Ahana Dutt has found a new feel-good mission, heading up Plate It Forward’s latest venue, Kolkata Social in Newtown. After showcasing her talents as head chef at Firedoor and most recently at Potts Point’s now-shuttered Raja, Dutt has devised a menu inspired by her family’s traditional Bengali recipes, which she hopes will move the needle when it comes to conversations around Indian cuisine.
This will be the fourth venue for the Plate It Forward Hospitality group, which creates social enterprising, purpose-driven restaurants, like Kabul Social. At Kolkata Social, every set menu purchased will result in the donation of two meals, one in Sydney and one in India. The venue also provides supported employment to people who are often excluded from the job market.
Along with family recipes, Dutt has designed the menu to draw upon her homeland’s tradition of simply coming together to hang out. “The Bengali word for it is adda,” Dutt tells Gourmet Traveller. “The inspiration for the venue was this, and all the cafes and small restaurants in Kolkata that people come to for a coffee or a beer, and just to sit down and have a conversation.” To this end the menu is comprised of both smaller bites and hearty mains, designed to be shared across the table, joined by a selection of cocktails and local brews.
Highlights include moong dal er bora, listed on the menu with the advice, “think falafels but Indian”.
Dutt adds some further explanation: “When you do grocery shopping in Kolkata, there are open-air markets. Vendors have these massive woks on little carts frying tiny fritters, with cumin seeds, green chilli and a little onion. They are so hot, crisp and fresh.”
Other vegetarian standouts include radhabollobhi, a crisp and chewy fried bread filled with mung bean; and jhoori aloo bhaja, which sees thin jullienned strands of potatoes fried up.
While vegetarian and vegan bites get a good look in, the goat kosha is a star, and a favourite of Dutt’s mother (who, incidentally, features in a large mural, among several pieces of art dotting the venue, painted by Dutt’s uncle). “One of the best things I did after I finished up at Raja, was I went and visited Jo and Craig Stewart from the Gourmet Goat Lady. They really care about their animals,” says Dutt. The curry uses this goat, which is slow-cooked, with the fat rendered down into the sauce. “When my mum was here I got her to try some and she was like, ‘That’s some of the best goat I’ve ever had,’ which is really saying something.”
There’s also a nod to Kolkata’s own Chinatown, which is one of very few in India. “I love Bengali Chinese food. There’s a massive Chinese population as the borders are so close,” says Dutt. The dry chilli chicken is a quintessential Bengali-Chinese dish, in which succulent battered chicken thighs are tossed in soy with lots of green chill and garlic. Barramundi also features, served with a smoked yoghurt and mustard oil. Alongside the mains, there’s also pickles and chutneys, ghee-seasoned basmati rice and roomali roti, a thin flatbread.
Plate It Forward founder and CEO, Shaun Christie-David, is understandably excited by the opening. He originally engaged Dutt as a consultant before stumbling upon the King Street venue, and realising it would be a perfect fit for her. “It is an absolute honour to have Ahana continue the values that Plate it Forward stands for – to create equal opportunity around the table,” says Christie-David. “Her ethos of patience, kindness, and the deep training she extends to our team of migrant women has been a joy to watch.”
Plate It Forward Hospitality Group’s Kolkata Social opens on Wednesday, March 26 at 528-528A King Street, Newtown
plateitforward.org.au/kolkata-social
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