This Indian chef is reviving the use of millet and other forgotten ingredients in Indian cuisine

Pearl and foxtail millet, Himalayan mustard seeds and Meghalaya black rice do not immediately come to mind when Indian cuisine is mentioned, but chef Neeraj Rawoot hopes that these little-known ingredients will find their way into Indian cuisine in more prominent ways. 

At a recent Marriott International Luxury Dining Series dinner, the Culinary Director at JW Marriott Bengaluru Prestige Golfshire Resort and Spa paired a succulent slab of roast duck, drenched in allspice-perfumed duck jus, with pearl millet for a nutty crunch and and sprinkled Himalayan mustard seeds over grilled broccolini for a slight peppery aroma. 

He says: “Indian cuisine is so vast — the style of dal changes every 20km. Vegetables and meat are cooked in different ways as you travel to different places. I wanted to expose diners to different cooking styles that they may not be too familiar with outside of their regions.”

The dish is part of a seven-course Daawat menu at the resort’s signature Awaldhi restaurant, Aaleeshan. It also featured a brightly-flavoured chaat of saffron yogurt, pomegranate and the unusual addition of dehydrated pearl millet, and a truffle mulligatawny soup, made with black eyed peas instead of yellow lentils. 

The dinner is part of Marriott’s Luxury Dining Series, which is back for the second year. The three-month series comprises dining and mixology collaborations across the hotel group’s seven hotels in seven cities across APAC. More than 50 chefs and mixologists across the various hotels are involved in this year’s dining series, which takes place in a new set of cities. The Bangalore stop, which ran from 31 July to 3 August, is the third stop in the series. It will travel to St Regis Singapore from 29 to 31 August, before moving to The St Regis Jakarta from 11 to 14 September and concluding at the newly-opened Ritz-Carlton Bangkok from September 25 to 28. 

This year’s Luxury Dining Series is centred around the theme of ‘forgotten flavours’, which spotlights ingredients and cooking techniques of yesteryear. It is inspired by one of the dining trends identified by Marriott’s The Future of Food 2025 report, which shared that more restaurants in APAC are turning their attention to ancient and native ingredients. 

The more millet, the merrier

For Rawoot, one such example is the millet, which has been overshadowed by the widespread use of rice and wheat in recent decades. He says: “The millet is a lost and overshadowed grain due to the green revolution. Its growing process is more tedious and it takes a long time to cook. The government has also promoted a wider use of rice and wheat. However, millet has its benefits — it is highly nutritious and is also gluten-free.” 

“Besides adding a crunch to dishes, it is also a feel-good ingredient to eat,” he adds. 

He shares that millet is mainly grown in three states in India: Rajasthan, Karnataka and Maharashtra, and has been mainly incorporated into cuisine in these areas. Through showcasing the millet in the menu, he hopes that more awareness on this lost grain can be spread to other states. 

More traditional ingredients and cooking methods are seeing a revival among younger consumers, who are more health-conscious and prioritise wholesome eating.

The Bangalore leg of this year’s Luxury Dining Series, which is open to the public, saw most of its sessions sold out. Most of the diners were from Bangalore and other cities in India.

Rawoot, who has over 25 years of culinary experience working in India, Thailand, Malaysia and Belgium, says: “I do not want to serve the usual Indian dishes like chicken tikka and curries, as I want to present a whole range of Indian flavours on a plate.” 

Reviving food traditions

He gleaned from his experience of having worked in major cities across India, such as Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata, and spoke to street food vendors and housewives to found out more about their cooking traditions.

One of the dishes, Cod Bahat, adopts the Eastern Indian-style of cooking food wrapped in turmeric leaves that imparts gingery, citrusy notes to the juicy slab of fish. Another dish, Dakhs, features a trio of lamb dishes prepared by Aaleeshan’s masterchef Riyaz Ahmed, who hails from a fourth generation family of chefs in Lucknow. The dish has mutton mousse, which has been pounded and slow-cooked for 12 hours, Awadhi-style lamb stew busking in the warmth glow of spices and a fried lamb rack with fork-tender meat that falls off the bone. 

At the Lazy Lakeside Brunch held at the hotel’s Asian-fusion restaurant, Indonesian-born Asian masterchef, Saiful Agam presented dishes such as baked miso-glazed cod with gomae salad and sichuan chilli tofu. Both dishes are inspired by traditional cooking techniques in Asia. 

The event’s finale, the 5 Elements Dinner was themed after the five elements of ayurveda: earth, fire, water, air and space. The roving five-part dinner toured around ‘forgotten spots’ around the hotel, such as the connecting travelator space between the hotel and its adjoining conventional centre.

Each menu, designed by Rawoot and team, was themed after each of the elements. The Water segment was held in a wading pool, where diners had to partially submerge their feet in the pool, while digging into dishes such as Cantonese-style sweet and sour seabass by Chef Vu Van Thien of Summer Pavilion, The Ritz-Carlton Maldives.

The awe-inspiring Space theme, which was held in the golf course, had a table lit up by strobe lights that danced in the night sky. Dishes that sparked  “a constellation of textures and thoughts” include stone grilled lamb with barnyard millet, beans and curry and a sheep-inspired dessert made with cheese namelaka and sheep milk ice cream.

Farm to table 

Back to the tradition also means going straight to the source. Some of the produce, which are used in the series of dining events, are grown in a 40-acre farm that belongs the hotel’s owners, real estate developer, Prestige Group.

Around 70 types of fruit and vegetables are grown on the farm, including mango, pomelo, ridgegourd, gooseberries, pumpkin and potatoes, herbs and vegetables. About 50kg of produce is delivered to the hotel weekly. Rawoot also runs two farms in the sprawling hotel compounds that grow 15 varieties, bellpepper, chillies, eggplants, ladyfingers and more.

Rawoot is looking to expand the variety of crops in the farm, adding to the slate of unusual ingredients grown in India, such as kohlrabi, Chinese cabbage, bird’s eye chilli and turmeric.