New Delhi, May 6 -- Travel plays an important role in a chef's menu research by offering unique perspectives to cuisines and cultures. And the modern-day chef is always looking for newer ways to understand and reinterpret them for today's diners. Take chefs Aketoli Zhimomi and Gayatri Desai, who recently took a trip to Thailand to engage with home cooks and chefs, with an aim to explore the overlaps of the local cuisines with Naga food.

Desai, who runs the restaurant Ground Up in Pune, has extensively travelled across North-East India, and is particularly fascinated by the indigenous fermentation culture of the region. Zhimomi, on the other hand, runs Ethnic Table, a restaurant serving contemporary Naga food in Dimapur. "I have always be...