Can healthy food be delicious and designer, and fine dining menus can be ordered? Kerala Tourism’s answer to Kerala Travel Mart had options on offer
Can health food be designer, and order a fine food menu? Kerala Travel Mart had options on offer
a plateful Kuruva with rice (red rice) agathi incision (Vegetable Hummingbird) Flowers, Bajra chapati, Banana stem and flower accompaniment, Green gram, Jackfruit seeds, tzuthama (hogweed), horse gram, papaya, mango and a bamboo rice dessert had recently engulfed eaters in Kochi and were also eating food with their hands.
“People don’t know that Ayurveda food is not only healthy but also delicious. It was important to introduce people to this aspect,” says Subhash C Bose, general manager of Somathiram Ayurveda Group, Kerala’s leading Ayurveda resort in Thiruvananthapuram, established in 1985. He is talking about the Ayurveda food counter set up by him recently.Kerala Travel Mart (May 5-8) concluded in Kochi.
Simultaneously, in the stylish setting of Brunton Boatyard in Fort Kochi, 250 delegates were treated to conscious cuisine created by CGH Earth, a Kochi-headquartered responsible travel and healthcare group, at their concluding dinner.
At the event, Ayurveda food and cuisine inspired by Ayurveda were showcased to global customers along with other innovative products, such as the Champion Boatres League and Keeravan Kerala: Caravan Tourism in the state.
“Food is medicine,” said the diners after tasting the plated food. Prepared by four chefs from the Thiruvananthapuram-based group, these proofs of the delicious side of Ayurveda food were served over three days to nearly 1,500 diners.
in the expression list
Bamboo Rice Payasam | Photo Credit: Somathiram Ayurveda Group
“When we launched three decades ago, specific diets were prescribed for guests seeking medical treatment or on vacation. In the 1990s we raised it to the level of a dish that could be ordered from the menu, and brought it to our restaurant menus. We now have appetizers, starters, main courses, accompaniments, desserts and beverages using vegetables, fruits, herbs, leaves and oils, all inspired by Ayurvedic ingredients,” says Bose.
In the 1990s, a team of doctors, cooks and nutritionists conducted extensive research with locally grown vegetables, spices and 260 recipes based on three body humours, explains Dr. Sina Rajendran, chief medical officer of the organization. Created a menu of: Air (Air), Bile (Bile), phlegm (cough). Then he created beneficial recipes for each body type and constitution. “The restaurant menu is labeled as such,” she says.
Irina Guriva, a Ukraine-based Ayurveda tour operator and a diner on the occasion, says, “Ayurvedic food can be prepared by everyone at home. The Michelin star restaurant has a few chefs who serve Ayurveda food. It is about preparing it following the rules of the constitution of the body and using locally grown ingredients. ,
She speaks of Ayurvedic food that elevates the emotional state of the body and results in “happiness, which is curative.”
mindful eating
Steamed Herb Prawns on Raw Mangoes | photo credit: CGH Earth
Meanwhile, Chef Jose Varkey, corporate chef at CGH Earth and the man behind Conscious Cuisine, serves buffets based on meanings such as “local ingredients, benefiting the community, mindful eating and environmental sensitivity as well as some common factors of Ayurvedic cuisine.” ”
A man with a mission, he is set to deliver a speech on the subject at the At-Sunris GlobalChef Academy in Singapore in June 2022.
“About 80% of the food that a person consumes should be plant based. It should have a feel-good factor; Keep you sharp and hydrated,” says Chef Jose, explaining that his “religion” as a chef was when the Greek physician Hippocrates famously said, ‘Let food be your medicine’. The menu includes naturopathy and Ayurveda. The handling group was prepared by the hospitals.
A champion of “gut health,” his experiments with food are about food being anti-inflammatory and primarily alkaline. “The food should boost the immune system,” he says, adding that the food should also help maintain the pH value of the blood, which is 7.35 to 7.45.
He speaks of unheated virgin and cold pressed oils, natural ingredients, slow cooking and not discoloring any ingredient.
“We try not to reject any ingredient, so it’s slow-cooked,” explains Jose, and gives the example of the golden-hued kuttanadan duck dish that was served. Typically, a deep black preparation, browned and charred onions, and high-heat cooking, they made the dish by braising the duck with dehydrated onions at 50 °C, which gave it a golden hue. “Parts of the onions were steamed and cooked without hot oil,” he says.
Ripe Banana Flowers and Beetroot Cutlets | photo credit: CGH Earth
To ensure the natural factor, starters had a vegetable or fruit, such as herbed shrimp steamed in a thin layer of crisp dehydrated mango. Locally-bought live oysters and steamed mussels provide “the best source of good gut bacteria.” Of the 30 dishes served, the use of rice was limited to the local variety of steamed red rice, while noodles, eda, rotis, pasta, bread and idiyappam. Made using millet and jackfruit flour.
Desserts at dinner included tropical fruits, and arrowroot was used to make the tart. The chef uses cocoa nibs to make the chocolate, while the mousses, brownies and chia bowls are prepared raw. “We did not use wheat or its by-products, nor any dairy, sugar, refined oil, nor any essence. A lot can be made using fresh and dried fruits and nuts,” says the chef, emphasizing his food philosophy of going back to barefoot luxury, especially in food.