Flavours without borders | Hindustan Times
New Orleans, the most populous city in Louisiana, can feel like many different places, all at once. The multi-cultural city grew out of a complicated history, peppered with annexations. French and Spanish colonisers settled here and brought in slaves from Africa, even while the Native Americans already called the region home. Over time, immigrants from Canada, Italy (predominantly Sicily), Germany, Latin America, the Caribbean islands also arrived here. Some arrived to escape persecution, while others came in search of economic opportunity. Out of this complex past, arose a cuisine that’s inimitable. Every set of immigrants brought their own recipes, and cooking traditions and the result is a delicious and diverse menu.
At Saffron NOLA, Chef Vilkhu serves up gumbo with an Indian twist.
Even today, New Orleans is one of those rare places where your taste-buds take you across continents, in a single day. Wake up and follow your nose; the warm, comforting aroma of caramelised sugar will lead you to beignets. Bite into this deep fried French-origin pastry, drizzled with powdered sugar, and wash it down with cafe au lait. For lunch, dig into a muffuletta, an Italian sandwich that was born in New Orleans. Sicilian immigrant, Lupo Salvatore, created the sandwich as he put together ingredients that Sicilians loved – cured meats, olive dressing and cheese, held together in sesame-drizzled bread. End the day with Louisiana’s official dish, Gumbo, a hearty stew that truly represents the State’s multi-cultural past. So much so that 12th October is celebrated across the state and recognised across the country as ‘National Gumbo Day’.
A one-pot dish, Gumbo contains meats such as chicken and pork, as well as locally sourced seafood such as shrimp, crab and crawfish. The meat is cooked in a roux, a concept borrowed from the French. The ‘Holy trinity’ of Creole cooking i.e onions, bell peppers and celery are added to the pot. Cajun spices – thyme, paprika, black pepper, garlic powder – are mixed in. Sassafras, a herb used by the Native Americans, brings added flavour to the stew. When you trace the origins of the many different ingredients that make Gumbo, it almost seems like the dish stands in defiance of the current immigration policies.
While India doesn’t feature in Louisiana’s storied past, James Beard Award semifinalist, Chef Arvinder Vilkhu, is adding to the melting pot. At his much-talked about restaurant, Saffron NOLA, Chef Vilkhu serves up gumbo with an Indian twist. “I throw in kashmiri mirch, turmeric, curry leaves and fennel seeds to Gumbo, for added depth,” says Chef Vilkhu of one of the most popular dishes on his menu.
Chef Vilkhu, who traces his roots to New Delhi, immigrated to New Orleans in 1984. “There were a few Indians in Nola (short for New Orleans) at the time, but not too many. The food culture, back then, was dominated by restaurants that primarily concentrated on Creole, Cajun and French cuisine.” It was challenging to run a catering business, at the time, but that’s exactly what Arvinder and his wife Pardeep set out to do. “I remember how difficult it was to source ingredients for Indian cooking. There was a total lack of such inventory at local stores. If by chance we found fresh coriander at our local grocers, the check-out stuff would ring it in as parsley!,” says the Chef. The Vilkhu’s eventually found one Indian make-shift grocery. “It was run by an Indian family, out of their garage, and that’s where we would get our masalas from,” says Chef Vilkhu.
“But time has completely changed the culinary map,” says Chef Vilkhu and today there is a greater appreciation of, and demand for Indian cuisine. So, after 26 years in catering and six years as a pop-up, the Vilkhu’s started Saffron NOLA in 2017 and earned their first James Beard nomination for Best New Restaurant in 2018. “We never really thought about working towards an award. We were just passionate about food.” After all, the Vilkhu’s had been dishing out Indian and fusion cuisine, in New Orleans, even before the James Beard awards were in existence. The awards were established in 1990 with the first ceremony held, a year later, in 1991. “We just went about putting in the hard-work and doing what we love. And it was a great honour for us that the community saw our work and collectively voted for us,” says the chef.
But 2018 was just the beginning. Chef Vilkhu gained yet another James Beard nomination for Best Chef: South in 2024. In 2025, yet again, he gained the same nomination together with his son, Chef Ashwin Vilkhu for Saffron NOLA.
Ask him about the secret ingredient behind his success and he says, “We just brought to our menu the food we had been cooking at home, over decades. Blending Indian traditions with New Orleans’ bounty – from seafood to locally sourced ingredients – made with Indian cooking techniques.” He adds, “Perhaps it is the marriage of Indian culture with New Orleans’ cuisine.” After all, the palate knows no borders.
