He’s taken local Goan cuisine to an elevated space in the country’s culinary landscape with his indigenous and hyperlocal cooking at Cavatina in Goa. t2 chats with Goan chef Avinash Martins before he visits Calcutta for his pop-up, Taste of Coasts, at AMPM Park Street tomorrow. Excerpts...
Your association with Calcutta isn’t a new one. What’s it like coming back to a city where you worked a long time ago?
Coming back to Calcutta brings back a lot of memories of my time at The Oberoi Grand, where I trained, way back in 2004. A whole lot of nostalgia.
What inspired you to become a chef in the first place?
I like cooking, I like to serve, I like to eat. In my early years I never thought I’d be a chef, guess it was just pure passion. I like to host a lot of my friends at home and I like to surprise them and then I cook some dishes that for them are unbelievable. That passion slowly developed into a profession.
Your Instagram bio says ‘local heart, global soul’, so what’s it like combining the two spectrums?
‘Local heart, global soul’ is a line that defines that our local ingredients can be turned into global-level plates, into anything fantastic which the world boasts of today when it comes to fine dining in great restaurants.
What’s the food philosophy of Cavatina like, and what is the name inspired by?
The food philosophy at Cavatina is ‘local heart, global soul’. It basically is a lot of reimagined Goan cuisine, where we revive lost ingredients, techniques and recipes and present it in a modern fashion. The name is from a song I heard in Spain at a tapas bar. I was happily getting drunk having pitchers of Sangria and this mariachi played the song for me. In my broken Spanish I asked him the name of the song and he said Cavatina! I loved the tune, the song and the name and it was at that moment back in 2008 that I decided that when I open my place, it’s going to be called Cavatina.
Your other baby, Table in the Hills, also operates on a fairly unexplored yet fabulous concept. What led you towards it?
It’s totally a pandemic baby, where I really wanted to experiment and do something out of the box. I wanted to not do the usual and the pandemic gave me the time and the boost to do something. Suddenly, everybody spoke a language that was fresh, organic, local and farm to fork, so it sort of blended well with the thought process and the execution.
Cavatina has carved a niche for itself in the Indian culinary scene. Does that put you under pressure?
It’s been there for the past 10 years. It’s been known but it’s really got that recognition post 2020. And I have enjoyed the journey. I’m somebody who takes each day as it comes and as a beautiful gift from God and really treasure the talents, skills and thoughts that he’s given us so that we continue to support our local artisans and our food philosophy.
Dealing with local and seasonal ingredients can be tough since unavailability might affect your menu. How do you deal with these challenges?
I believe that nature is the greatest giver. If it doesn’t give you one thing, it gives you something else, so you just gotta have that vision. You need to be open enough to understand what’s there for the season and work with it.
What are your top faves from the menu, items that we must try?
Haha! It’s like asking a mother which is your favourite child. But I guess it would be all the classics like the Prawns Who Drank the Feni, the Banana Story, these are all classics reimagined and people love them.
Among your contemporaries doing similar work, who are the few that really inspire you?
I was just focused on doing my stuff. I want to be happy in my own zone. I know India is a great space with a lot of talented chefs doing some fantastic work, but for me it’s never like if he’s doing something then I should do it too. It’s about being in your own zen space and loving what you do. That’s how I take it, I never look at it as a competition.
What are your favourite places to eat in the country?
Uhh, all over the country, hole-in-the-wall places are the ones I love; the kiosks, and street food is my favourite.
What does comfort food for Chef Martins look like?
The food that I was fed during my childhood days, it’s all nostalgia. It could be as simple as me walking to a baker in the morning and getting a butter chiplet in my pocket, putting that on a warm poi and making that the first bite of my day. It’s as simple as it can get. There’s also some simple fish curry and rice and every household has its own version. My grandmother made a beautiful roast, a combination of beef and pork. So all these memories of food are still fresh in my mind.
As a chef, what would you describe your signature style to be like?
It would be something very nostalgic, emotion driven, laid with a lot of passion into whatever I do. Even if it’s a simple dal, let me give you an example, if I play a song, I’m going to play that song on repeat till I complete the dish. Cooking isn’t just about ingredients, it involves a lot of factors, such as music, art, nature.
What are some of the ingredients that you love working with?
I’m an ambitious chef, and for me it’s all about exploring, pushing the boundaries and getting indigenous ingredients which have not been seen or heard of.
The pop-up at AMPM is something the city is fairly excited about. What can we expect?
We wanted to give Calcutta something different so we’ve clubbed my journey with Goan food. We don’t want to give them the same desi khana or flavours that are prominent all over. I’m coming back after 20 years, so I wanna give something back to Calcutta.
Apart from cooking, what’s your way of unwinding?
It’s going up for a hike, camping, doing forest scene or beach BBQ. I like to paint, I love music, I compose songs, I write poems. For me, nature, art, music and food is one soul.
If not a chef, what would you be?
A music artiste.
What are some of your favourite spots to eat in Calcutta, and some dishes that you totally dig?
I’m going to explore the local street food and that’s on my agenda. I really don’t know how much Calcutta has grown in terms of fine dine, I’m sure it’s a lot. But for me going and having the kathi roll, and the street classics is what I’m looking forward to.
Rajan Sethi (left) and Dheeraj Maniyar, owners, AMPM Calcutta
“AMPM’s food presents a dynamic new thought in bar-forward culinary experiences through a globally inspired tapas menu featuring signature dishes that capture familiar and nostalgic Indian flavours in modern and contemporary re-imaginations. Crafted by corporate chef Ayush Sood, many of the statement dishes on our menu find resonance with Chef Avinash Martins’s food philosophy of presenting new expressions of comfort flavours that he grew up with, in his coastal Goan childhood. Chef Avinash’s menu for the pop-up on December 1 also echoes with the Calcutta audience’s palate, bringing an opportunity for local patrons to explore unusual coastal flavours through vegetarian as well as seafood options on the courses. Guests can expect modern Goan cuisine with exciting flavours not served elsewhere in Calcutta. As a new brand, we hope that exclusively bringing this experience is a conversation starter for a cocktail bar such as ours to elevate the culinary experiences we offer to the city. We hope to continue introducing new and regional culinary flavours to the people of Calcutta through interesting collaborations such as this,” said Rajan Sethi (left) and Dheeraj Maniyar, owners, AMPM Calcutta.
