Fresh from Farm to Fork

Aamirah Thayibah

Lore, a body of knowledge is passed on from person to person through word of mouth. Farmlore is not your ordinary fine dining experience. Nestled between a luscious green 37-acre farm in Bagalur lies a quiet glass and metal structure that houses a restaurant and an experience. With no professional marketing and PR methods, this self-sustaining chef ’s table-style restaurant relies purely on word of mouth to attract a loyal clientele.

Headed by three chefs, the restaurant has a harvest-driven, dynamic menu. This means that the menu changes each day depending on what has been harvested fresh from the farms that particular day. “We thrive on the dynamicity of the menu. We simply ask our customers to come with an open mind,” says the co-founder and head chef, Johnson Ebenezer. The purely organic farms use only traditional means of agriculture to bring the purest version of produce to the customers.

“We draw from regional practices such as using neem oil and garlic oil instead of chemical pesticides and fungicides,” says Hemant, the farm manager at Farmlore. Hemant takes us on a short walk around the farms, pointing out the expanse of mango groves and coconut trees dotting the estate. A few hens and a couple of turkeys roam the property.

Hallikar cows, which are indigenous to the estate, also produce milk whose high-fat content makes it perfect for butters and creams. The solar panels stationed above the restaurant provide the kitchen with up to 15 kilowatts of power. There are also small greenhouse-like mesh huts at the entrance of the property which - these house a hydroponic system to grow vegetables and even aromatics. The produce and yield are overseen by a team of scientists who work towards ensuring a regular and efficient yield.

Customers can even opt for one of these hydroponic systems on their own terraces to bring home a piece of Farmlore. Johnson Ebenezer was previously the executive chef at Michelin-starred Nadodi, in Malaysia. Mythrayie Iyer has worked in the kitchens of chef René Redzepi’s two-Michelin-star Noma in Denmark, Avinash Vishaal has just returned from a period at the three- Michelin-star Frantzen in Sweden. The three began their journey into Bangalore’s culinary scene with Lore, a pop-up restaurant around India. But when COVID hit and the supply chain issues disrupted the flow of regular produce, that’s when the idea of having a self-sustaining farm-to-table restaurant emerged. With help from an open-minded investor, Farmlore was born.

The restaurant, which seats a modest number of people, prides itself on fostering creativity. “Our food is the real talking point,” says Ebenezer. By incorporating familiar and regional flavours into fine dining, the kitchen curates an elevated gastronomical experience. “In the last 15 years, the concept of fine dining has evolved into something much more eclectic,” he says, explaining that the fine dining tag is no longer reserved for foreign restaurants and cuisines. The city of Bangalore is another character in the inception of Farmlore. With its combination of conducive weather, which allowed for farming throughout the seasons, and a contemporary crowd that was open to new concepts, Bangalore offered the best fostering environment for an avant-garde concept such as Farmlore.

“Bangalore is kind to its standalone restaurants. Despite having just five working days and just two meals a day, we have had customers return up to nine times in the last year. I would say up to 99% of our clients return at least once,” says Ebenezer. The IT hub has a much more globalised crowd, meaning that there is more freedom to express and experiment.

“Passion” is the key factor that unites the team at Farmlore. From the head chef to the interns, there is a friendly sense of camaraderie that coalesces for the food. The team works in unison to ensure that the guests have a curated experience. The restaurant offers a lunch menu between 12.30 pm and 3 pm. The 5-course meal lasts for up to 2 hours and 30 minutes, while the ten-course dinner menu is offered between 6.30 to 10 pm with the meal lasting 4 hours. With soft music bouncing off the painted walls and the rustling of trees filling up gaps in conversation, Faramlore is the perfect place to treat yourself in a way that honours Mother Earth.