Chef Ekaterina Alehina Lands At Indian Accent For A Four-Hands Lunch

It was a sunny afternoon in Delhi when I arrived at Indian Accent for a four-hands lunch that I was looking forward to. One of India’s most legendary chefs and the Executive Chef of Indian Accent, Chef Shantanu Mehrotra, was joining hands with the two-Michelin-starred Russian Chef Ekaterina Alehina for a special lunch. Chef Alehina is the Chef-Owner of Biologie restaurant in the Moscow region, known for her zero-waste and sustainability-led approach to gastronomy.  Her restaurant also received the Green and Red Michelin stars in 2021.

Her cuisine combines regional culinary traditions with innovative techniques, focusing on local and own-farm produce, wild foraging, whole-product cooking, and in-house fermentation.

“When I was first told that we were planning to collaborate with Chef Alehina, I was most excited because I knew very little about Russian cuisine and saw it as an opportunity to learn,” said Chef Mehrotra. The five-course lunch was a seamless and beautiful coming together of two very distinct cuisines: Indian and Russian, with classics from both Biologie (Chef Alehina’s restaurant in Ilyinskoye, Moscow) and Indian Accent.

I opted for the vegetarian tasting menu, which began with borsch, a hearty sour soup made with red beets, cabbage, meat or bone broth, and vegetables. Alehina served two versions of the traditional dish: one in its soupy form, topped with a dollop of cream cheese, and the other, a deconstructed borsch. The former was comfort served in a bowl, and what tied the experience together for me was the dollop of sour cream. “Unlike my presumption, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and flavour of the sour cream that is available in India. I opened the tin, dunked my finger, and was delighted how perfect it tasted,” said Chef Alehina as she served the first course to us.

The more inventive, deconstructed version featured beet marmalade, lacto-fermented beetroot, borscht spheres, coconut lard, and borodinsky bread. With beet in various forms, my favourite was the spherical borsch, which offered a flavourful burst in the mouth. I’m not sure how close it was to traditional borsch, but it definitely made for a delicious bite. The course came paired with a crisp Riesling trocken.

The next course came from Chef Mehrotra: a tofu medu vada topped with Madras gunpowder and sambhar cream. The plate looked clean and colourful. I broke into the medu vada, which was delicious on its own, but it worked even better with the inventive sambhar cream. On the side was a block of beetroot, which didn’t do much for the palate but added another colour to the plate and also served as a match cut from the beetroot-forward course before it. For the ones who opted for the non-vegetarian tasting menu, this course featured achaari pork ribs that most mentioned were tender enough to be eaten with a spoon. The wine for this course was a Syrah-Mourvèdre-Viognier (often called SMV), which I loved for the bold fruitiness, spicy depth, and the final perfumed floral lift.

After the tofu medu vada arrived, the course I liked best from lunch was the blue cheese naan, if you count that as a course. It was a kurnick prepared with caramelised cabbage instead of the traditional filling. Kurnick is a traditional Russian savoury pie that features layers of buttery pastry and a filling of chicken, rice, hard-boiled eggs, and mushrooms. This one, by Chef Alehina, was prepared for vegetarians and featured plenty of cabbage. It was placed in a pool of rich, creamy root-vegetable cream and topped with truffle shavings. The only condition for trying this is that you shouldn’t be allergic to cabbage. Don’t think your dislike of the vegetable is any reason to skip. I tried and enjoyed the pie. Sadly, the meat eaters had to settle with their sea bass (which most claimed was lip smacking).

Finally, it was time for the palate cleanser everyone had been waiting for with bated breath: the kulfi sorbet. Featuring pomegranate and churan (digestive spice mix), it came in its classic pressure cooker and tasted just as good as it always does.

The next course was Indian Accent’s main course. It featured a shaami kebab in a pool of Chef Mehrotra’s vegetarian take on nihari, paired with asparagus and hajikame. That couldn’t have gone wrong. As all the meat eaters laughed about a vegetarian nihari, Chef Mehrotra said, “I assure you, even the meat eaters will polish it off. But don’t share.” This course also featured Indian Accent’s dairy dal makhani, paneer and mushroom kulcha, and a wasabi and cucumber raita. As hearty as it sounds. The ones who opted for the non-vegetarian section relished a lamb shab daig that most said was lip smacking. For this course’s wine pairing, what better than a pinot noir?

As Chef Alehina announced the dessert’s arrival, we knew the meal was nearing its end. The gingerbread came with apple compote, honey crumble, and elderberry panna cotta. More than the gingerbread, I enjoyed the elderberry panna cotta cubes, apple compote, and the texture that the honey crumble and dry fruits like walnuts and almonds added to the plate. All in all, a delicious experience with too many elements that weren’t competing but coming together in the best way possible. The dessert course was paired with the chenin blanc, which made for the perfect parting sip.

When I asked Chef Mehrotra about things he considered while curating the menu with Chef Alehina, he said, “I was sure that I wanted to place some of Indian Accent’s classics on the menu, but also avoid working with ingredients that she was already working with. This was done to ensure that we were offering different experiences to the diner.”

As a final statement for the meal, I would say it presented the best of the two worlds and introduced most of us, who dined at the table, to the ingredient-and-produce-forward and flavour-focussed Russian cuisine.