How Indian restaurants have got the world eating out of their hands

Manish Mehrotra, the star chef singularly responsible for making Indian Accent the country’s highestrated fine-dining restaurant, is one happy camper for two reasons. The first, of course, is the house-full response to his debut as author at the Jaipur Literature Festival launch of The Indian Accent Restaurant Cookbook. The second is the challenge ahead of him, namely, the launch of Indian Accent, New York. “In New York, nobody knows me, no one has heard my name,” Mehrotra said with his usual candour during an informal gathering of journalists to celebrate the cookbook.

Anonymity is not his only disadvantage. He’s also in one of the most competitive restaurants markets in the world where everyone in the business is vying for a Michelin star. But the thought of having to prove himself yet again has got Mehrotra all charged up. The good news, though, is that Indian Accent is not alone in trying to spread its wings outside our familiar shores. Punjab Grill, which has been riding on the back of its authentic pind da menu to grow steadily across India, has recently opened in Abu Dhabi and Bangkok.

And its chefs have launched a new brand called American Tandoor at Tysons Corner Center, one of the largest malls in the Washington,D.C. - Northern Virginia-Baltimore triangle, and according to Monica Bhide, the well-regarded food writer, the restaurant was packed on the day she first went to it, the service was friendly, and unlike most other Indian outlets, it did not deliver “toned down, tasteless dishes”.

Farzi Cafe, the hugely successful restaurant franchise spearheaded by Zorawar Kalra, is all set to open this year at the City Walk Phase 2 on Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, with “an Arabic-influenced global cuisine menu”. And TresInd, the Modern Indian restaurant that opened in Dubai last year to critical acclaim, is well on target to open a “Post-Modern Indian” restaurant named Carnival, also in Dubai.

Unlike diasporic Indian restaurants of the past, which came up mostly in the UK with the money of local investors, these are successful homegrown brands that are exploring new frontiers to target not only NRIs and travelling Indians, who are shockingly unadventurous about food(I am not talking here of the minuscule minority with an evolved palate), but also the growing number of people around the world who want to savour "real" Indian food.

Bhide, for instance, was most excited about the opening of Indian Accent and American Tandoor because she felt these restaurants would change once and for all the perception of Indian cuisine in her adopted country, where most people are convinced that we eat unpalatably hot and heavy food presented without finesse. By altering this perception, chefs such as Mehrotra, and his point man in New York, Vivek Rana (who’s the man to watch), Himanshu Saini, and Satinder Singh of American Tandoor (who’s all of 26) will be doing great service to the cause of our cuisine.

Conversely, for an upcoming chef such as Satinder Singh, working in a discerning and demanding market is a great opportunity to upskill oneself and also get exposed to the best ingredients from neighbouring farms and from across the world. With our restaurants going international, Indian chefs will gain both wisdom and stature.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)