Interview with one of the Directors of Flavour Fusion Restaurant

Blackpool Gazette

The restaurant is called Flavour Fusion and is run by Smitha Thankachan, one of four directors. Flavour Fusion specialises in food from Kerala in India. Mrs Thankachan said: "We are coming from the southernmost part of India, a place called Kerala, which is very famous for backwaters, coconut trees, and these spices. So we wanted to bring traditional Kerala food to Blackpool so that the people of Blackpool will know how different that is from the other part of India."

Transcript

00:00So what originally, why did you choose to bring the restaurant to Blackpool in the first place?

00:07So we moved to Blackpool like six years back and everything was new.

00:13So we liked the British food a lot we were trying here and then after a while we thought

00:18we should give the authentic Indian, Kerala food to the natives as well

00:24So that they can know how different the taste is from the other restaurants we went to

00:29which were supposed to be the Indian restaurants

00:31because all the Indian restaurants were concentrated on one portion of India

00:35because it's a huge country

00:37So we are coming from the southernmost part of India, a place called Kerala

00:42which is very famous for backwaters and its coconut trees, the spices

00:49So we wanted to bring the traditional Kerala food to Blackpool

00:54so that the people of Blackpool will know how different that is from the other part of India

00:59because we are quite different in cuisine and language with the other portions of India

01:05So that's what we wanted the natives to know and taste

01:11When did the restaurant open?

01:13We opened last Sunday

01:16So how successful has it been since then?

01:21We had a lot of people through the door

01:23Yes, we were surprised at the number of people that were enquiring about the food

01:30and who were coming in to eat and they were so happy to taste a different kind of flavour

01:36and we make sure that we get the authentic Kerala ingredients

01:41So we go to the Kerala, there are a few Kerala shops and we get that South Indian particular ingredients

01:49and the spices and we wanted to be authentic on the taste

01:57and we want to do the traditional cooking

01:59So we have the chefs who are already trained in Kerala

02:03So they were trained in Kerala

02:05So they know how to do the traditional cooking

02:09and we have all the pots and we follow the traditional method of cooking

02:14and the ingredients we try to get everything from the Kerala shops

02:19so that it's true to its roots

02:27So what would be the signature dish?

02:32So Kerala is a backwater place, it's famous for its backwater

02:36and we have so many fish dishes

02:38and the fish coconut curry is one of the famous Kerala dishes

02:43So we use coconut in that, we use quite a lot of coconut

02:48because we have so many coconut trees if you look at the pictures of Kerala

02:52So we use a lot of coconuts in there

02:55and we make sure we don't get the coconut powder, we get the coconut, grind it

03:01So to maintain the authenticity, that's our commitment

03:06So we use that in the Kerala fish curry

03:10We use the coconut and the spices and the masalas

03:15That's one of our dishes and we have something called appam

03:19which is like a rice pancake

03:21and we have puttu which is like a steamed rice cake

03:27and we have something called Kerala parotta which is like a bread

03:32which is very very famous in our place

03:40So how did you initially get into cooking and restaurants?

03:47This is our first venture, we are a start-up

03:51So we are professionals but we thought why don't we look into a few things that are lacking in the city

04:01because we are from a different place and the people were so welcoming to us

04:05and they were so nice and they used to ask us a lot about our tradition, our culture, our food

04:11and each and everyone told us they love our food

04:14So we thought we'll bring some of those to a restaurant

04:20We'll start a restaurant to bring some of those to the natives

04:25So that's one of our inspirations

04:27because we ourselves have tried in different places to get the same flavour

04:31but no, they were really different, though they had the same names

04:36So that's one reason that we wanted to do this

04:43What would be your ideal future plans for the restaurant?

04:48So we have something called Onam Festival

04:52in which the community will come together, celebrate

04:56and we'll have a feast with like 30 to 40 dishes in a single

05:01Have you seen, I don't know if you've seen the picture, it's a banana leaf

05:06On that we'll have 10 to 15 dishes on the top

05:10and then with rice and many curries into that

05:13So we are planning to bring that to the community

05:16and like a get-together to bring the culture

05:19so that people know Kerala's culture as well

05:22So it's like a big event

05:24We will plan about that

05:27And I was thinking, so many people were telling me how delicious the food is

05:32So maybe some cooking lessons once in a while from our trained chefs

05:36Of the food, for anyone to come in and learn how to cook

05:39Like maybe we will put in an advertisement

05:41and whoever is interested then they can have some time with the chef

05:51I think, yeah

05:55Just need to get, I think that's the questions that I have

06:01Let's get a few questions from you

06:04Are you local to Lappal?

06:06I used to work in Staining, Staining Village

06:11Oh right

06:12Yeah

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