Is now the time for Australia to truly uncover Indian cuisine?

These young chefs are working hard to introduce Australian palates to the diversity of food from India and bring regional cuisine to the forefront.

Raja restaurant in Sydney was known for serving Indian food in new ways. Credit: Nikki To

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Indian cuisine? If I were a betting person, I'd say it'd be some iteration of chicken in a brown gravy or sauce, aka, curry. I'd presume it wouldn't be a prawn koliwada or cabbage thoran. 

For far too long, Indian food in Australian restaurants has been shackled by stereotypes that do not rightfully showcase the breadth and diversity of the country and its myriad communities.

In fact, the very term 'Indian cuisine' is a bit of a misnomer. It's impossible to club together the cuisines of 28 different states (some geographically and culturally so different from each other they might as well be on different planets) and categorise it as a homogeneous cuisine defined by chilli. Ingredients, cooking techniques and flavours vary wildly.

And yet, the global perception, including here in Australia, has struggled to go beyond the north Indian staples of tandoori meat, and curries with a British history.

But that is all changing.

Rupal Bhatikar's eggplant recipe. Credit: Rupal Bhatikar

In the past few years, we have seen a new breed of Indian chefs challenging the stereotypes and showcasing a new style of food – one that celebrates the lesser-known flavours of regional India, from Bengal to Tamil Nadu, and everywhere in between.

Shashank Achuta is one such chef who, having worked at big-gun Australian restaurants like Attica and Restaurant Hubert, launched a meal delivery business Sydney Tiffin Room (STR) in 2021, spurred by a pandemic-induced desperation when the hospitality industry seemed to crumple upon itself. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise since it offered him the opportunity to make "food that's not very commonly found, and flavours that [he] loved."

STR introduced Sydney diners to dishes like masala vadai (lentil fritters cooked, in this instance, with prawns, Pondicherry style), and arikadukka (mussels stuffed with rice and coconut, a traditional dish from northern Kerala).

"What's important for me is that when you are cooking a dish, keep the essence intact, and then change everything else about it," Achuta says. "This way you are giving the customer the true flavours."

Credit: Achuta Shashank

Adopting a similar ethos and approach to heroing great Australian produce is Ahana Dutt, who ran the recently closed Raja, which was a hatted Indian restaurant in Sydney, admired for its small yet diverse menu.

"Even though Raja's closing is sad and unexpected, I could not be more proud of what we have achieved," Dutt says. "We introduced authentic Indian flavours in a contemporary way. It was the first step to show people that Indian food is much more than their perceptions."

Dutt comes from a Bengali family in Kolkata and has had a career trajectory not too dissimilar to Achuta's – a degree from Le Cordon Bleu Australia and time spent working at top restaurants, including Sydney's Firedoor.

Indians are now the second-largest migrant population group in Australia, with the number of people with Indian ancestry more than doubling between 2012 and 2022. This rapid growth rate is not projected to slow down anytime soon.

Many Indian migrants have settled in Victoria, making Melbourne a natural home for innovative Indian restaurants to showcase diverse regional cuisines. Examples include Toddy Shop, which focuses on rustic food from Kerala, and Enter Via Laundry, a restaurant birthed by dint of sheer passion for cooking dishes from 'back home'.

I feel particular joy in nondescript dishes that people have never heard of.

But restaurants aren't the only platform for these passionate cooks.

Rupal Bhatikar is a Melbourne-based marketer-turned-chef currently working at Nomad Melbourne. She has been showcasing the breadth of Indian regional cuisines (with a decided skew towards food from Goa, where she’s from) through social media, her own recipe website, pop-ups and collaborations.

"More than 90 per cent of my content is showcasing regional Indian food," Bhatikar says. "I feel particular joy in nondescript dishes that people have never heard of. What I've always tried to show is the sheer variety you can have."

Credit: Rupal Bhatikar

Many factors have likely led to this appetite for discovering new flavours. Social media has democratised access to knowledge, while increased travel (not counting the anomaly of the pandemic years) has opened up interior regions and cultures of India like never before to curious Australians.

There are also generational factors here: Gen Zs and Millennials are known to typically care more about authenticity and are also more open to experimentation.

Indian food is much more than their perceptions.

Then there's the MasterChef effect. MasterChef Australia was hugely popular in India, and former judge Gary Mehigan now spends a lot of his time exploring food across India. Further, contestants from the show, such as Kishwar Chowdhury, helped put the spotlight on Bengali dishes like aloo bhorta and phuchka. And contemporary shows like Luke Nguyen's India are also introducing Australians to lesser-known cuisines from India.

But it has not all been smooth sailing. For example, Raja had to take off dishes like a winter greens bhorta, which used raw mustard oil, because diners found it too pungent, and the spatchcock makhani.

Achuta also speaks of challenges, including discrimination against him. However, passion and perseverance are paying off, perhaps best demonstrated by Achuta’s recent crowning as the SMH Good Food Guide 2024’s Young Chef of the Year.

Shashank Achuta.

He hopes that this is just the beginning, and a platform such as this will bring him closer to his dream of normalising regional Indian food in Australia, where it will no longer be unusual to see an obscure dish from, say, Nagaland on a restaurant menu.

“We won’t rest till it happens,” he promises.