When it rains in India, it’s not just chai and pakoras that people enjoy. The monsoon also brings a variety of seasonal ingredients—leafy greens, wild mushrooms, juicy stone fruits, and more—that are available only for a short time. We asked 7 top chefs from cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Goa, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata to share the ingredients they love cooking with during this rainy season.
🌧️ Radhika Khandelwal – Fig & Maple, Delhi & Goa
Chef Radhika loves jamun in the monsoon. Her restaurant serves jamun butter, jamun ice cream, and even a jamun salad with mango and monsoon greens. She also enjoys using takla, a bitter green found in Maharashtra and Goa, known for its methi-like flavor.
🍰 Heena Punwani – Maska Bakery, Mumbai
Chef Heena works with stone fruits like peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, and jamuns. Her “Revenge Black Forest Cake” uses cherry compote and dark chocolate. She also makes PBJ (Peanut Butter Jamun), a twist on classic bread-jam using jamun jam.
🍄 Avinandan Kundu – Sienna Store & Café, Kolkata
Avinandan highlights dudhchata mushrooms, a rare and meaty mushroom found in Bengal. He uses them to make mushroom bhorta, a dish inspired by traditional chicken bharta, but with an earthy mushroom flavor.
🍑 Bani Nanda – Miam Patisserie, Delhi
For Chef Bani, monsoon means apricots and peaches. She creates jams and desserts like apricot-dark chocolate entremet and peach-apricot charlotte. She’s also experimenting with taal gur and taal pulp from Bengal.
🍃 Regi Mathew – Kappa Chakka Kandhari, Chennai & Bengaluru
Chef Regi waits for thunder mushrooms, which grow right after lightning storms. He cooks them in banana leaves with coconut masala and tamarind in a dish called Mushroom Pothi—a traditional Kerala recipe.
🐟 Anumitra Ghosh Dastidar – Edible Archives, Goa
Anumitra loves hilsa fish, especially during monsoon. She also uses akur bhaji (a seasonal green), and tambdem bhalem, a rare river fish available for only a few days. Her dishes are inspired by foraging and her Bengali roots.
🍛 Shubhra Shankhwalker – Aai’s, Goa
Shubhra uses olmi mushrooms, available only for a month in Goa. She cooks them into olmi tonak, a traditional curry. She also loves mangrove ferns, pumpkin buds, and wild yam leaves. Another monsoon treat is patolio, a sweet dish made with coconut, jaggery, and turmeric leaves.
These chefs are celebrating local, seasonal ingredients in creative and traditional ways—showing that monsoon food in India goes far beyond chai and pakoras!
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