Yuvraj Singh had a foodgasm at his restaurant, renowned author Damodar Mauzo hugged him after a meal. For Michelin trained chef Avinash Martins, Goan food is all about making elevated versions of it using fresh, local ingredients and pouring his secret ingredient in everything he cooks: love.
His restaurant Cavatina has been rated as India’s best restaurant by GQ. From the name of his restaurant to the table mats, everything in Cavatina has a story behind it. Catch Avinash Martins tell stories about his life, his restaurant and the future he sees for his children and grandchildren. How did he turn a pumpkin into 3 mouthwatering dishes? Why does he want to see more tourists come to Goa? And what does it take to build an acclaimed restaurant in Goa? Tune in to find out!
Travel tip: If you’re in South Goa, drop by Velim on Chef Martins’ luxury farm-to-table experience, Table in the Hills. But don’t forget to make a reservation first!
Produced by Aishwarya Javalgekar
Sound edit by Kshitij Jadhav
Artwork by Artisto Designz
Brought to you by Bound, a company that helps you grow through stories. Follow us @boundindia on all social platforms for updates on this podcast or take a look at their other podcasts.
Hosted by Clyde D’Souza. He is a creative director who has worked in TV, print, and digital. His book Susegad: The Goan Art Of Contentment captures Goa through conversations, memories, stories, recipes and much more. He lives between Mumbai and Goa and lives the Susegad lifestyle every day! Follow him on Instagram @clydedsouzaauthor.
Yuvraj Singh had a foodgasm at his restaurant, renowned author Damodar Mauzo hugged him after a meal. For Michelin trained chef Avinash Martins, Goan food is all about making elevated versions of it using fresh, local ingredients and pouring his secret ingredient in everything he cooks: love.
His restaurant Cavatina has been rated as India’s best restaurant by GQ. From the name of his restaurant to the table mats, everything in Cavatina has a story behind it. Catch Avinash Martins tell stories about his life, his restaurant and the future he sees for his children and grandchildren. How did he turn a pumpkin into 3 mouthwatering dishes? Why does he want to see more tourists come to Goa? And what does it take to build an acclaimed restaurant in Goa? Tune in to find out!
Travel tip: If you’re in South Goa, drop by Velim on Chef Martins’ luxury farm-to-table experience, Table in the Hills. But don’t forget to make a reservation first!
Produced by Aishwarya Javalgekar
Sound edit by Kshitij Jadhav
Artwork by Artisto Designz
Brought to you by Bound, a company that helps you grow through stories. Follow us @boundindia on all social platforms for updates on this podcast or take a look at their other podcasts.
Hosted by Clyde D’Souza. He is a creative director who has worked in TV, print, and digital. His book Susegad: The Goan Art Of Contentment captures Goa through conversations, memories, stories, recipes and much more. He lives between Mumbai and Goa and lives the Susegad lifestyle every day! Follow him on Instagram @clydedsouzaauthor.
Hi
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this is Susie God stories from guava I cried de Souza take you deep into guava beyond the beaches and help you live and love the SUSE God lifestyle no matter where you are.
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Today's guest is awesome. Just wait till you're all about him. You razzing at a foodgasm at his restaurant. renowned author Dumbledore Moza hugged him after a meal. He has been named among India's top 20 chefs. And GQ says he has India's best restaurant. My Michelin trained guest today is son of the soil star of GWA. Chef Avinash Martens was fine dining restaurant covered dinner and table in the hills is making waves beyond GWA and putting go out on the global culinary map. Welcome to Cisco stories from Goa chef Avinash. Thank you, Clyde. Thank you for having me on your podcast. And it's a sheer pleasure to be here. Thank you. Well, I have to say thank you for that some shifts means that I had at Cavatina just about a week ago, and I have so many questions to ask you about food and what you've done with it. But before we get into all of that, I want our listeners to know where in Goa you from right now and maybe just describe your surroundings a bit. Yes, so I belong to the south of Goa, I come from this humble quiet village called Valium, which is about 16 kilometers south of Marga. The village I belong to I boast and proudly say that the river the see the mountain the field is in the vicinity and in the periphery of five kilometers, so I get to enjoy the best of everything. Nice. Wow. Beautiful. So now I just remember last week, I think it was when I met you at cover Tina and banal Lim tucked away in a nice sweet little violin. And I remember you telling me that the restaurant was actually a pandemic baby and it made you go back to your grown roots, but one with a modern twist. And even though the restaurant was around for 1213 years, you kind of revamped it and re questioned it. So tell me about this new mission of Kava tea and if I could call it that, and the story behind its name. Yes. So I'll start off with the story. Clyde, the name Cavatina. I heard in Spain in a tapas bar. I was sipping on some sangrias. And when I came across this tune played by the mariachis there, I was immediately in love with the with the tune of it. So I walked up to the mariachi and I asked him in my broken Spanish, what is the name of your song you're playing. And that's when he said Cavatina. Like, you know, it was like love at first sight kind of a moment for me, I noted down the name. And when I went back, I did rip of research and find out that cover is to dig up. The whole thing is to kind of levitate or you know, kind of get you up. So that's why I decided that if and when I'm having my own place, it's going to be definitely called Cavatina. And I'm an artist, I'm a musician. So you know, it resonates with the entire aura of music and food and art coming together. So copertina started off in 2013, completed 10 years. And it was, as I mentioned earlier of the cavity nice and banal him. It's in the south of Goa, and a very slow, quiet little village in Berlin. The reason why I wanted not to be the not because I am a South boy, and I want it to be in the ecosystem of four I do. So I started by doing world cuisine. I wanted to give the audience and our guests local gardens, a taste of good continental good Western cuisine, you know, quality was always my priority rather than quantity. So we started by doing word cuisine, and over the years, it kind of trickled down to my style. And when pandemic heaters in 2020, I had to shut the restaurant down, Atos shut the restaurant for good six months, right. And then I said this is a wonderful opportunity for me to explore my backyard to see what's happening in my village in surrounding villages, fisherman community that already Tepper community, the gradients of Gwadar foraging scenes and go so that's when I started visiting hinterlands and getting so much of information, recipes, and all these connections that I said, this is the time to celebrate go. Yeah, I'm so glad you did. Because you went treasure hunting in your backyard, so to speak, and we are kind of receiving the bounty of that. And like you mentioned, you know, it's your mother cuisine. And for me when I think about food, right, I mean chef, it has like a dual role, right one is of survival, which is basic necessity. And the other thing is of love and time travel. Right? It can like take you to a specific memories of your grandma's cooking, maybe it can transport you to past memories. And what I learned about copertina like you mentioned because you're a musician and artist as well. It's like a song that you have broken down and read
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He created with a modern twist. And now we can kind of enjoy the wholeness of the tunes. But it also unlocks all these other notes that were hidden in this traditional form. So for example, like when I think of what you fed me that day, the Crab Shack shack was served as a French style disc, right, right, or the earthy thumri budgie in a filo pastry of all things. It was just so refreshing and not to mention the taste was heavenly. Right. So now why did you choose to do this really fine dining twist to old traditional Govan classics? You know, I've been trained all over the world. I work with some great chefs. And I always believed that our cuisine, my mother cuisine, Goan cuisine had so much potential than just being comfort food. So I felt that our cuisine always had that superior, I would say, a great taste a great memory recall. But how do I take it to a level where it can match and be at the same level of any world cuisine? So that was the challenge. See, all our presentations all are the displays were pretty much flat. There's no wow effect to the, to the look of the day. So that was my challenge as an artist, how do I elevate the flavors? How do I make it look modern? In the past, there have been attempts to do a fusion of gold cuisine. And I believe fusion leads to confusion. You don't get any of it. You know, you try to infuse go and cuisine with say, for example, Japanese cuisine or you fuse it with some Mexican cuisine. You're not doing justice to either. So my drawing board was keeping the core ethos of the cuisine going, but presenting it in a way that it was more global. I'll give you an example of the thumri budget. You told me somebody party is such a great ingredient. It's not highlighted anywhere. Yes. But it's just lying there in a corner. Even on a on a dining table. Nobody will say about your family budget. As a Canadian as a trained professional and as an artist. How do I elevate a small simple ingredient like a family budget, and that's exactly what I did. I wrapped it up in a in a fillip pastry, I put in some cashew butter, some mild spices. And now it's one of the hottest selling items. The challenges should take a comedy budget to take a turn out to Bangalore to take something as simple as a crab and make it into something exotic, but yet keeping the governess alive. That's the whole a toss and a whole challenge of taking this whole food to a global level, which is coming in people are recognizing people are understanding. And again, as I said, it's the story. It's a memory. Food for me is not just eating. It's not just flavors. Food for me, is taking me back to the yester years, my granny's era, but you know, it should remind you of those things. Similarly, Music So certain things are named after certain songs at my restaurant like I've done a cocktail called cumbia Baba, let's open a folk song. There is what I do with kokum rock bass it's called tabula rasa tabula rasa teacher Paula again, that's a song. We tell the guests that you have a glass and your cheeks are gonna turn rosy red, which is a song. You know, for me, it's all these things put together. When you come to cover. Tina, you don't come for food. You come for an experience. You come for a memory which you will take back with you and not forget for a long time. This is what we aim to do. Yeah, I agree and you've done a great job. Can you sing a couple of lines of Camilla Bababa because it's beautiful today. Oh yes, absolutely. Chi Borello Kamala mucha mine Maka Delano cadre mela Natasha Paco de la Cumbia Baba ba a cumbia, so short a cumbia BlackBerry where the commercial,
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super, these are these are billboards, these are folks we've been going up to right? We are proud of them, and take them to a level where the outsiders can relate by giving them as a small kind of cinema medium to the to the meal, but they also can take back and they also have a recall. So this is the whole idea. Even even your starter that came I remember when it came it was it was a complete experience. The poderi came with the punk punk on the horn and you brought it on like this little cycle and the bread was there. It was yeah, it was an experience that like you just said, all experiences right need to be mounted onto a story and your restaurant is a story about God. It is a tribute to GWAS culture, not just the food but like you mentioned the songs the name of the dishes. And now the other thing that you told me about when we were having this quick chat is that how everything in your restaurant has gone touch like you mentioned, the table mats are made of palms, which chairs are sourced from centuries old going homes, even the presentation of the food is a story right? So again, tell me a little bit about now that you wrote a lovely poem that comes along with the powder punk punk so the poem is dedicated to go and Baker so how did that come about? The poem? Yeah. I always had this soft corner for the bakers because you know the conditions, the timings, the potatoes, the potatoes working, they are totally anti social India in their life, right they work at
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Two, three in the morning, they wake up at 230 in the morning, they start prepping them by six they need to be out delivering powers, whether it is rain, it is summer it is it is cold, chilly winters, they are there at your doorstep. If it's six o'clock in the morning, the powder will be there Come What May whichever season it may be. So as kids, we never woke up to an alarm clock. The poor day used to wake us up. There are poor there used to be there at six, at five to five minutes to six. And then the church, the church bell used to ring at six. So these are memories for us which are ingrained in our DNA. For me, this is go oh, by the way, the power in India started in this village called majorda, which is the neighboring village in two Colva. And to this metal bottom. Yeah, that's where the power got introduced by the Jesuits. They came here they made power and power was taken and it went to the world. Yeah, how many people know this fact? For many power comes from a supermarket? Right? They don't know the story of the baker. So if I don't explain to the tourists coming in, or the traveler coming in or for for the for that matter, the newer generation of guns, I think this whole legacies go down. And it is it is that belief, where I would want to educate at the same time a lot of our artisans so as I mentioned that day to you that my table set up is also a story. Yes, the placemats are not the regular placemats they are the bamboo mats, which are called utter utter were 24 feet max which were used to dry Paddy. Yeah. Wow. There's a there's a nice dedicated village and some are they were these people made tours for drying your Paddy. But now plastic is taken over those mats. People are using plastic because how you're going to store those big rolls of mats and stories and issue people's houses are becoming smaller. But then we try to get back to the story to the gods and tell them listen, this is the community is dying out. Please go back to the original ingredients and original material because plastic is cancerous at the end of the day. Yeah. People are drying paddy on on on the plastic and it's been in lying in the sun. Imagine what it does to the green. Yeah. So this is the awareness to tell our our generation that please go try and save this tradition which is dying out. So everything I've collected over the years, these empty chairs made of rosewood and from great homes, right? You know, people have abandoned homes and even furniture. I am a kid I'm a sucker for go I just my heart bleeds for go Yeah, and anything I can restore. So I've got a collection of 150 Garofalo scarf ours are those blown blown glass containers, which we store off any. So whatever I feel has got a memory and history. I take it very personally, our heritage our culture is more important than anything than money. Yeah, no, like you mentioned, right? I mean, we have to basically champion these causes and make heroes out of them. So like you put the spotlight on family buddy, something that you said is so nerdy, but you've kind of elevated it and now it's become like almost like this it's literally a five star dish. And even in taste wise it's was so awesome. So now coming to my next the next part of what I'm what I want to ask you is that Goa is now becoming or is being seen as India's culinary capital, right with so many different cuisines that are putting go on the map. So firstly, what's your take on so many different cuisines coming to Goa? And second, as someone who has worked in Michelin stars restaurants in France and California, what will it take for God to have a Michelin starred restaurant?
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So the first thing first answer to your question I solely welcome wholeheartedly people who believe that Guava is a great place to you know have a park their money or invest and invest into a restaurant because the restaurant thing is not it's not easy. It's a Passion Driven project. People who just come with the intention of making money making a quick buck and going they I mean I would say that's not the right intent to park your yourself and go out there and you need to treat go as go or not to change go as a Delhi or Bombay or Hyderabad or Bangalore to come in to go and blend into Goa don't come with a vision saying that I'm going to come in to go and change this part of go into something else. That's not what yeah, you come You're most welcome. We are warm. We've always been warm people we've always been hospitality in driven people. We are always been a friendly, natured people, you know, you come you come as guests. We love you as guests. So we are most welcome. I'm very happy that God is transforming into this this culinary capital of thing because it'll get so many other improvements into Guam will create opportunities for others, vendors, supportive staff, locals getting more employment, in terms of anything
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Eat, which is which is very broad in category regarding Michelin, I don't know what's the scene and how Michelin looks at India and go, I would love Michelin to be in, in Goa. But there is this particular organization called culinary culture co who's doing Michelin Michelin guides work in India. So they are there. They're, they're a great co committee of foodies who understand food can be bought their entire network of people who, you know, go around tasting food. It was very, very professionally. And for the first time in the history of India, I think they have created chefs, based on your work and on the whole effort. So I think that's a commendable thing. Wow. So yeah, let's hope that I'm sure Cavatina will probably be on the top of that list. Thank you. Now, I just want to ask you, now like, you know, Avinash, you've traveled so much and you've you know, worked in so many restaurants Michelin starred ones. Yeah. What do you think about this whole thing about go as a tourist place, which are the city in the world? You think has done tourism, right? Whether it is tourism, or, you know, culinary or maintaining their culture, but yet becoming open to let's say, this globalized world, any city comes to mind? Because guys right now, this flux, right, yeah, where there's so much of new culture coming in new money coming in, and it's losing its, let's say, roots, like you mentioned, if you take a global approach, I would say Europe, like cities, like Spain, mean countries like Spain, to an extent Lisbon, Portugal, you know, France that matter Italy. So there are great culinary dining places around the world, where I, you know, you go there for the food, you go there for the culture, and you respect that, that sort of setup which is there, right? You wouldn't want to go to Spain and go and look out for an Indian restaurant that you would want to go and try what is what is more Spanish? What is more local? What is more, of course, if you want to spend 10 days and you want a variety and stuff. So I think gua for that matter in India has always been, I would say cosmopolitan kind of crowd because the influences of what we've had earlier, we had the Portuguese influence. We've had the Saraswat influence, we had the aboriginals of Goa. So gua has always been a very easygoing kind of thought. When it comes to travelers, both international as well as locals. I've been national travelers. There is something for everybody. There is something for a budgeted traveler, there is something for a high end traveler, and it's just a matter of what who needs what right now, it's not just the beaches, which are, you know, gaining popularity by beaches has always been there. But now it's the culture tourism is the forest, the waterfalls, the hinterlands, spice conditions. All these are gaining much more popularity. Now people don't want to stay in only five stars people want to stay in heritage homes. People want to stay in private villas, which you know give you a better curated customized experience tourist wants guests locals to come and cook for them in their home villa of hosting called 20 people so that's that's changing greatly. I appreciate that fact. That is changing. Yeah, no, I think it's that's the optimistic part, which is that the tourists now is looking for things way beyond the beaches. He doesn't want just the beach bikini and the booze. He's exploring a lot like like he's exploring kava, Tina is exploring table and the hills he's exploring Hansel was is flirting, funny experience. So I think there's a lot of people like you who are also doing all of that. Now, you mentioned something a little bit earlier saying that, you know, that, that people need to respect go and respect its culture and its ethos. And I remember you telling me, you know, this incident that happened at cover Tina, where there was this person who tried to walk in with a wearing a grungy, and you have to, you know, respectfully tell him that, you know, he, he needs to adhere to a dress code. So you want to just tell us a little bit about that. Yes, so this is like a one off incident. What happened normally, whatever guests we get by God's grace, they respect our, our rules, and they respect our nature. So this couple walked in, it was I think, about nine ish, and they came in with with a gun G. B, I would say beachwear. Yeah, and when they tried to enter our manager, politely said, Sir, we have a dress code here it's dinner service. And you know, there's people who are dressed up well and they said the dress code didn't go they said yes sir. We do have a dress code here. She said get very aggressive. You said mood as soon as dress codes and go Are we stay at the top. So we try to explain. We try to even offer him a t shirt. We have t shirts for such. And we have a T shirt in case you don't want to go where wherever you are, we can give you offer your T shirt. So the whole thing became like a goose ticket was not about Cavatina anymore. It became about go I said who does this and go we are in Go. We can do anything. So that basically triggered me off. I said, Listen, when you come to our city, Please respect our nature. We live here. We're not here to make a quick buck. If you can't do that, I don't need your business. I told him
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To please leave the restaurant. So he leaves the restaurant he goes back to his hotel and he probably tells 25 of his people, not in Goa but staying somewhere saying that Please review this restaurant one star rating. Within 20 minutes, I get like 25 notifications like back to back with one star reviews on Google. And I was laughing away I said, this is how it you know boils down to this is what the tourists can perceive go as, which is wrong. They have to come with a mindset that you be on a beach, we find you go to the beach, where in the afternoon, but when you step on the beach, you step out your dress, you go take a shower, step out and have a good meal somewhere in respect the place, right? You just just don't fit go as beach everywhere. Yeah. So you know, this came to my mind. There are 2000 of my YouTube viewers and my well wishers who came to my rescue and kind of counteracted that person and newspapers carried out it was quite a thing for me. Some members from the government, tourism said, there's a great thing you did, you know, anybody would have just taken in and said, This is business, let me make money. And I said no for me and start making money, oh, my mother, my motherland, I need to respect it, then only I'll be able to, you know, justify. So things like this. They're changing. Right now. The quality of guests what we get and all they're pretty much, you know, be respectful and respect the nature of the land. Yeah, I saw that Instagram post. And yeah, I mean, kudos to you for standing up. And I think obviously, you did the completely the right thing. And what all I can say is that it was his loss.
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Yeah, absolutely. And maybe, and maybe maybe it was a one off incident. Maybe he'll come back and he'll he'll understand the, you know, the fantasticness of copertina. So yeah,
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right, people can choose. So now let's move on to your other property that you've started. And the other product that you started to, if I want, if I can call it that in from beautiful, but now then let's now move to your ancestral property further down south, like you mentioned, and welcome, right, where you've set up another experience, it's called table in the hills, and there you're cooking traditional methods, like the tulo or you use local ingredients. So tell us a little bit about that concept and the location. Yes, so the location is in South Goa, it's in Valium. It's in the mountain ranges of really, it's a huge property, ancestral pop where coconut and cashew were the main cash crops there. It's been lying there since ages, my great grandfather times. So when I started Cavatina, I got busy with Cavatina and initial years, I couldn't even go and see what's happening. So, as soon as about five, six years passed on with Cavatina then I started visiting the place and every time I went there, I I had this kind of inner calling saying that what am I wasting the space space for? I have to do something there. That place is blessed with great mountain ranges fields, spring water. So I said let me do a laboratory kitchen like a lab kitchen there. And let me experiment with Olden recipes, old cooking techniques. So in the in the pandemic, I started building up the kitchen. So I have a wood fired oven there which is called foreign in gua we've got two hours, which is again, we use all the the wood which is fallen down, I don't cut any trees there. Whatever it is for us, but whatever has fallen down we use those pieces of wood that is spring water used as a barbecue pit there. So I do this concept of farm to table the farm to table nothing is there's no fridges, so everything comes in is processed and the meal is fed to you is as simple as that is there's no that's not a restaurant restaurant setup. I do it on a reservation only basis. And I go back to my entire community. So it's a community table. It's people from the fishing community. It's people from the toddy TEPCO community ingredients, the vapes, the, the Kurumi, is the Goudy is all these people contributing to the produce and whatever I'll be, I'll be serving them. So I don't go to any supermarket. I don't go to any commercial fish markets, or any other markets, whatever I source. I try and source local. Yeah, you said that basically Nature decides the menu, right? So I'm getting into this mode, where the farming should be wild farming, whereby everybody eats out of it. It's not only I'm growing it for my commercial purposes, because in the farm there are there is wildlife, that is monkeys, there are monkeys that are there are peacocks that are porcupines, there are wild boars, and it will be selfish for me to enter their territory and the market and do something only for me. So the whole approach is inclusive now. So I'm planting fruit bearing trees, trees, which will probably not give me yield in just maybe five years, but 10 years 10 or 12 years. There will be enough and more for everybody to eat. Wow, this is my approach. It's inclusive, right? Yeah, no, very interesting because see, I mean, I know like I have grown up eating
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In a lot of the going foods, all the classics whether it's coffee or local, the you know sausage Pulau and this lately I've tried a little bit of Saraswat cuisine like I don't know if I'm getting it right also but maybe called cote or near foreigners, but I've never had anything tribal, as such, you know, like anything from the Quinby community. So can you just tell us a little bit I think you mentioned a couple just now, but any other tribal ingredients which are there, which are very, very local and grown in the wild? There are so many of them. There are so many I'm myself in the process of research in the process of trials. I'll give you an example which I did about last Sunday, I picked up a pumpkin, I went to the moon or to the forest, and this place called mult coordinate, where the ingredients they grow and they come and resell the other one, there's no middleman. There's no vendors, they are the ones growing. They are the ones harvesting and they weren't selling. So I went to them. I picked up pumpkin river pumpkin flowers, there were pumpkin leaves, which are given to me. So I took leaves, I took pumpkin flowers, I took pumpkin the whole pumpkin. So you know. So when that lady was handing that produce to me, she was like literally like saying that this is my child, I'm giving it to you. Wow, please do something, please. body color, please just do some some justice to it. So I took that. And I came back to the to the restaurant and I sat around with my team. And I explained this. I said guys, here's the produce, here's these are pumpkin leaves. These are pumpkin flowers. This is a great pumpkin. I said this is just not a transaction, which I did here was an exchange of emotion, I could see the energies transcend into my team.
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When they held it, they literally held it like a baby. You know, these are things which make me emotionally driven and connected to ingredients. And what came out of it is fantastic. I've put it up on my Insta on my cover Tina and my personal needs. We did three things out of it, we did a nice pumpkin warm hearty pumpkin soup with some nice coffee, lime and lemon infusions. With a mild spices. We did a pumpkin bread, like a bow, which is steamed version. It's nothing of pumpkin and bit of caramelized onions and stuff. And then I did a pumpkin flower salad with a nice tangy dressing of tamarind and chili and all that. So you know, the whole integrity of the pumpkin is served to you, pumpkin seeds were garnish don't have to bow. So when we were try and when we eating it, I just closed my eyes. And I could see the vendor, the vendor smiling in my mind, I could see that vendors smiling. Let's that's what it is right? Food is about connection. Food is about energy. Food is about an emotion. And
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if you can cross paths, and if you can touch somebody's heart. And if we follow this chain, the ultimate user who's going to eat it is going to feel this 110% There's no way in the world he won't understand this. So this is my belief in Cavatina. I tell them, I tell my team, the day you feel like not working, please don't come to work. The minute you have a negative energy, it shows on your food, it will show on the food that tastes will differ, the look of it will differ the energies will differ. And the guests can tell it. It's all about energies. It's all about the love that we put in the produce. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I was just like, just consuming all of this just now and I can I think the honestly the energies do transcend and right from the time when I tasted your meal over there copertina to now talking to you that that energy remains the same and I can understand why people are you know, flocking back to your restaurant over and over again. Wow. And the this is the great way to look at work and to look at what once one does with one's life. Right? It's not just about the the culinary aspect of it, but also how one can live one's life. And now I want to ask you, I mean that you've taken me through this whole journey of poverty in our table in the hills, your ethos, your mission, and obviously you've really thought about this, which is why it comes across so clearly. So I want to ask you this other question, which is a bit loaded, like right now, right? We are in three generations of Goa one generation, which is alive was was the ones that lived through the Portuguese era. Right? Right. And the other generation lived between Portuguese and and the golden era is in the Indian GWA era, right? And the third generation, which is the kids right now they have dipped in a pure Indian GWA era. Right? So there's these three different generations that are currently alive. So what do you think is going to be the future of GWA? And what would you like to be the future of this is a quite a tricky question.
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Yeah. See, I'm, I'm a sucker for for traditions.
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Just to give you a small example. We have a house in the city in Marga.
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We grew up there every Saturday Sundays, vacations, feast weddings occasions, wish to come to our traditional house in in Bailey.
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So after my graduation and after me finishing my entire world tours
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I decided not to stay in Margo to come back to Bailey. And my son is born here in Whaley is going to the entire tradition of seeing festivals, seeing church feast, seeing how things are harvested going to local markets, it's very important for for the younger generation to be connected to the roots. You know, everything is modernizing in a good way. Technology is taking us in a good way, which is why we are connecting over technology we are or audiences are able to listen to us. Yeah, but that should not be the major focus. The major focus should be our traditions. The major focus should be discipline, the major focus should be all our Ritchie Rivas, they say in Hindi, right? All those things are very important without them. It's like a like a tree growing wild.
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Keep them connected to the to the to the traditional culture practices, what happened? What used to happen earlier, don't just modernize and forget, it's very disheartening to say, my own family, they've moved to UK they've moved to America, they moved to Canada. And right, though, I'm very sure that you probably won't practice it because you're in a different in a different
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country. Yeah, if you can still respect culture and traditions and you know, try and have a Attali culture, Cody has a breakfast one day instead of doing your ham, cheese and bake.
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You know, that is what is all about. Right? That's go that's even if you've been staying miles away, and you can practice making a poor you one day, you can do your Artola car recording some tachycardia as a as a breakfast dip, and you're still practicing food. Food, as I said is a big connector. People can catch us over food. People can talk over food, people call up and ask, what do you make today? What was your your dinner today? So food is a bread, great character to bring people together? Right? Correct. Basically fall in love with everything that is there is to be fallen in love with the Bagua, right. The food, the culture, the habits, what's not to fall in love. Tell me clarify if somebody says there's nothing to fall in love with. I can't comprehend this. This so much to fall in love with. Absolutely, yeah. There's not just one to this. It's not just the food. It's not just the people. It's not just the prediction. It's not just the old houses. It's not the the landscape. It's so much more to it. So this, if you close your eyes, there is something to fall in love with go read. Yeah, absolutely. Agreed. It's like a layered whipping. There are just so many things, layers and layers of things that you can fall. Right. I love that. I love the way you put it into a webbing. That's something nice. Yeah.
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That's fun. Yeah, it's my favorite dessert. And like you said, I mean, you know, one way to connect is with food. And since it was my favorite dessert, I said, let me try and make it I've always eaten and never made it. So last year, I made it with the help of a very dear friend. We made it it took me about six hours to make it and it turned out well. So yeah, that's how I'm like, you know, trying to keep it alive. So yeah, congratulations. Yeah. Congratulations. Thanks. Thank you. My wife is not she's not from Goa. She's from Shillong. She's from the Galleria. Yeah. She will always fascinated with this layer layers and baking bibingka. And she should try. She tries to try. And finally she's become a pro at it like a mass throw at it. She makes fun of the wrinkles. And I'm so proud to say that being a non goon she can master a webbing. I mean, that's something which is really give it to her. Yeah, congrats to her. Wow. So maybe you should add it on to your menu next time. Oh, that's like a very special issue. Great. Okay, so now we move on to my next round. It's loose. So as we all know means fire. So I also have a rapid fire round, I call it the user round. Okay. And I have already worked up in enough of an appetite right now. So these are round, basically is like quick questions. And you can give one word answers or quick answers, basically. All right, as a Michelin trained chef and the founder of a fine dining restaurant. What's your favorite Michelin restaurant in the world? I love eating at Thomas Keller. Praise laundry. Napa Valley. Okay, so that's in France. It's in America. It's in the Napa Valley, California. Napa Valley. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. Nice. Okay, cool. Shows you I don't know anything about Michelin restaurants.
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Yeah, look it up. All right. So what is Chef Avinash Martin's comfort food. Home Food is always comfort food. Simplest of recipes. Even my my my greatest meal would be
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BTG curry or a simple curry with Bumble and rice that that would be like the ultimate comfort food for me for lunch. You said BTG Cody Beatty Cody, beta Cody, meaning it doesn't have to have anything inside.
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Oh, yeah. Just carry okay. Just coding your playing career because I like to keep my foot simple. Nice. Okay. Okay. You said you have a son, right? Yes, I have a nine year old Yeah. Okay, well, so any any
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place that you've taken him to that you'd like to tell us which which you and father and son enjoy, which is offbeat. Oh, yes. So many of them so in the rains I take him to our fields and we go for conga conga is cargoes. So we go conga picking up with your foot feet, right? Yeah, there we go for snail hunting then whenever there is this old me when the season I take him for all me. We've gone for fishing. We've gone for crab. We've gone for we've gone for charging for, you know these be Baby bear is? Yeah, the germinated cashews. Once the cashew fruit falls down in the month of March, April, and just in the month of June, they start sprouting. We make a nice stuff out of it. So I take him. So he's involved in every aspect of what I do. I mean, even if I go to the bakery, we go into participates in our pocket. Why? Because
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putting butter in a hot bread and eating they're in there. There's nothing compared. There's no job getting this. So
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go do that man. Do that. You you eat out of a hot bake bread. Right coming out of the foreign you just put it out there. Amal Katara nothing has no precedent.
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Wow, I'm gonna try that. Yeah, done. That's That's nice. Okay. All right. Okay, what's your favorite going phrase or term? More grassroots? Always. Wow, that's mine, too. Lovely. Lovely. So yeah, I always end my podcast by saying nagasu by the way, so throughout season one and now Season Two also, I'm doing that. So yeah, so Wow, great. Okay. All right. Now one more. Okay, tell us one secret cooking tip. Okay, that I could probably use to make my dishes that could make them look like they came out of a chef's kitchen. Again, ingredient, ingredient ingredient. The best ingredient is what season and nature Mother Nature will give you. So if you only if you're doing a simple, Molly Bhaji. Make sure that you're eating it in the right time. If it's a winter vegetable, pick up a winter vegetable. And just let the ingredients speak. Don't use too much of masalas don't use too much of something which will overpower the ingredient. This is my funda for my thumb rule for everything cooking. Let the ingredient talk and speak for itself. Don't be
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don't be the guy to overpower and overshadow the main ingredient. Yeah, let the ingredients sing like the restaurant.
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Okay, my last my last question in the user round is what a life brings us to say God. So say God, for me is content. It's not a laid back. It's not being lazy. Contentment comes from small simple things in life. Small things on a daily basis. done right is contentment. For me. I go with this motto of making one person happy every single day, just one person, whoever it may be. I feel if I've done that. My day has started well, and it will end well. And that gets me content. That gets me my second. Great. So just to let you know you've made me happy today. So your job.
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And I'm sure everyone who listens to this podcast will also be happy listening to this. Glad to hear this. No no truly Avinash. Yeah, and thank you honestly, I truly enjoyed not only my experience at copertina, which honestly just blew my mind away. It's now a permanent memory in my brain. One that you know that I'll access many times anytime to bring me joy. And even this conversation like I said, has not only whetted my appetite but has again increased my love for Guam, which I do have and I'm trying to kind of amplify voices like yours and I remember you telling me that you know that you have to be a warrior of gua and then people like you are a warrior of GWA so thank you for being a warrior to go and championing its story and making people fall in love with GWA and the way that we want to see go so thanks Avinash and hope you'll come back on Sunday God stories from Goa and like I say your favorite word and term as well mogul Sony thank you thanks for having me on your lovely Show
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Hope you enjoyed this episode of say God stories from go out don't forget to rate review and follow this podcast. This is quite saying bye for now follow me on Instagram at quite D'souza author or buy my books to say got the gun out of contentment. For more go and stories, recipes and a whole lot more. This podcast is brought to you by bound a company that helps you grow through stories follow them at bound India on all social platforms for updates on this podcast or take a look at their other awesome podcasts more Gosu and see us