fridge at any time?

Water, lots of water, fruits, if I want to make fruit juice…. Actually, if I am cooking at home, I shop on a daily basis, I don’t buy for the whole week… okay, then yoghurt and pastes like chilli jam or curry pastes….

You were a guest chef on MasterChef Australia seasons 2 and 3. Tell us about your experience…

It’s fun to do for a couple of episodes but it’s not a job I’d want, thank you very much (laughs heartily)! Look, it’s a game show at the end of the day; you don’t watch it to learn to become a good cook. The people who are on it aren’t there to become chefs, they’re there because they want to be on television. And cooking just happens to be that particular way… there’s the same format for fashion...

Having said that, there’s a good side that’s come out of it too. It’s raised awareness, particularly among young people, about the importance of food. It’s got them thinking about ingredients and some of the simple processes of cooking, so they are not just heating up a packet of something. And nine to 12-year-olds are having MasterChef parties! And cook-offs… which is great. There’s a lot more that people can do, but, you know, it’s a starting point.

Your advice for aspiring chefs and restaurateurs?

Oh, being a chef is one thing, opening a restaurant another, altogether! There are a lot of great cooks but great cooks do not necessarily make good business people. It’s a very different set of skills required for opening a restaurant. But yes, you know, follow your dream and stay really, really determined. And as a chef, constantly taste, keep tasting. Develop your memory bank and trust your instincts and learn to just sort of instantly know what will work and what won’t.

a taste of india

Tasting India is a coffee-table book, only the table should be rather robust. That’s because this 468-pager by Christine Manfield is one truck-stopper of a book, containing a sensuous treat for all your senses, not just your taste buds.

Compiled after almost 20 years of Christine Manfield’s travels across India, the book captures large swathes of the culinary and cultural tapestry of India, from the lanes of Calcutta, the hills of Sikkim, the desert of Rajasthan, the temple towns of Tamil Nadu, the backwaters of Kerala and the pop picks of Mumbai — that’s all we could say in one breath, the book has much, much more. Part cookbook, part travelogue, Tasting India is rich in anecdotes and a treasure trove of pictures by Australian photographer Anson Smart. The pictures are more of people and places than food, but we don’t mind at all. And there are over 250 recipes, from the very Bengali ‘Kool Chutney’ to Konkan Masala Clams.

Published by Lantern, an imprint of Penguin Books, Tasting India is priced at Rs 1,990.

In her book Tasting India, Christine talks about Panch Phoran in the section on Calcutta, describing it as an ‘essential whole spice mix used in myriad dal and vegetable preparations for its warm fragrancy’.

We make up our own mix of five questions:

Panch Phoran

1 Fave Bengali dish: Woah, hard to say! If it was bread, I’d say either kachori or luchi. Then I like bekti cooked in a mustard-coconut paste, it’s really rich. The vegetables here are fantastic too, so Shukto. It’s really light and cleansing. And in dessert, mishti doi. I really like that. And rosogulla.

2 Fave Bengali spice: Mustard and curry leaves.

3 Fave eat-out in Calcutta: Kewpie’s, I think. If you don’t have access to someone’s home and you want to taste home cooking, I think Kewpie’s is the next best thing.

4 Fave snack in Calcutta: I love the street food. My favourite would be the kachori from roadside stalls, particularly around Dacres Lane. They’ve had a lasting impression on me.

5 Fave place in Darjeeling: When I went up there, I stayed at Glenburn [tea estate]. It was lovely! I also loved the cute little places serving momos near Teesta Bazar.

Samhita Chakraborty