Season’s eatings: A Wknd interview with the stellar chef Mythrayie Iyer
It was her grandmother who taught her to prize local, seasonal ingredients, Iyer says. Now, she’s using her menus to tell surprising new stories.
What does it take to keep a culinary dream alive? In times like these, the best answer would seem to be: A voracious appetite for change.
Mythrayie Iyer, 30, is less than four years into a stellar career, and it has been driven, over and over, by curveballs, the x factor, sudden fame, shifting sands, some missed targets — and, of course brilliance and willpower.
In 2019, she was one of three young chefs from Chennai who, having worked at some of the best restaurants in the world, decided to open one together, in Bengaluru. They wanted to offer an experience that told a story, and so they called it Lore.
Iyer had worked at Avartana, the modern South Indian restaurant at ITC Grand Chola in Chennai, and had interned at Noma in Copenhagen.
The other two were Johnson Ebenezer, who had co-founded and headed the Michelin-starred Nadodi at the Four Seasons in Kuala Lumpur, serving South Indian and Sri Lankan cuisine with a modern twist. And Avinnash Vishaal, who trained at the three-Michelin-starred Frantzen in Stockholm.
Lore was still in the midst of test runs when the pandemic hit in 2020. It never got a chance to open. Then, the chefs found themselves at an organic farm on the outskirts of Bengaluru owned by their main financer, Kaushik Raju. Could they restart some version of it here, as the world opened up again?
In this way, Farmlore was born. The farm-to-fork restaurant opened in 2021. It still produces all its own vegetables and fruits.
Within months, the 18-cover restaurant was making headlines and, as head chef, Iyer began to be talked about for her innovative menus and big, bold flavours. “We were always experimenting and trying to understand our produce better,” she says.
Then, last year, an unexpected win: Iyer competed in the San Pellegrino Young Chef Academy competition and was declared Best Young Chef for Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
Winning gave her a shot at the global title, in Milan. She didn’t win it. But what she did gain from the overall experience, in addition to her prestigious title, however, was a whole new outlook on what she wanted to do.
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At the San Pellegrino contest, Iyer presented a two-part dish titled Barter, inspired by history. The first part was ridge gourd stuffed with roasted aubergine, coated in a fermented-aubergine glaze. Using these ingredients, native to India, she replicated the flavours, textures and experience of eating bone marrow. “The aubergine too has that meaty, juicy umami,” she says.
The second part featured ingredients brought over by European colonisers, namely chillies, tomatoes and corn, with the star of the dish being a giant lobster (India is only home to a small, spiny variety; the ones most Indians eat are farmed).
The dish reframed and refined her perspective on food, and she decided she didn’t want to spend “these still-pivotal years” being head chef.
“I want to gain from the experience of being a novice in new kitchens,” she says.
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Iyer left Farmlore last month; Ebenezer now runs it with a new team.
“It was the dream job,” she says, “just the three of us in a restaurant we created from scratch, with the freedom to do anything we wanted. I don’t think there was a day that wasn’t fun.”
Her mission now, she says, is to experiment in ways that focus on presenting hearty, traditional flavours in newer ways. She wants her food to be something that confuses the eye, challenges the mind, but when eaten, reminds one of the intensely familiar.
She recently cooked for a pop-up at the Ritz Carltons in Pune and in Bengaluru, alongside five other woman chefs. Her dish was Lycopene over Scallops, in which the molluscs are served encrusted in sabudana and gond (the gum of the acacia tree). The tapioca and gum combine to form a crunchy batter when fried. The whole is then brushed with a kokum glaze, and topped with tomato leather (lycopene is the name for the organic red pigment of this fruit).
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In her next step, Iyer will join a celebrated restaurant in Chile next year.
“I can’t name it, but it’s headed by a chef I have followed for a decade, and it does a tasting menu that uses local, seasonal ingredients,” she says.
This focus on seasonality and local produce comes naturally to Iyer, who grew up in a household of “fantastic cooks”.
“My grandmother always said, if nature is telling you to eat this at this time, you should,” Iyer says. “‘Don’t ask for mangoes in winter,’ she would say.”
Growing up in Chennai, the kitchen was always her favourite part of the home, Iyer says. She was an adventurous eater and loved to try new dishes and ingredients.
Her initial dream, however, was to be a microbiologist. She was days away from interviewing at the premier institute BITS Pilani, in fact, when something stopped her. She began to research culinary courses. She was suddenly in two minds.
The admissions interview at BITS and at the culinary course she had shortlisted were scheduled for the same day. She could hedge her bets no more. Forced to choose, she opted for a degree course in culinary science, at Manipal University.
Her parents, Sundar Iyer, 65, a businessman, and Raji Sundar, 54, a nutritionist, were quite surprised, she says. “My mother was always very supportive, but my father was angry for a few days,” she adds, smiling. “All those years of preparing for engineering, and then I decide to cook… He didn’t understand it.”
That’s changed. He understands it now, she says.
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