New Delhi, April 4 -- At Otra, the south Mumbai restaurant offering Latin American cuisine, the entire menu hinges on a steady supply of corn kernels that can be nixtamalized (soaked in an alkaline solution to break down cell walls and make them easier to turn into flour). The corn is used to make tacos, tostadas and chocoyotes. Chef Alex Sanchez sources the kernels from Three One Farms in Ludhiana, Punjab, run by a seventh-generation farmer Anushka Neyol. Together Sanchez and Neyol have done three seasons of trials over two years to finally get the product to market.

Sanchez says, "I just proposed (in July 2021) if she would be interested in joining us (to find the right corn) and seeing where it goes." In the years since that first con...