Chef Aketoli showcasing Naga food

 

Winner of Naga Chef in Café Thulp, Bangalore

Morung Express News
Dimapur | March 1

Leading culinary expert Chef Aketoli Zhimomi is all set to showcase Naga food to the people of Bangalore from March 1 to March 7 at Café Thulp in Indiranagar. Aketoli is winner of the first edition of The Naga Chef, held in December 2013, and has been taken to Bangalore by The India Trail and Café Thulp.

“Naga Chef 2013 opened up a new opportunity for me to take our food outside Nagaland, as it should be—our food is so good!” said Aketoli, speaking to The Morung Express between her hectic schedule at the kitchen in Bangalore today as people came pouring in to try her food out. The India Trail that was doing the round of the Hornbill Festival last year loved her food at her stall, and immediately asked her to consider this offer.

“One of the missions of The India Trail is to promote entrepreneurship in India. When we met Master Naga Chef Aketoli in Kohima in December 2013, she mentioned she was looking to start a restaurant in Dimapur. We thought this would be a great opportunity for us to promote Naga food in the rest of India while also providing her a good platform of experience to launch her upcoming restaurant next month,” stated The India Trail in a press release. The India Trail is an experience focused travel company helping people discover India - responsibly. Its initial focus is in the North East of India. They take their guests to experience different trails across the region while also identifying skills and resources famous in these regions and bringing them to the rest of the country.

With a restaurant coming up near Faith Hospital in Dimapur, named ‘Ethnic Table’, Aketoli was waiting for just this to come along. “I’m not particularly trained in this sector, so there are many things for me to learn through this, especially in the service sector which is very poor in Nagaland,” noted Aketoli, looking to answer the question “how does a professional kitchen work?” through this experience. While she went alone from Nagaland, she was joined in the kitchen by other chefs from Café Thulp, and others, who will assist her this week.

“There is a little language problem but we’re bonded by our foodieness, so everything works out fine at the end of the day,” laughed Aketoli. Her prime motive is to innovate, create and revive Naga dishes using ingredients that are dropping out of the Naga food plate quickly. For this, she will use bamboo shoot, anishi and axone, of course, but also a smattering of black sesame, perilla seed, tenga powder (black), mustard seeds etc. in ways only her grandmother knew. And in ways that she will create. “Many indigenous ingredients are no more in demand, so they are not produced. I want to bring these back to the table and create the demand so that Naga farmers find meaning in cultivating them,” asserted Aketoli.

She will also take a 2-hour cooking class in the afternoon of March 4 and 5 to teach the basics of Naga cooking at Café Thulp. It won’t be a surprise if the class is packed considering a crowd of non Naga people are already gulping down her popular Raja mircha chutneys at the Café!