The palette-palate play

"Eating with your eyes" has a whole new meaning today as chefs are using chromatics to make visually stunning dishes with engaging narratives. This trend reflects a broader shift towards natural, wellness-oriented ingredients and a deeper appreciation for the role of colour in influencing perception and storytelling in food.

Take Chef Vikas Seth's Rose Cookie Duo which features Mexican Bunuelo batter fried into a rose-shaped cookie, dusted with cinnamon sugar, and adorned with luscious berry compote and velvety chocolate mousse, a flavourful strawberry mousse, a decadent chocolate sauce drizzle and garnished with red chocolate hearts. Another example is chef Abhishek Gupta's (The Leela Ambience, Gurugram) Seasonal 42, where 42 seasonal ingredients are individually laid out to showcase their natural brilliance and colour, and then combined to create a harmonious bite. This dish is presented on a brown platter with each ingredient as a celebration of its natural aesthetics. Just when you have admired it all, the ingredients are mixed together to create a single bite. 

Farmlore's chef Johnson Ebenezer's Save The Ocean dish creatively incorporates edible elements to symbolise environmental themes such as potatoes cooked to resemble edible plastic with edible charcoal as stones, spirulina masquerading as the blue ocean and coconut oil as the crude oil replica. Meanwhile, Chef Rahul Rana's Karuvelvilas combines ghee roast karela with mango sambar gelato and dosai crispiness for a unique flavour and visual experience.

Or the Banana Chaat, made of raw banana tikki topped with ripe banana slices coated in tamarind sauce topped with a banana tuille garnished with cucumber flowers, and served on a stone sitting on a bed of leaves.

While all five masterpieces seem to fit perfectly into the world of a multisensory dining experience today with each dish eliciting a memorable expression from the respective diners, the fact remains that not so long ago, these shades were “unacceptable”.

It's poetic...

These dishes, once considered "unconventional", now represent a shift in perception among diners and chefs alike. Colours like pink, red, black, blue, and green have become integral parts of the dining experience, adding vibrancy and depth to culinary creations.

This change can be attributed to diners' growing acceptance of naturally sourced colours and chefs' willingness to experiment with new ingredients and techniques. Chefs like Varun Totlani, Sabyasachi Gorai, and Johnson Ebenezer are using a wide range of ingredients to create visually appealing dishes that align with diners' preferences for natural and wellness-focused foods.

Chef Gupta's Seed Tuber Leaves Flower creation exemplifies this trend, featuring ingredients like pumpkin seeds, garlic-coated potatoes, and foraged leaves. By harnessing the natural hues of these ingredients, chefs can craft dishes that not only look stunning but also evoke a sense of freshness and vitality.

Understanding colour interactions is crucial in creating visually appealing dishes. Chef Sabyasachi Gorai emphasises the use of contrasting shades to highlight prime colours, while Chef Seth focuses on the poetic understanding of flavours and colours to create immersive dining experiences.

Once considered "frivolous"

The use of pink or red for instance in the Rose Cookie Duo back in the medieval times was looked down upon as "frivolous" and “limiting”; black in Seasonal 42 was unacceptable, blue and ash in Save the Ocean was poison on plate; and the use of green, especially during Napolean's time was a bad omen — since his death
happened in a room that was painted green. Yet, fast forward to current times, these remain the most engaging colours of chromatics in the dining space. 

So, what changed the established 18th-century norm of the Issac Newton Wheel of Colour that the world seemed to follow till recently? In one word, perception — not only among diners but chefs as well. Result of this, colours that till a few days ago seemed to be beyond the radar are today a trend.

For example blue, says Chef Varun Totlani of Masque, “what was once considered poison and couldn't be made without the use of synthetic dyes, is today one of the most exciting hues to play around with thanks to the Blue Pea Flower. And can be presented as a Blue Pea fried rice.” Likewise, for the shades of black, grey and ash, which today is a recurrent theme in Chef Sabyasachi Gorai's signature dishes.
The reasons for such a change can be attributed as much to the diners who today are more accepting of different shades of colour provided they are naturally sourced, as to the chefs who have begun experimenting and sharing knowledge, says Chef Totlani, “through various social mediums.”

Chef Johnson finds the “huge array of ingredients at the chef's disposal” as another key reason to the changing colour play in our plates. Today, he continues, “while diners are on the lookout for colours that resonate with their ideology of eating right and for wellness, chefs, on the other hand, have started looking around for ingredients and techniques that can help them build the colour box for better visual presentation.”

An excellent example of this is Chef's Seed Tuber Leaves Flower creation that represents the age-old idea of sustainable eating. Describing the dish, he says, “pumpkin seeds from the farm are the mainstay of the first bite, followed by the potato grown in our backyard coated with Kaolin filled with garlic and the third
is the leaves foraged like the huli soppu, Pursuline, Borage and dill.”

Presented in shades of mud brown, green and ash, the dish, while narrating a familiar story, plays with the different associations that we have with colours while breaking in some new ones. This knack of leveraging colour effectively on the plate is in fact what gives many of Chef Rana's dishes at Avatara their unique appeal which entices the diners to indulge in the flavours. The other ace of course, says the plant-based food specialist, “are the ingredients. Working in the plant space has indeed provided me with an advantage when it comes to colour play. Plants, fruits, roots, and flowers offer a diverse range of colours, from rich greens to vibrant reds and yellows, allowing for endless possibilities in colour combinations.”

The right balance

This ability to explore and harness colours from ingredients is a quality that also lends credence to Chef Gupta's dishes, which often follows the “VIBGYOR” ethos.
Says the neurogastronomy expert, “While ingredients and techniques play a key role in the making of a dish when it comes to chromatics, which is mostly the sensory at work in dining spaces, understanding the game of colours is equally important at creating the right impression. Say for instance, purple. On its own it may appear to be a sombre shade, but pair it with white and it takes a shine; likewise, green plays well with orange and yellow around.”

Agrees Chef Gorai, who finds contrasting shades often work better to bring the attention to a prime colour. Like lemon yellow and ash black works great to make black more acceptable in the pastas that are often served with transparent sauce. Of course, he adds, “other factors like the light setting and the time it is being served in also plays a decisive factor in the colour play. So for a cafe for instance, the colours are more vibrant, while for fine dining it is kept in the realm of “formal” with subtle shades rather than bold ones.

Much like in cocktails, says Yangdup Lama of Sidecar. As a multi-sensory experience, cocktails, says Lama, “since ages have followed the simple code of taste by colour, meaning the hue of a drink would define not just the time of the day it would be served in, the occasion but also how the drink is supposed to taste. So for instance, a bubbly drink that is transparent or light pink served in a tall glass will always be seen as a light, refreshing tippler served during the day; while any dark, golden-hued drink in an Old Fashioned glass will be for a formal evening. Of course, there have been breakers to the rule during much of the 70s till early 90s when a barrage of colour invaded the glass and our senses. Called the Disco Era drinks, these today are the classics like the LITs, the Blue Lagoon, Cosmopolitan and Flaming B52 to name a few.”

Since then, most of the cocktails are tasted with their appearance — of course, the change says Lama, “has been the inclination towards keeping things natural. So if today there is a drink made with custard apple, my colour decision would be on the following: small or tall format and the time for which the drink is made. Depending on that, the colour would be creamish white or a transparent one with tones of white or green-white.”

These cues often are at work when Chef Seth storyboards his plate too. Says the locavore advocate, “while it is true that the best narratives come on a plate with their colours, to do so effectively one needs to have the poetic understanding of not just the flavours and its contrasting foreplay, but the generic idea/perception of the hue used. That familiarity allows us to handhold the diner for an immersive experience with not just the appeal of the colours but the story itself — more so when it comes to the new-age urge to eat mindfully.”

A case in point is his Holy Tacos. A recurring Holi special, the brilliance of this dish is the hand-painted tri-colour that is the pimary colour of the festival and helps “cue in the guest into the sensory engagement with a story.”

(The author is a seasoned food columnist and curator of experiential dining experiences, pop-ups and retreats for chefs.)