(CNN) – The term “Indian cuisine” encompasses a lot of ground. From the Himalayan peaks in the northern state of Uttarakhand to the tropical southwest coast of Kerala, each landscape has its own climate, history, trade links and religious practices. And each has a unique food culture.
While curry houses with standard menus are still popular, the world’s taste for tasty Indian food is evolving and includes lesser-known regional delicacies and bolder experimentation.
Indian chefs living around the world are fueling this growing movement, with menus celebrating their family heritage, while bringing new dimensions to traditional cooking techniques and recipes.
CNN spoke to five of these culinary ambassadors about the dishes that represent the delicious diversity of India to them.
Chef Jessi Singh: Buffalo milk kebab, Punjab
Chef Jessi Singh was born in Punjab, India, and grew up between Australia and America. He brings his unique culinary journey to modern Indian cuisine, including his signature buffalo milk kebabs.
When it comes to making a kebab, milk curd probably isn’t the first ingredient that comes to mind. But for Punjab-born chef and restaurateur Jessi Singh, this is the ultimate taste of home.
Crispy on the outside, with a soft, creamy center, kebabs made from curd, yogurt or paneer cheese are a popular appetizer in restaurants in North India.
Born in a farming village outside Punjab’s capital, Chandigarh, Singh met the dish – and key ingredients – at the source.
“Before I even turned 10, I knew how to milk the buffalo,” he says.
Singh takes charge of fermenting the milk for the kebabs at his restaurants in Australia, including Melbourne’s Daughter in Law and Don’t Tell Aunty in Sydney. Served with an orchid and bright pink beetroot sauce, his kebabs may not look like the meals he ate as a kid, but the vibrant colors represent Singh’s Punjab legacy in other ways.
“At home, color doesn’t associate with a gender, or a particular people, or a class,” he says. “Color belongs to everyone. You will see men wearing pink turbans, red shirts … We are a very, very colorful culture. So that’s what I put in my food.”
Chef Garima Arora: Millet roti, Telangana
Garima Arora is the first and only female Indian chef to earn a Michelin star for her restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. Now she’s putting the spotlight back on India, starting with Telangana – the South Indian state in which she was born.
Unhappy with her own groundbreaking accolades, Arora takes a different approach to ‘rewrite this story about Indian cuisine’.
“There was a big difference between the way Telangana eats in the city in rural Telangana and the Telangana tribe,” Arora says. “The idea was to take that and show it to the world.”
Arora gives millet a refined update as a roti tartlet, filled with creamy, chilled crab and fresh coconut. She says her “cold curry” makes you feel “like you’re eating something fresh, cool, earthy – all in one bite.”
Chief Deepanker Khosla: Mutton Biryani, Uttar Pradesh
Biryani is one of the most popular Indian dishes of all time. Chef Deepanker Khosla adds a new chapter to the layered history of biryani at his zero-waste restaurant in Thailand.
“My father has a beautiful vegetable garden,” says Khosla, “so harvesting our own produce, eating fresh, sustainable … this is tradition.”
A hydroponic system on the restaurant’s patio recycles rainwater to grow plants and tilapia fish, while all waste from the kitchen is recycled into fish food and compost.
The restaurant’s farm supplies nearly all of the produce for Khosla’s “neo-Indian” menu, a modern, high-end take on ancient Indian dishes.
It made its way into the cuisine of almost every region, each infusing the dish with its own flavors and techniques.
Khosla makes a version known as Awadhi biryani – a well-loved dish back home in Uttar Pradesh.
Slightly spiced pieces of mutton and rice are placed in a pot, sealed with dough and slowly steamed for hours, “dum pukht” style.
“Dum pukht means slow breathing, so you let the food breathe its own juices,” says Khosla.
With an ever-evolving menu that adapts to the seasonal produce that can be grown on the farm, Khosla is delighted to showcase authentic, regional recipes.
What we know about Indian cuisine is “not even the tip of the iceberg,” he says. “India has 22 different cuisines with more than 5,000 different dishes … I’m proud of that.”
Chef Palash Mitra: Fish curry, West Bengal
Chef Palash Mitra has mastered an array of South Asian delicacies in his Hong Kong restaurants. But for the West Bengal-born chef, one dish is closer to the heart: Bengali fish curry.
Fish is a staple in West Bengal cuisine largely because of its geography. Traversed by rivers that flow into the Bay of Bengal, the East Indian state has a huge variety of fish. And the importance of fish also contributes to ritual life.
“Whether it’s a funeral or a wedding, fish is an integral part of it,” said Palash Mitra, a chef born in West Bengal’s capital, Kolkata. “Fish is the symbol of a new life, the end of life. It is intertwined.”
As the culinary director of South Asian cuisine for the Black Sheep restaurant group in Hong Kong, Palash oversees four restaurants offering seafood dishes spanning the Indian subcontinent.
“The tandoori cobia … or the salmon … these are really very popular dishes,” he says.
But Bengali fish curry is the dish that is “very dear to my heart,” he says. Mitra cooks his mother’s recipe: moulting pieces, a South Asian carp, slowly simmered in a light broth, enriched with herbs, potatoes, cauliflower and tomatoes, and served with rice. He plans to put it on the menu this summer at his restaurant, Rajasthan Rifles on Victoria Peak in Hong Kong.
Chef Kuldeep Negi: Tandoori shrimp, Delhi
Spices are at the heart of all Indian food, and Chef Kuldeep Negi understands them better than most. In his Singapore restaurant, Negi serves a bite of his Delhi heritage – with a kick.
As a child, Negi’s mother took him to the market and taught him how to select and mix the spices.
“She’s very picky in choosing herbs, because India is a country with different seasons. So each season has different spices,” says Negi. “How to use them, when to add them to the dish, how long you are going to cook (them) – that’s very important.”
The art of mixing spices is still an important part of Negi’s cooking. While you’re more likely to grill chicken or lamb in the tandoors of landlocked Delhi, Negi wants to make the most of the seafood available in Southeast Asia.
For his signature dish, tandoori shrimp, he brings out the juicy, smoky flavors of the king prawns with his unique spice blend: saffron, turmeric and red chili powder mixed with rose petals, bleached cardamom and green cardamom.
“When you bite on that, you feel it, the freshness of the powders,” he says. “It’s all about the herbs.”