I went to Les Portes des Indes recently, because my wife's a great fan of the Blue Elephant and I thought she'd like it. It is indeed run by the "Blue Elephant Group". Apparently the food that they serve there is from the former French colonies of India, which explains the French connection (so to speak). The chef was on Good Food Live a few weeks ago and he described it as "a cuisine that's evolved in the French colonies" when asked by the presenters (many times, if I recall) about its origins. I quite liked his style. I have not eaten food like what these Fusion restaurants serve in any visit to Pondicherry. Not sure where the chefs are getting their inspiration. Yes the French colonized that part of India... But they actually enjoyed the local foods. They also ate their own dishes. Sometimes tables were set with foods from both cultures. At other times dishes that had some accent of both in each other. But rarely the kind of mediocrity that many have displayed in the name of French-Indian fusion found its way into the world of natives of that region (or for that matter even the world of the colonizers). They had far better food served, cooked, sold and found locally to have to bother about such affectation. I would question the research that has gone into words uttered by many of these chefs. I was a owner at Pondicherry ( a French-Indian fusion restaurant in NYC ). It went even farther and said it was simply foods of the French Colonies. Little if any of the food was made to be authentic to what may have been cooked in that time. Between the owners, chefs, publicists and celebrity partners, most of this was sheer drama for publicity that is easy to get if you build such shallow stories. And yes they got media. Even a following. It was only Gael Green that had the guts or vision to say "Fusion Confusion". The rest were too meek to question what had seemed a logical step. How sad! In fact the chef at Pondicherry was guided mostly by Indian owner/management/ and friends of owners about what the food could or should have been in that time. And the French born and trained chef simply added spices to his repertoire and created dishes that could pass of as Fusion.. and with the blessings of the owners. No great effort was put into trying to study what really may have been served in those rare homes where perhaps this kind of fusion may really have taken place. I doubt it that such homes existed then. I fear Tonyfinch is correct in what he says... The two cuisine's have little in common at their very soul. And yet they also have much in common in terms of cultural and social roots. But for fusion to become meaningful, each cuisine would have had to lose some of its ego and take from another more generously. Like Tony, I cannot believe the French would have considered losing much of their ego.. and do understand that for those "goree chamree ke aashiq" (those that love white skin) losing their Indian makeup is the easiest thing to do. They feel if they become "Western", they become special. And then there is the world of uninspired restaurant owners and managers that have little if any vision, and are most to blame for the sad state of Indian restaurants outside of India.
