Modern Japanese/Korean Chef Akira Back was the first Korean executive chef for a Nobu restaurant. His own brand incorporates influences from his native Korea. Atmospherics: After waiting so long to open, JW Marriott at Aerocity has spectacular offerings, but Akira Back tops them all. One American and one Korean chef in the open kitchen, ably…
VLCC is not a company that you associate with food and beverage. However, Alive is not about either health food or diet food, or even organic food. Alive is about healthy eating. Thus, all the sauces that are based on roux (butter and flour: in other words, the basic white sauce) are made with wholewheat…
Almost as good as your own dining room Formerly the Aman, the hotel has reverted to being the Lodhi. Elan is the dining room for Indian and western comfort food. For elegant dining there’s On the Waterfront near the entrance gate. The mood is cosy more than imposing – the diametric opposite of On the…
The problem with English food is that it has either been looked upon as comfort food, or the poor (and boring) country cousin of its Continental neighbour. In other words, food for the nursery as in roly poly pudding, or a cuisine that had so little intrinsic worth that it borrowed its national dish from…
2007 was the Year of the Chinese Restaurant. Some whoppers opened this year, among them, China Kitchen and China House in Hyatt Regency Delhi and Grand Hyatt Mumbai respectively, My Humble House at ITC The Maurya Luxury Collection, Hao Shi Nian Nian and Noo Ba in Gurgaon each with a slew of chefs from Sichuan…
The trouble with reviewing Italian restaurants in the city is that after you’ve made your way to Diva, none of the others even begin to match up. It is, quite simply, the finest around. It’s a fine dining restaurant, so if you’re in the mood for just a pizza, you’ll be better off elsewhere: though…
Last fortnight saw major happenings in the tiny world of coffee bars. Barista announced its willingness to be bought out, Starbucks is – finally – poised to enter the country and Barnie’s made its entry into the country, the first outlet being in the National Capital Region. That means that Barista, Café Coffee Day, Coffee…
Last Sunday, a friend and I were having an animated discussion about where in Delhi one goes for the best butter chicken. Rahul said Mini Mughal; I said Swagath. Many other suggestions came up and were shot down. Both of us thought that Moti Mahal had no consistency between branches; that dhabas got the dish…
The next time you’re in Goa, if you want to stir up hornet’s nest, try asking a group of house wives for the exact recipe of Goan fish curry. have a riot on your hands in no time at all. The exact details of the recipe may elude you — whether the Gherkin-like bimblim, tamarind,…
The first time I heard about the mystery spice must have been around 1998. I had just started writing about food, when a youthful chef from Taj Coromandel, Chennai, came visiting Delhi for a Chettinad food festival. He showed me the spices necessary to make the iconic Chettinad chicken, and there it was, nestled amidst…