Our Story
In India a ‘Daaku’ is a name given to an ‘outlaw’. Daakus exist in small communities in remote desert or mountain regions. As such they are known in India as outsiders who lead a fearless and often lawless existence. Many classic Bollywood films and songs in India romanticise their lifestyle; much like a cowboy in classic Western movies. Daaku life is portrayed as passionate, exciting and wild. Daakus are loyal to their own, generous to guests and with a strong sense of their unique traditions and values.
For us ‘Daaku’ has become a symbol for the way we like to cook. We are unafraid to take risks with our culinary style and to do things our own way, but we are still deeply grounded in heritage and traditions.
Our Style
Our small menu changes weekly and we cook everything from scratch. Changing the menu so frequently allows us to work closely with the seasons and utilise the best produce from land and sea as it arrives.
Jas and Ben cook and develop all of their recipes together and have a shared passion for researching unusual or rare Indian dishes
We also like to mix ancient and modern techniques and presentations to achieve our style of food. Our customers can enjoy such interesting twists on classics such as crisp fried hogs pudding pakoras served with green mint chutney or our warm carrot halva with a dollop of Cornish clotted cream.
Discovering local equivalents for particularly hard to find or non-sustainable ingredients from India is another source of great inspiration in our food: Rather than seeing it as a limitation, we embrace the challenge of capturing the essence of the original dish whilst still using ingredients that are really local and fresh.
Above all, most of our dishes evoke food memories from Jasmine’s childhood or meals that we have shared and loved at home as a family. We cook mainly North Indian food but our travels means we also include dishes from all over India We want to bring contemporary Indian ‘home food’ into focus with our cookery: Comforting, simple and packed full of flavour.
The Original Fusion Food
Jasmine’s has her roots in Rajasthan, India where she was was born and raised before settling in Cornwall UK, where her husband, Ben, grew up. Her heritage is Punjabi and this is also reflected in our food.
Spice is at the heart of everything we do. We began our journey into food and hospitality by directly sourcing and selling high quality whole spices from India which we blended into our own masalas. In order to promote our spices we began hosting dining experiences and pop ups including an Indian thali experience in a marquee in our back garden. We like to think it was probably the smallest Indian restaurant in the UK with only eight seats!
It wasn’t long before the popularity of our events, demos and cookery lessons made us consider opening a more permanent HQ. After months of searching for the right combination of features, Daaku was born. Tucked away in a working boatyard in Penryn our premises are adorned with traditional Rajasthani decorations, old Bollywood posters, Indian artwork and photographs of India’s vibrant culture. The space has a large main dining area and a second smaller cocktail bar and reception serving our own mix of Indian themed drinks and local beers and ciders.
Read more about our Cornish Fusion story here on this Proper Cornwall Article