Addition to the culture of modernist, honest and good food — Fig and Maple.
Despite all that is being spoken and written about the current state of affairs for the restaurant business in our country, I still think that this is still the one of the most exciting times that we are living in.
Bars are losing licenses, rentals are all time high and lack of empathy from government is quite enraging. Every-time I sit with a young restaurateur about the “license raj” some have the bitter most reactions, then there are some who are remarkably positive about the good food culture coming of an age.
We are forced to argue— Has the culinary conversation of the city have become a boring rant or is it going to be a new one with fresher ideas or like she puts it, fresh ingredients.?
To put things in perspective, its only in adversity that creativity flourishes, bringing out ground breaking ideas and innovations that are remembered for years to come.
Comes in Radhika Khandelwal; chef-owner of the famous Shahpur Jat Ivy and Bean and now Fig and Maple in GK 2 M block market. We got a chance to catch up with the ambivert and a honest giggle of a conversation with the chef who picked up skills on her way to own one of the hottest properties in the city.
From choosing a place where she can push her boundaries as a chef, which in her own words was restricted with her older establishment. This place is actually a bold statement for her who has jumped into curating a menu, dish after dish with a point of view of what people should try more that what people are actually wanting to eat.
Seeing her menu, and flipping through the flimsy page after page, the tenacity with the food is put up is actually a strong reason for people to stop and take notice. The menu is a delight for people who are open to try some of the most under-explored tastes for Indian palate.
As you enter the space, you are eased into a loft lookalike and further extension to a terrace garden space for an evening chill scene. A very minimal space overlooks the public park. For some it might me dull but for me it was just a perfect clean space. Sharp, well lit interiors help remember everything pretty vividly and in active memory, with its moderate music and a conversationist style space, Fig and Maple does not intimidate you, rather welcomes you to make the space your own.
I was bought into Chef’s idea of wanting to keep her space devoid of any bold distractions, She wanted conversations and her food to fill in all the colour and character to the space.
We began our adventures with beetroot and chocolate milkshake, well this is one of the most honest renditions to red velvet cake, only difference was this was a lot more like having some real flavours than just a pretty looking glass.
Working on Chef’s recommendation we ordered the signature Fig and Maple salad. Her formula of exceptional plating and ingredients presented in a manner which is comforting to the audience. The chef understands the value of wonder. The plate looks full, and one is already eating with their eyes. A huge dinner plate with carefully put bed of leaves and fresh ingredients does not intimidate you. It only invites you for more morsels, each mouthful, giving you repose of flavours. Expectations are really high from the very beginning. Where the entire menu works on established modernist cuisine, the flavours are Indian and ingredients hyper-local.
After resurfacing from a sensation of a Salad, rockets with fig, candied pine nuts, other fresh seasonal berries and mustard dressing, We nose dived into buttermilk savoury pancakes. These generally come with chicken, we got ours with shrimps. Healthy and hearty, beautifully decorated with edible flowers and goose berries, the dish was wholesome, also note-worthily exciting to see as it came with Wasabi cream, still trying to make my mind whether I liked the cream or not, it ceased to take any space on my mind as the wholegrain waffles were a substantial reason to put Fig and Maple on the top of the lists for waffle places in the city. Next up was baked potato with salsa Fresca, poached eggs and bacon. Where the bacon was a little too salty for my taste, the potato did the wonders.
I would not call it a menu, I would rather label it a collection, themed around forest and abundance of it, chef who served us all by herself explained how each thing put on the food has a meaning and she hopes it reflects as an experience.
A long discussion later on the mood and other areas of the conscious cooking and numerous rounds of appreciating good places and cocktail bars in the city, we enter the most enchanted part of the forest.
Where we always try to keep an appetite for dessert or two, the diligent and extremely well orchestrated show from Chef was now established. We also pleasantly figured out that desserts were supplied by Rama Chadha of Sugarama.
While its no surprise that the food at this eatery is top notch, what really drew us to the places like these is the courage of people who run them. In this tumultuous time it is very easy to bend yourself and give up on the idea that one began with and to start selling what everyone is selling. One needs a lot of courage to take risk and having the right attitude and skills to make things happen.
What Radhika is doing in her kitchen in nothing short of clever genius. She understands why people like to eat with eyes first, she is smart enough to know the power of local produce and most of all, she is humble to know that the real magic still lies in the flavour of the ingredients. As a skilled team, Fig and Maple knows how to push boundaries without making them off limits to an average eater.
With an idea to travel across the world and bringing all the positive influences to her cooking, this one chef is just making all the right moves in a far, written off corner of the city.
May be we can give Greater Kailash 2 market a second chance and maybe in the coming time we will credit Fig and Maple for reviving this airy green space. However what can be certainly said about her restaurant is that once people start to recognise what is in up that long staircase, we all would accept and normalise the idea of having chef run restaurants.
Its about time that we accept, its only to our benefit when a chef runs a restaurant, she puts good food ahead of everything.
While for us we cannot wait to get back to this beautiful space for their summer menu and cocktails that they promise in the coming months.
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