When food is therapy: A Pune-based food studio aims to highlight local ingredients

The writer cooks Thai curry at the studio

As we walk into a building full of corporate offices located on Pune's Dhole Patil Road, we are not too sure about what to expect from our afternoon adventure. We have signed up for a cook-along at Aragma Food Studio and will attempt a traditional Thai curry. We are nervous because while we love to cook, it is always in the privacy of our own kitchen. Having opened its doors in 2019, the studio offers masterclasses and private dinners, making it a one-of-a-kind experiential spot in the city.

The kitchen overlooks a rare patch of green that cuts one off from the chaos of the street below. We are greeted by Poornima Somayaji, the founder of Aragma, whose presence makes us feel at home. "Do you like to cook?" she asks us, before revealing that she doesn't have a culinary degree, but has always been passionate about food. "Food helped me sail through the toughest of times. So, I wanted to work towards creating a food experience that would help people make memories," Somayaji tells us, adding, "The name Aragma is derived from a Greek word that means appreciating the small joys of life."

Pineapple-caramel sorbet

The core team comprises chef Amit Ghorpade, our teacher for the day, and assistant manager Anurag Godbole. The duo has a decade-long experience of working with Michelin-starred restaurants across the globe. Understandably, our excitement peaks.

Lab of experiments

The kitchen can accommodate up to 14 people, and is stocked with state-of-the-art equipment, a long metallic table with induction cook-tops, and storage shelves at the bottom. The masterclasses and cook-along sessions are open to families and kids, too, we're told. As we lay out the ingredients and don our apron, we take a large gulp of the fresh orange and ginger drink that Godbole has placed in front of us. It is both refreshing and soothing for the nerves.

Orange and ginger drink

We start off by roughly chopping onions, stalks of coriander which are otherwise tossed away, lemongrass, garlic, galangal (Thai ginger) and red bird's eye chillies. We then de-skin and chop fresh raw turmeric, which stains our fingers yellow. While we chop, Ghorpade dry-roasts the spices. After blending the chopped ingredients, we sauté the curry paste with kaffir lime leaves, while leaning in to take in the aroma. "Cooking helps you live in the moment. You're soaking in the aroma and watching the ingredients sizzle. This is why I wanted Aragma to be a lab and not a restaurant," says Somayaji.

Vocal for local

Apart from cooking workshops, Aragma hosts sit-down, multi-course dinners that feature modern fare prepared with local, everyday ingredients sourced from around Pune. "The underlying ethos is to showcase who we are and to give due credit to the food ecosystem, largely led by farmers and their produce," explains Somayaji. The team turns ingredients like doodhi (bottle gourd) into exotic offerings.

Wontons with plum sauce. Pics Courtesy/Puneet Samtani

"Every ingredient used in our cooking has a special story. If you travel from Mumbai to Pune by train, you will see small berries called karvandas [Bengal currants] being sold on leaves. We cook that with doodhi to make a savoury tartine." On their menu, one can also find a boozy pudding made of mahua flowers from a tribal village in Maharashtra; chocolate chikoo - a toffee-flavoured mousse with a spiced chikoo and blueberry filling; bread prepared with chakli flour (rice and urad dal); and grated smoked Bandel cheese - an indigenous unripened, salted soft cheese variety, now only available in towns near Kolkata, among numerous other delicacies.

The studio offers space for dining in

As we chat, the chicken Thai curry starts simmering in the pot. At this point, we are instructed to tip in the coconut milk, followed by the basil leaves; we bring it to a boil and wait for a few minutes to dig in. The team at Aragma has also whipped up a raw papaya salad, fried chicken wontons with plum sauce, and an exquisite dessert - pineapple cooked in spices, served with a caramel and pineapple sorbet on a bed of coconut milk - that showcases their skill set. When we tuck into our labour of love, we realise our inhibitions have evaporated. As they say, food is therapy, indeed.

At: 201, Insignia, Dhole Patil Road, Pune
Log on to: aragmafoodstudio.com
Call: 8484804201
Cost: Rs 2,900 onwards per head (cook-along); Rs 2,400 onwards per guest (sit-down dinners)