Ana Ros: ‘The Kachi Gani mustard oil is just incredible, it’s impossible to find it in Europe’

Navigating through the fish markets of Sassoon Docks in Mumbai, Slovenian celebrity star chef Ana Roš had quite the experience of the city that she will definitely remember for a long time. It was evident from her Instagram account where she was documenting her India travels on the go during her brief visit to India for dining experiences in Delhi and Mumbai. The menu had dishes from her restaurant Hiša Franko, but with the help of local Indian ingredients, which is the very essence of her restaurant that is situated in the hills in the European country. She explains, "When we reached here, we only had the structure of the menu but the ingredients we found here. Apart from cottage cheese and hay salt, we found everything in the market."

Ros was in the city to cook a luxurious feast in collaboration with Conosh and Beam Suntory's The Ardmore scotch whisky, at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in February. Luckily, it coincided with the off-season for the restaurant as Ros gives it a two-month break, which allowed her to get her extremely talented sous chefs to travel and present their flavours in Mumbai, apart from Delhi this year. With the liberty to use Indian ingredients, cooking dishes for the menu is always incomplete without a quick tour of India's colourful markets and she made the most of it. While she was looking for ingredients for her menu, Ros couldn't resist picking up ingredients that she was fascinated with, to take back with her too.

Falling in love with Indian ingredients
She shares, "My shopping is 50 kilos of ingredients," continuing, "The mustard oil here is just incredible; it's the Kachi Gani mustard oil, which is just fantastic. It's impossible to find it in Europe. Then I am also taking back some masalas. Yesterday, I was able to go to the spice market and see how they were pan-frying the spices together and for me, it was so inspiring to see because I have never seen something like that, and then after that they were beating them up, and so we are taking that back. We are also taking back some tamarind. I really loved the green cardamom and mace, and lot of other things."

She adds, "Unfortunately, I cannot take the mangoes because they will ferment. However, I am taking back the jaggery. In Delhi, I was also in a fantastic pickle shop, so there are pickles as well. For I was taken away by the docks and the fish market, and the incredible fresh fish. I cannot take back the fresh fish with me, but I am taking back the spices."

Ros's keen eye for ingredients and working with fresh produce and ingredients from the season is evident after she reveals that since it is winter, there is a need to spice things up a bit. She adds, "Fortunately, the reality hits you when you are in Europe in February, when the only fruit available is pears and apples from the late autumn harvest; the kiwis are gone. So, the market is really boring now. For the vegetables, we have roots, cabbages and kale, and you have to be really creative to make a menu out of them. It is not going to be as colourful as here, but the spices will help me out."

It gets even better because Ros has a closer relationship to spices than most people know because she reveals that Hisa Franko has a huge library of spices and they use them a lot. "There is a great spice shop in New York. So, whenever I am in New York, I travel with an extra luggage bag. We really love using spices, but we are not an Indian restaurant, so it is not in the front space but somewhere on the back, balancing the flavours."

Even as India boasts of such a variety of produce from different parts of the country, and as many may think they do not get the importance they deserve, Ros provides a practical and honest explanation. "You can't mix up a country-side restaurant and a city-side restaurant. The city-side restaurant is more inclined to use the markets and they have always been more globalised. The countryside restaurant will always have things that are grown around you," she explains, highlighting, how the logistics may also not be favour.

Taking Slovenia to the world
Two years after receiving two stars in the inaugural edition of the Michelin guide in 2020, Hisa Franko received its third Michelin star along yet another green star in 2023 for their sustainable practices, that have been a part of their ethos since a long time. Four years hence, she can not only boast of getting them but also puts the spotlight on her food and Slovenia. So, what makes the food from the country that shares a border with Italy unique? She shares, "Slovenia is one of the green countries of the world, by university studies, which makes the cuisine green because when you have such an incredible environment around you. Today, Slovenian cuisine is green, fresh, seasonal and regional."

While being one of the greenest countries in the world, Ros says it is also one of the most diverse countries in the world because of more than one reason because of how it is placed geographically and culturally. It is also what she believes people need to know about Slovenia, even as more people are yet unaware of its richness. She explains, "We are surrounded by huge food cultures around us. We have Italy on the west, Balkans on the south and Austria in the north. Slovenia is an extremely small country, you can cross it in two hours from north to south, and three and a half hours from West to East, which of course makes sure that all those influences are mixing up in our culture." The fact that the geographical diversity extends to Mediterranean, Alpine, the lowlands which go towards Croatia, means that each region has very particular ingredients that offer a lot of room for experiments.

Putting Slovenia on the gastronomic map
With such rich bounty, the country now boasts of 59 Michelin star restaurants, and the Slovenian has been one of the many chefs that has been instrumental in introducing to people to the country's food. "In 2020 when we got the Michelin guide, three years later, we got the third one and also the green one for sustainability. This somehow places Slovenia more firmly on the world gastronomic map. Three stars as the Michelin guide has defined it is worth travelling for. Hisa Franko was a destination restaurant before but now maybe those who had doubts because Slovenia is one of the new countries and from the touristic point of view, now see it is worth sitting in a crowded airplane to visit Slovenia and Hisa Franko."

Interestingly, Ros is a self-taught chef and didn't go to a culinary school like many other chefs around the world boast of and sees opportunity in being one because she doesn't have to conform to anything. She shares, "A lot of world-famous chefs are self-taught. We are defined with a little bit more freedom. We don't belong to any cooking school. We are not tied to some rules that other chefs who are from schools and studying other chefs. I think between the best chefs of the world there is a beautiful percentage of chefs who started their own career in cooking after studying something completely different before they started out."

For those who aren't aware, Hisa Franko is situated in the hills of the Soca Valley and boasts of using local ingredients that Ros says are sourced from farmers around her rather than other places in the country. It was a simple practice that they had to put into place after several unsavoury experiences which portrayed the challenges in getting fresh ingredients and meats into the hills. It is because the farmers from other parts of the country would have to travel up the hill and that often wasn't the best option as it would compromise on the quality of produce due to travel time and storage facilities. In the process, Ros decided to start a dialogue with the farmers around her restaurant. While they were a little sceptical initially, they have warmed up to the idea now. Ros says, "We have managed to create a community of farmer that can help us with produce."