Prahlad Sukhtankar

Founder, The Black Sheep Bistro

His forays into innovating menus and enhancing the joys of restaurant eating have bestowed on him many recognitions. Prahlad, a founder at BSB, is a Goa boy and the NRAI Chapter Head for the state

Interviewed by Sathya Saran

Hospitality’s Black Sheep

Despite growing up in a family of accomplished architects, three-year-old Prahlad decided that he wanted to dabble in food. He did not see himself as a chef, orchestrating culinary symphonies in the kitchen, but as someone managing the way the symphonies would unfold. As time went on, he knew his vocation lay in being a restaurateur.

Once he convinced his family, and the basic educational requirements had been met, Sukhtankar enrolled at the Ecole Hotelier César Ritz for a Diploma in Hotel Management and Marketing, and followed it up by joining Les Roches, Switzerland, for his Bachelor’s degree. Here he would combine further academic education with hands-on experience in hospitality and hotel management. And it was here, he would meet the woman who would be his wife.

After a decade abroad, during which he gained experience working across Ireland, Canada, the US, besides Switzerland, Prahlad and his wife decided to return to India. He had also by now acquired a Sommelier Diploma from the International Sommelier Guild (ISG), Canada.

“I came back in 2012, and decided to find my niche in Goa,” he says. A year later, Prahlad started The Black Sheep Bistro. “It was a place that offered casual fine-dining, and the menu was mostly food I would like to eat,” he smiles. It was a simple but effective approach to hospitality. As any restaurant hopper knows, the best eating places are where the owner enjoys the food served. Black Sheep Bistro soon found its place on the ‘must-visit’ list for the many tourists visiting Goa as well as the locals. “I focussed on menus where the dishes were made with local ingredients, and that made the difference,” says Prahlad.

The result was a menu that broke the mould. Traditional dishes with a twist made for curious eating, tickling the palate, getting the taste buds roaring. Piquant entries like Not Pad Thai (unconventional Pad Thai – went a little rogue on this one), or Tikshe Pesto Fish (When Goa meets Italy with a little sass) on the menu card, had clients eager to try out more than one or two dishes. His menus ran the tagline, ‘Inspired globally, created locally’, and he followed his mantra faithfully.

The whimsy in fact starts with the drinks menu where Spiced Watermelon is “like a fruit salad that decided to get a little wild,” or the BSB Sangria is “perfect for those who love it our way, not just ‘authentic’. After all, (the line continues), ours is world famous in Goa!”

Prahlad ensured the music and ambience, with, to quote a reviewer, ‘beautiful paintings adorning the walls’ matched the mood of his offerings, and soon enough he was opening a second Black Sheep Bistro.

The Melt Pizza Bar followed. The open-air restaurant where he is an investing partner, located in Anjuna, combined casual with an easy sophistication. The décor included wicker furniture and overhead lamps, bright cushions, and offered a range of Carnivore and Herbivore pizzas, and booze to be downed to the beat of soft, live Goan music.

Prahlad’s mission to bring local ingredients into fine-dining did not stop with his restaurant experiments. “In 2019, I decided to use indigenous grains from across the country… ancient corn, ancient rice varieties,” he says. Sourcing from tribal communities in Maharashtra and Goa, he created a nine-course meal that had one ancient ingredient in every dish. He relives the excitement as with shining eyes he explains how, “...we managed to fill 1000 plates in 90 minutes… like an orchestra… feeding 120 people!”
Eager to spread the idea, he launched workshops on bread-making and miso-making, besides others.

Invited as part of the ‘alumni’ who had participated in earlier Serendipity Arts Festivals in past years, he used the opportunity to set up an exhibition on the various types of salt available to Indians.

“I worked closely with Pankti Jog at Agriya Heet Rakshak Manch (AHRM), Gujarat, and we got all the information together to set up the exhibition,” he explains.

In an air-conditioned enclosure created in the Kala Arts Academy in Panjim, Prahlad exhibited a mind-boggling array of salts from various natural sources, including the seas that lap at the shores of the peninsular, the heights of the Himalayan mountains, and included a sample of black salt that still held the shape of the earthern vessel it had been prepared in.

His forays into innovating menus and enhancing the joys of restaurant eating have bestowed on him many recognitions. He serves as the Goa Chapter Head for the National Restaurant Association of India, and on its managing committee.

“The Forest Ministry is planning a cashew fest, and I am on the Advisory Board,’’ he says, mentioning future adventures. It will be interesting to see Prahlad’s ideas on taking the Goan cashew beyond the snack table and the feni to create a new avatar that might travel globally!