Home - Marryam H Reshii

About Me...

I have been writing about food and travel for longer than I care to remember. I have written for magazines and newspapers about my twin passions: food and travel. My ‘best’ meals have been the ones in palatial surroundings cooked by Michelin starred chefs, but also those of bajra rotis and ground chillies under the stars in a village in Banni, Kutch. I hope this site fully captures the sheer sweep of life from 1987 to the present times. All published articles that date before 2000 are in Vintage. All reviews of existing restaurants as well as those that have closed, are in Reviews.
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About this site

Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.
― Ruth Reichl

I first started writing as a profession in 1987. For the last 15 years, I have written exclusively about food. It is a vast subject, and my weekly column in Times of India is just one aspect of food. Ingredients, spices, utensils, regional cuisines, grandma’s secret recipes, five star hotels and their chefs, the chaat-walas in the bylanes of Delhi’s Chandni Chowk and Lucknow’s Hazratganj – all are equal contributors to this impossibly rich medley. I hope this site does justice to all of them.

Recent Articles

360 degrees
December 29, 2020

State of the Art in Kashmir
December 22, 2020

Canton Capers
December 21, 2020

A Century of Ahdoos
December 17, 2020

The Bikers’ Cafe

Nothing macho about this place! Serving One plate meals: Indian, western, oriental Atmospherics: When you see the signage outside the building, it feels like it would be on the mezzanine or first floor. It’s not: it is on the ground floor and the entrance is directly under the escalator. I visited on a Sunday afternoon,…

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The case for and against branded restaurants

I’ve done nothing but gossip these last few days. And the results have been fascinating. But first things first. In the last one year alone, three major restaurant brands have opened in the country. Hakkasan made its appearance in Mumbai and Le Cirque in Delhi. Very soon, Megu is going to open, in Delhi, on…

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China Club

Gracious dining amidst a rash of cacophony Serves authentic Sichuan Chinese Atmospherics: kudos to the management of this 14 year old restaurant that is as pristine today as the day it opened its doors. It has always had three Sichuan chefs in the kitchen. The tastes are closer to our desi palate than many other…

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On a coffee estate in Coorg

The lunch that was hosted by Sagar and Kavita Muthappa at their well-appointed estate bungalow served as a house-warming for the Muthappa’s family and friends. Coorgs or Kodavas (“But please don’t go calling us Coorgis!” Sagar Muthappa warns me, mock-threateningly) are a close-knit community, with members of each extended family thinking up excuses for periodic…

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The Mystique of Mangoes

On my first visit to the Louvre in Paris, I was determined to look at the Mona Lisa in its original form. I was unprepared for the crowds in the Italian Art section of the museum, which were far greater than in any other part of the Louvre. After attaching myself to the longest line…

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Desi Roots

A playful, unpretentious approach to desi dining Atmospherics: On the ground floor in the mall mile of Saket, just next to the eye-popping Harley Davidson showroom, your car can drive up right to the front door of this brand new restaurant. It is composed of three sections: the lounge that looks like drawing-room, a narrow…

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Kashmiri Dishes That Are Fast Disappearing From the Valley

I married my Kashmiri husband twenty-five years ago. When our entire family settles down to talk about the ‘old days’, meaning around 45 years ago when my husband and his siblings were children, it is almost as if they refer to a different place. For one, our daily meals at home revolve around rice, the…

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The Cachet of Chocolate

When Andreas Roesing, Pastry Chef of the Grand Hyatt Delhi, visited friends in the French town of Tain-l’Hermitage, his chief memory was the all-pervasive aroma of chocolate in the air. “Every time we’d open the door, it would envelope us. I can hardly remember anything else from that trip.” Chef Roesing may have been visiting…

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SIAL: the French Gastronomy Exhibition

Salon International de l’Alimentation, better known as SIAL, just concluded in Villepinte, Paris. No matter where you looked, you couldn’t have missed the Indian contingent, and I’m not referring to exhibitors like Satnam Overseas. We were a motley bunch of executive chefs and F & B Managers, importers and food writers, looking at what France…

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Aish

There are not too many restaurants dedicated to Hyderabadi food anywhere in the country, and even fewer that are dedicated to royal Hyderabadi cuisine, which is so painstaking that it was more or less fated to wither into oblivion. All that remains in the city of its birth is a motley collection of unpretentious eateries…

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Seafood

Understanding the top segment of the seafood market Farmed versus natural: there’s no doubt about it, wild seafood is in another class altogether. Wild fish (and other creatures of the deep) have specific habitats and feeding patterns. Some tuna, for instance, swim for hundreds of miles during their lifetime, often against the current. Not a…

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The cuisine of the Royal House of Sailana

Enough attention has never been paid to the heritage of royal cuisine. Now is a good time, before it gets shrouded in the mists of the past. Palaces and havelis still exist; the people who once inhabited them still live on, although in vastly different circumstances. Look hard enough and you’ll even find jewellery and…

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Lesser Known Spots of Kashmir

Every destination acquires its own tourist treadmill and Kashmir is no different. Touristic clichés are a wonderful thing in most cases: when you are pressed for time, a quick drive through all of them, and you can safely tick the boxes. While it would be rather eccentric to miss out on quintessential Kashmir via Mughal…

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The Olive Growing World

Spain has a population of 30 million people and 300 million olive trees, the highest in the world. Tunisia has a population of 10 million and 70 million olive trees. It is Greece that has the highest olive oil consumption in the world, because olive trees grow in all parts of the country: in Italy,…

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Dining Out in Chennai

If there ever was a model restaurant city in India, it would have to be Chennai. It has always been thought of as uber traditional, but in the last three years, the number of hotels, their grandeur and the sheer wealth of food and beverage concepts puts every other city in India to shame. One…

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Nine things to do in Bangkok

I’ve been to the City of Angels several times, and I’ve discovered that even more important than “what to do” is the question of what not to do when time is short. This is my pick of the most interesting things that Bangkok has to offer. It is easy to suggest ninety things to do…

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Eating a Bit of Culture

The Commonwealth Games are sure to flood Delhi’s restaurants with foreign patrons. Why not take a cue from South East Asian restaurants and treat them to spot of Indian culture while they’re tucking in? Now that the Commonwealth Games are round the corner, I wonder how many hoteliers and restaurateurs have given much thought to…

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Vishalla

Eest

Eest in Westin Gurgaon embodies the eternal dilemma of international hotel chains in India. Whether to have expatriate chefs or Indian for their Chinese/oriental restaurant. And if the former, whether to take the cuisine to stratospheric levels or keep it suitably dumbed down for the local palate. Eest has not one but five expatriate chefs…

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Visionnaire Cafe

Cuisine: Italian Blurb: Straight from Milan is this café next door to a designer furnishings showroom. Visionnaire Café really does try to make a difference in Gurgaon. Especially in terms of the concept: a café next door to a luxury furniture showroom selling the designs of Ipe Cavalli and Fendi. Both are prototypes of the…

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Cooper’s Grill and Bar

Cuisine: American Blurb: It has much going for it but needs a bit of refining to realize its full potential Intro: This brand new eatery is the brainchild of two hospitality professionals who know their onions, so expect it to get better and more polished over time. Atmospherics: This is where the restaurant falters. It…

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Diva

This empress of Greater Kailash II periodically undergoes extensive renovation, but this time around, it has become a new restaurant altogether. The ground floor with its wood-fired oven and semi open kitchen has turned into a café, in the style of Café Diva in Greater Kailash I, N Block Market. Visibly less formal than Diva…

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Zanotta

“Never change a winning formula” goes the conventional wisdom and certainly the current formula at Zanotta seems to be working well for the Leela Kempinski Gurgaon. It is billed as an Italian restaurant, has its own wine library, is open only for dinner and was crowded to capacity on a Monday evening. On the other…

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Cafe Ludus

Cuisine: Mostly Mediterranean Blurb: Where the food and the interiors both try to make a difference Intro: In place of ai, the Japanese restaurant, MGF Mall has a new entrant. With spacious interiors (do check out the funky toilets) and a sprawling terrace, it is a treat to visit. Atmospherics: The term Ludus is supposed…

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The A to Z of Punjab Grill

In the universe of the food and beverage world, you will see several restaurant models that keep playing out, over and over again. One is the family-owned restaurant where the colour scheme has not been changed since the ‘80s. The other is the modern bar that opens in January and has shut in November, after…

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Kashmiri Kitchen

It is probably unique in the annals of Kashmiri commercial food, but two ladies have got together to set up a take-away kitchen and a tiny restaurant in Delhi. For anyone who is familiar with Kashmir, it sounds like an impossibility. Every last waza in the Valley is male, and unlike most other towns and…

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Chefs and their ‘Out of the Box’ Creations

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The Austerity of Maharashtrian Food

Don’t underestimate Chef Prakash Pawaskar of Trident, Nariman Point, Mumbai. In the outwardly unassuming Executive Sous Chef lurks a connoisseur of the cuisine of Maharashtra in all its Spartan glory. Pawaskar’s links with the food of his home state go back to the time of Shivaji as a matter of fact: his father-in-law, from the…

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Newcomers in the Hospitality World

They’ve come, they’re conquering. Here are five new hospitality honchos, ready to take Delhi by storm Emmanuel Guemon Emmanuel Guemon, Executive Chef, Leela Kempinski Gurgaon: This is Chef Guemon’s second stint in India, the first being over 10 years ago in Amar Vilas, Agra. Every executive chef of every hotel in the world has a…

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Fratelli Wines and Tuscan Flavours

Meeting Chef Francesco Costagli is a revelation because of the refreshing perspective he brings to his kitchen. He was born not far from the village of Castellina in the Chianti region, and Castellina is where his Michelin-starred restaurant is. Costagli’s zero kilometre cuisine is a concept that he has worked on, virtually since the start…

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Chicken 65

“Chicken 65 a typically Bangalorean dish,” restaurateurs of that city will tell you with supreme conviction, “called so because you ought to be able to cut the chicken into 65 pieces.” Hyderabadis, on the other hand, believe that Chicken 65 was born in their city. “65 is the number of spices that used to be…

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100 years of Restauranting in Delhi

It was the year of the Great Darbar, 1911. A young man from the outskirts of Delhi thought he spied an opportunity to earn a living. He moored a push-cart near Gate Number One of the Jama Masjid, and served dal as well as meat and potatoes with freshly made rotis. Business boomed: he was,…

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Karavan

Atop a flight of stairs from behind the Defence Colony market is a curious little restaurant. It’s a radical departure from the plush, impersonal eateries that typify those in this market. This one is run by the owner and her family: they take orders, clear plates, set tables and work in the kitchen. Not surprisingly,…

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Sunday Brunch

Few things are as pleasant as sitting out under the sun on a Sunday afternoon in winter, sipping champagne and going through the one meal of the week that doesn’t have to be hurried. It’s what residents of other metros like best about Delhi – winter, and our determination to enjoy it to the fullest.…

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Invasion of the Food Brigade

It’s reasonable to expect that expat chefs are essential if the quality of five-star cuisine is to remain international When chef Gabriele Montevechhio of Hyatt Regency’s La Piazza is called out of the kitchen by guests, he generally knows what is ,in store for him. “I get so many puzzled enquiries from guests wanting to…

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Baluchi: A Culinary Gem

If you are looking for a delectable spread of authentic Indian cuisine, Baluchi is just the place to be Okay, so it’s not fashionable – the live music at dinner-time is a conversation stopper and children run riot in its homely interiors, but Baluchi at InterContinental The Grand serves some real gems. I challenge you…

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About Me...

About this site

Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious. ― Ruth Reichl

Recent Articles

Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.
― Ruth Reichl