In creating, or rather designing the F&B concept at Epitome, Chef Akshay Nayyar lets us in on his culinary journey.
From the first step you take into the space, you notice Chef Akshay Nayyar’s aim to create an experience.
It’s a motto most successful chefs and restaurateurs seem to swear by, and he’s no different. Except that he looks at his job as more than culinary. Just like there are interior designers, he says, his team designs F&B concepts.
“Because you know when you design something, it has a lot larger thought process. For me F&B is not just food, it’s way beyond that. So ya that’s how we started from Epitome Dubai,” he says.
An iconic celebrity chef in his own right, Chef Akshay has several well-established restaurants across the UAE and India in his kitty. It was at Tumtum Asia, one of his several pure vegetarian Pan-Asian restaurants, that he first bumped into Ankit. As one of Chef Akshay’s regular diners, he first approached the chef with the idea for Epitome, and the rest is history.
As we sit in the magnificently designed restaurant, it’s definitely a vibe most spaces in Mumbai don’t offer. Large Greek statues, neutral yet striking interiors, high ceilings, and a meticulously crafted separate space for sundowners offer diners mood-specific spaces. That being said, the food and beverages are still the stars of the show at Epitome.
Riding the vegan wave
If you’re a Mumbaikar, you’ve probably noticed the spike in vegetarian and vegan spots. Here’s another one, but they’re paying attention to taste and presentation in equal parts. According to the chef, his vision is to take vegetarian cuisine to places not many have attempted before.
Now for the ironic bit. For a non-vegetarian, most, if not all of the chef’s projects lie squarely on the opposite end of the spectrum. But Chef Akshay thinks that works well for him, saying, “There’s so much to explore in the vegetarian world. Before people would just restrict themselves to a couple of vegetables, maybe 7-8 or 10. Then there was cottage cheese of course, and even tofu was something people ate once in six months or so. But now the way vegetarianism and veganism are developing, people are more health and environment conscious, pet-friendly, and they’re thinking about Mother Nature. It’s developing and as a chef, I think it gives me a lot of excitement to create something that hasn’t been created before. And that’s my vision.”
It’s not as simple as experimenting with ingredients though. Chef Akshay believes that most of the food we eat nowadays is just a by-product of old recipes. So rather than playing around with the same elements, why not step it up? How about creating a dish of flour which is not a burger or a pizza?
Pushing the boundaries
For instance, Epitome took a sensitive and delicate ingredient like avocado and decided to switch things up. So instead of a cold salad, you have a hot dish. And not just any hot dish, but an Avocado Tikka Masala.
What about paneer? With Chef Akshay at the helm, you know you’re not getting any ordinary orange gravy. Taking his love for paneer, mushrooms, and cauliflower, it all came together to create a Black Forest on the plate. One might argue then, that carnivores are likely to feel alienated at Epitome.
But of course, that’s where the Shrimpitini comes in. Made from pea protein along with potato starch, Chef Akshay uses wakame and nori to give a ‘sea flavour’ to the homemade mock shrimps. Using beetroot colour, they impart rosy tones to the ‘shrimp’. It’s finally crumb-coated, tossed with wasabi and chipotle and served on a bed of lettuce. There’s no such thing as too sacrilegious on this menu, as illustrated by the adventurous Rasmalai ki chaat.
With each dish being a complex amalgamation of distinct elements, what keeps the chef’s imagination going?
The method behind the chaos
“So I do very limited projects. I don’t do a lot, I believe less is more. Whenever I do a project, I take a 10-15 day isolated vacation. And that vacation is only with one more person, that’s me. It could be anywhere, like when we designed Epitome Juhu’s menu, I was in Georgia. Even the last time I went somewhere, I was at peace, no phones no nothing, everyone knows for that time I’m completely unavailable. That’s when you start to think,” says the chef matter-of-factly.
A bunch of trial and error later, there’s a unique new dish. The Tofu Skin Cannelonis, for instance. “We were creating a dish for Epitome Dubai. For the first time in the world, we’ve created these Tofu Skin Cannelonis. It’s made from silken, not firm tofu. It took me two and a half hours to master that particular dish. Silken tofu doesn’t have any gluten in it, so how do you do it right? We applied a lot of formulas, everything from steaming to baking, pan-frying and even freezing it. We finally zeroed in on one thing, and that’s how it was born,” he recalls.
Chef Akshay is almost as eccentric as his food. He admits that he doesn’t create recipes, it’s all mostly recorded and later standardised by the team. But how does one create cravings without consistency? By focusing on recreating taste. While creating a dish, he focuses on achieving that final exquisite flavour, whatever the process may be.
He says, “Epitome is not a restaurant to me. It’s an experience for me, and more than that, my food here should leave cravings. Because that’s what will bring you back. Experience will bring you once, cravings will have you coming back for more.”
One of the courses at Epitome is served in an impression of Chef Akshay Nayyar’s hands. That’s how much he takes his ‘haath ka swaad’ and philosophies seriously. True to the restaurant’s name, he’s worked to create the pinnacle of dishes in the vegan and vegetarian sphere. In terms of the cuisine, it can be narrowed to the top 5 one would think of while stepping out. What they’ve done well is rearrange ingredients using techniques beyond the conventional, and created something decidedly unique.
As Chef Akshay says, “After a meal here, even if it’s 5-courses, it should leave wanting for more. Not too full, not hungry, but still craving more.”
Anyone up for Rasmalai ki Chaat?
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