CHENNAI: Have you ever imagined a benne dosa with hummus and garlic bharta, punugulu with hummus and podi, or a potato cutlet with apple sauce? At Rusi Rasa, chef and founder Harshitha Haunschild is playing with familiar South Indian flavours, bringing in influences from her years in San Francisco and Germany while keeping the food rooted in what she grew up eating. For her, the idea is simple: fusion should have a reason and innovation should still taste like home.
A Chennai girl, Harshitha studied visual communication and initially thought photography would be her career. She grew up cooking for family and spent time in the kitchen with her mother and grandmother. Still, becoming a chef was never part of the plan.
That changed during a shoot soon after college. Harshitha was assisting on a photography project when a woman chef walked in to style the food. Watching her work made Harshitha curious about the world behind the food she had always enjoyed. “I always cooked for my family and friends, but I never thought of taking it up as a profession,” she says.
At the time, she was planning to pursue a master’s in photography in the US. Instead, she chose to study culinary arts at the San Francisco Cooking School.
“It was very different from a regular cooking school. Chefs from across San Francisco would come and teach us, and we were exposed to the city’s food community. They discussed how chefs collaborate, support one another and contribute to the food scene. That stayed with me,” she says.
Harshitha went on to work as a chef in San Francisco. She returned to Chennai during Covid, when the restaurant industry had come to a standstill. The break was difficult and she admits that she lost some of her confidence as a chef. In late 2021, she joined Sage & Lavender Café in Alwarpet run by Shilpa Reddy. Working there helped her find her way back into the kitchen and also made her realise that she wanted to create something of her own. “Shilpa has inspired me immensely and given me the confidence to believe that one day, I could build something of my own too,” she says. Life took her to Germany too. Harshitha met her husband while she was studying in San Francisco, and after their marriage, she moved there. She now travels between Germany and India.
Back in Chennai, her family had another connection to food and hospitality of a different kind. Her parents and brother run SB Cinemas, a single-screen theatre in Poonamallee. When the family began discussing a new venture, the idea of opening a café within the theatre premises came up. “We decided to put the first outlet inside the theatre compound. Rusi Rasa was born from that idea. I wanted a South Indian café that felt familiar but did not simply repeat what was already available. I grew up eating at places like Saravana Bhavan and Sangeetha. My parents and grandparents also found comfort in those places. I wanted to bring a change to the South Indian café experience in Chennai,” she tells us.
The menu is where that comes through most clearly. Harshitha loved the benne dosa she ate in Bengaluru and created her version, adapting it to suit a Tamil palate. The recently introduced hummus bharta dosa, with hummus and garlic bharta tucked inside, has quickly become a favourite.
The snacks are just as playful. There is punugulu with hummus and podi, sweet bonda with caramel sauce, cheese-stuffed chilli bhajji with inji puli and salsa and potato cutlets served with apple sauce. Some of the ideas have come from her life in Europe. “Black sesame is used a lot in Europe, in ice creams, desserts and drinks. I thought, why not bring it into our menu? It’s healthy too,” she says.
But for Harshitha, unusual combinations work only when they respect the food they are built around. “For me, fusion should work if it is authentic to Tamil cuisine. That also influences how I source ingredients. Most of the produce and ingredients are sourced within Tamil Nadu, which allows our team to keep a closer eye on quality and make much of the food from scratch.”
For someone who started out wanting to photograph food, Harshitha has now found herself creating it, serving it and building a brand around it. Her experiences in three different food cultures have shaped the menu, but the starting point remains the food she grew up with.