Farm To Table

There’s more to do in Alibag than parties by the pool—as these six chefs from Mumbai found out, when they were invited to The Table Farm to get their hands dirty, their eyes opened, and their stomachs filled

They walked between raised beds of every shade of green while pulling up knobs of young kohlrabi from the ground and biting into them like they were apples. They nibbled on bunches of bright yellow and purple flowers plucked from mustard and basil plants. They pulled out stalks of sugarcane and peeled them with their teeth. Others smelled peppery sweet ginger leaves for the first time in their lives. One strode over to a patch of arugula, picked up two large leaves and dangled them from the sides of his face, like basset hound’s ears. And the whole time, they learned about permaculture, sustainable farming, the ecosystem of insects, and even about the bacteria and fungi that populate and nourish the soil.

Chefs Gresham Fernandes (Impresario restaurants), Rishim Sachdeva (Olive, Mumbai), Bawmra Jap (Bomra’s, Goa), Seefah Ketchaiyo (Seefah, Mumbai), Vicky Ratnani (Gourmet Investments), Gracian de Souza (formerly of Porto & Poie, Mumbai), and Nikhil Abhyankar (Miss T, Mumbai) were invited by restaurateur Gauri Devidayal to The Table Farm in Alibag, for a meal made with produce harvested mere hours before it was served. On the menu, prepared by The Table’s chef Divesh Aswani were: tempura-style hummingbird flower with beetroot hummus; micro greens and kale salad; raw papaya salad with beans and cherry tomatoes; a big polychromatic bowl of assorted, roasted farm vegetables with confit shallots; grilled chicken with charred scallions; and a pile of grilled cabbage skirted by tenderloin on a bed of silky baby spinach. All the vegetables, leaves and herbs in this meal (and its accompanying cocktails) came from the one-acre kitchen farm the chefs had just toured and sampled from.