Chettinad is the region in Tamil Nadu, India, that's famous for one of the most complex cuisines in South India. It's hot, it's peppery, it's layered with spices most people in North America have never heard of. It's the food that made me want to open this restaurant.

Chettinad is the region in Tamil Nadu, India, that's famous for one of the most complex cuisines in South India. It's hot, it's peppery, it's layered with spices most people in North America have never heard of. It's the food that made me want to open this restaurant.

Why Chettinad

In 2014, I spent two weeks in Karaikudi, the cultural capital of Chettinad, studying at a small home-style cooking school run by a woman named Mrs. Visalakshi. The school was in her actual home. The kitchen was her actual kitchen. There were four other students, all women from the region who wanted to deepen what they already knew.

The technique I brought home

Mrs. Visalakshi taught me that Chettinad cooking is not about heat. It's about patience and the order in which you build flavours.

Every curry starts with a 'tadka' — a tempering of whole spices in ghee or oil. The order matters. Mustard seeds first, then cumin, then dried chilli, then curry leaves, then the wet ingredients. Each spice needs its own moment in the hot fat to release its flavour. Rush the sequence and you get a flat curry. Wait too long between steps and the spices burn.

I came home and rewrote our Chettinad chicken recipe from scratch. It's the recipe on the menu today. It's the recipe people drive across the city for.

What I didn't expect to learn

The most surprising thing I learned wasn't technical. It was cultural. In Chettinad, cooking is not a job. It's a relationship. The spice box is a member of the family. The tawa has a name. The clay pot for curd has been in the household for generations.

I came back to Toronto and immediately bought a clay pot. The first batch of dosa batter I fermented in it was the best I'd ever made.

— Anjali