In her parting words, Akanksha Rathee Kaul whispered, “Look within, live with less, and fall in love with everything local.” These are not just words. They resonate deep with her ideas of living and her faith in the value of simple living. Shunya, her new restaurant in Gurgaon, is an extended expression of her credo. It validates her values of the circle of life, continuity and impermanence. Highlighting the true essence of that, in addition to local Indian ingredients, she gives her debut restaurant, Shunya.
Moderately designed, the café finds itself wrapped in colours of brown, black and white. This is inspired from the Scandinavian territory, the part of the world that celebrates minimalism. The handcrafted furniture pieces are sangwan upholstered with handwoven cotton ikkat. The cutlery is in mango and sheesam wood. On the service plates rest lush banana leaves. “At the entrance of the café you find trays with Indian herbs brought in periodically from farms. Some of them are tulsi, ajwain leaves, wheatgrass and aloe vera,” says Kaul. “We mix these into local ingredients to make globally appealing food.”
A good example of that is Homemade Muesli with puffed rice, makhane, magaj, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, dried ber, munakka, almonds, walnuts, apricots and dried rose petals. Kaul also makes her own pesto with tulsi.
The menu incorporates cold press juices with raw turmeric and aloe vera, burgers with jackfruit and avocado and vegan marshmallows with gond katira. Other interesting picks are Chickpea, Spinach and Starfruit Salad, Banana Chocolate Ganache and Chocochips Waffle, French Toast with Creamy Gulab Murabba and Marigold Green Tea.
In the next few months the café will bring a new section called the Cafe Shunya food lab that’ll curate events emphasising on producing or procuring locally.
The future of Shunya, or as popularly understood in Sanskrit as ‘nothingness’, has evolved to encompass different meanings today. For Kaul, it means continuity, and through this new restaurant, she keeps her most valued learnings alive.