Indian veg cuisine very impressive, says French chef

India's range of meat and fish dishes is diverse, even bewildering with its overtones of hot, sour, sweet and tangy. But what really got two-Michelin-star chef Julien Royer's taste buds kicking during his visit to India is the vegetarian food.

The Singapore-based French chef was an absolute stranger to the flavours of India when he came to the country for the first time last year. Royer, who visited Mumbai then, was in Delhi on Thursday to expand his flavour horizons. "The spice, flavours and tastes were very impressive, specially the vegetarian dishes.

I love the cuisine's diversity," Royer, who co-owns Odette, a modern French restaurant in Singapore, said. Recalling his visit to Mumbai last year, he said he discovered the joys of multi-layered, multi-cultural desi cuisine and was left 'impressed'. He remembered being 'blown away' by the exploding flavours of pani puri, pakoras and khandvi.

He also expressed a newly discovered fondness for the tandoor. "Anything that's cooked in a tandoor is great for me," he said. "I think food is a universal language, but we all do have different habits. So, I feel it was important for me as a chef to adapt myself to the country where I was, and the place and people I was cooking for," he said.

Royer's adaptability as a chef also came through when he was faced with an unexpected table of vegetarian guests. He disposed of his pre-decided non vegetarian menu, and spontaneously rustled up an array of vegetarian delicacies like cauliflower and curry tartlets, quinoa crackers topped with salsa, cucumbers and coriander and celeriac with mushroom ketchup and truffle.

The 33-year-old said he was driven towards becoming a chef during his growing up years when he watched his grandmother create magic in the kitchen. He was inspired by how she conjured "the most remarkable dishes from the purest ingredients". "She taught me the importance of adding that little something to create dishes that excite the palate and fill the heart," he said.

In 2015, he founded Odette, a 48-seater fine dining restaurant located in the National Gallery in Singapore, which featured in the 9th place on the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2017 list. Royer's technique at hand to make any dish shine is to "showcase the produce". He believes in treating every ingredient with the utmost care to highlight its purest flavours.