Innovative, delicious, refined Indian food in South Kensington.
In some ways, it started for me with Avi Shashidhara at the simply excellent Pahli Hill. A career which started with an internship with the Oberoi Hotel Group took him from Bangalore to London, where after stints at places like Hibiscus he became Head Chef at the River Café before returning to his culinary roots at Pahli Hill, but with a finesse and elegance that has untied the two food cultures. I love the place and will write about it shortly.
So to Pravaas, where the CV of Shilpa Dandekar shows a similar path to India’s Taj hotel group (the great rival to the Oberoi hotels) before arriving in the UK and working with Chef Sriram Aylur at Michelin-starred Quilon and Raymond Blanc. In doing so she has built up a formidable reputation and now at Pravaas has opened up as Chef Patron on a small side street just by South Kensington tube station. It’s the kind of street that makes you wonder whether you should have become an investment banker after all. For a moment at least, and then you recover your senses and head into the restaurant.
Where the magic begins. What Shilpa has done here is truly wonderful. She has, like Avi, used the template of how elegant European food looks and feels – and which we instinctively understand – to show off the glorious heritage of South Asian cuisine. If the term had not been banned from active use around about 2005, I would call it fusion. But it isn’t quite that. It’s playful, beautiful, elegant and wholly South Asian.
From Pani Puri shots – a great riff with the traditional potato, onion and chickpea hollow shells accompanied by a refreshing minty liquid which you pour in and then let explode in your mouth – to scallops pan-fried with crispy rice and pistachio covering then served with little chunks of walnut, chilli and pomegranate, yet on a very Euro artichoke puree. At this point, the brain starts to say: forget where this stuff comes from, just get more of it, it’s bloody delicious.
And so the dishes come. We tried the set menu which took us from pale, wasabi spiced chicken thighs to the flavour explosion of a patra chaat with tamarind chutney exploding in the mouth. Then perhaps my favourite dish, a red snapper moilee (a moilee is a South Indian coconut-based curry) which was just so beautifully elegant while still capturing the whiff of the Keralan coast.
After an inspired kokum granita – an acidic fruit from the Western Ghats that crowd Mumbai towards the sea – the final main course was an excellent lamb sukke – or dry slow-cooked lamb – with asparagus and dahl. A Shahi Tukra of brioche, saffron milk, pistachios, roses, stewed apple and whipped cream was almost too much of a pudding. I finished every drop.
Yet I don’t think I have done justice to how new all of this tasted and felt, even though when looked at they are not all new dishes at all. Reworked and refined, sure, some genuine inspiration here. And perfect execution in the kitchen.
Then I thought, I have it the wrong way round. It is not the chef or the food that is new, it is us. We are only now starting to glimpse just what South Asian cuisine can do, and Avi and Shipla are leading the charge in showing us the way. A bit like with the glimpses we are starting to see in London of what West African food can do, perhaps it is only now that chefs with their training and sheer talent have decided we can now be trusted enough to eat the South Asian food they are really capable of making. And go to Pravaas and eat it you must, because it is really very, very special.
Finally, mention and praise must also be made of price – the set menu cost only £69 a head. Now I know to an old Yorkie like me that sounds like eh bah gum a lot of money. But in the new reality of London restaurant pricing, it really is not. And particularly not for eight courses of this quality in South Kensington with wonderful staff and even an Indian Pale Ale imported from India! I’ll see you there.
Pravaas – 3 Glendower Place, South Kensington, London SW7 3DU – 020 3161 7641 – www.pravaas.com
Opening times: Mon – Fri 12.00 – 15:00 | 17:30 – 22:30 – Sat & Sun 10:00 – 22:30
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