Chef Eric Sifu’s brings a taste of true Sichuan to KOKO restaurants

Sichuan food isn’t entirely unfamiliar to Indian palates. The Indo-Chinese dishes borrow heavily from the spicy and numbing flavours core to China’s Sichuan province. While classics like Kung Pao Chicken and Dan Dan Noodles have found a place on Indian menus, many brands have jumped on the Indian preference for high heat tolerance by introducing Schezwan sauces.

As journalist Vir Sanghvi puts it in his blog, “We don’t realise this, but Indians may be the world’s largest group of Sichuan food lovers outside of Sichuan.”

However, Indo-Chinese is not the real Sichuan food, which prompted Chef Eric Sifu to introduce authentic Sichuan cuisine to Indian diners through a special menu at KOKO restaurants in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.

The Malaysian-born chef has spent years travelling, researching and, of course, tasting different dishes from the region and across Southeast Asia, quietly experimenting with flavours, textures, and formats. This has led to a 14-item menu that includes sushi, dim sum, entrees, and small plates.

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“I’ve drawn inspiration from Hong Kong Cantonese Soup, home kitchens, and the refined energy of KOKO itself. With this Chef’s Special Menu, I wanted to create something soulful—dishes that feel new, but with a comforting sense of nostalgia,” Chef Sifu stated in a release.

The menu also reflects the chef’s culinary journey. He fell in love with food and cooking, like many of us do, watching his mother.

“When I was young, my mother used to love talking while cooking, especially after my school hours. She would make and I would eat, and I would usually be the first person to try her dishes,” he recalls in a conversation with YS Life.

His journey was off to a humble start, selling Hainanese Chicken Rice in Singapore. But he eventually became a globetrotter, accumulating culinary experiences, perspectives, and flavours from restaurants in London, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Norway. He has worked at renowned restaurants like Sakura in Kuala Lumpur, known for its nasi lemak (Malaysia’s national dish), and Din Tai Fung in Singapore, a Michelin-starred Taiwanese restaurant chain.

In 2020, he returned to India and joined as the head chef at Pebble Street Hospitality, which manages Asian fine dining restaurants KOKO and Foo. Since then, he has crafted 1,000 dishes across the two restaurants. Among these are special menus designed to introduce Sichuan cuisine to Indian diners.

“Sichuan food is very flavourful and rich. The idea is to introduce local Sichuan food and try something special,” Chef Sifu notes. Sichuan cuisine utilises Sichuan peppercorns, chilli peppers, garlic, and ginger to create complex flavours.

At KOKO, his culinary expertise shines through in creations like the Spicy Crab Roll, which layers the crab tempura with scallion, water chestnut, and pickled Thai chilli. The sweet and salty flavour of the crusty crab rules the dish. Another show-stopper is Chef’s Secret Tofu, where the gently steamed tofu disperses the slightly chilli flavour of the red chilli bean paste, filling the palette with a soothing umami flavour.

Then there is the flavourful Pork Lapchong & Smoked Tenderloin Rice—a smoky mix of pork, tender buffalo, silky egg, and spring onion.

“In my childhood, I used to eat a lot of lap chong—made with cured pork sausage. We would always eat steamed lap cheong, and also fiery lap chong. Here we have added Sichuan pepper chilly for aroma. We use jasmine rice and try to make it more soft, like sticky rice, and add beef tenderloins,” the chef says.

However, Chef Sifu admits he held his hand short when it came to properly infusing the dishes with Sichuan chilli, and it shows. While dishes like Prawns in Peppercorn Oil and Spicy Lamb, Mala Style boast typical Asian flavours of ginger and wok hei (wok-charred aromatics), there’s a noticeable deficit of heat, which in core Sichuan cuisine is so fiery that it numbs the tongue. The Ma La style of Sichuan cuisine combines numbing and spicy sensations.

“The true Sichuan food is very tangy and spicy. They use a lot of oil and it can be very numbing due to the high degree of spiciness. We needed to review that and create our menu in a way that it’s not that spicy and rather a little bit mild,” he notes.

Instead of using whole Sichuan peppercorn, he used peppercorn powder instead. But Chef Sifu has infused chilli flavours in other ways. “We use fermented Sichuan chilli, which gives a unique flavour.”

The idea is to iterate and see what fits well with KOKO regulars. And the special menu really shines when it comes to infusing flavours with theatrics, whether it be presenting lavish portions in a plate the shape of a large conk or using liquid nitrogen to bring out the oomph.

The special menu will be available at KOKO till June 30.

Cost for two: Rs 3,500.