I thought I was going for a Chinese food festival. Instead, what I got was Kashmiri food. It was all rather disorienting till I made the Silk Route connection. Chef Li Peng, the hugely talented Chinese chef of Vasant Continental in New Delhi had put together a food festival of the Xinjiang region of China.…
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…
Flip through Facebook, and you’ll see that the rules of the boasting game appear to have altered slightly. Instead of your friends crowing about the Sacher Torte they enjoyed in Vienna, now it is about a Sambalpuri thali from Orissa or an incendiary meal from Rayalseema. 2016 must go down in history as the year…
“Our food has influences from Delhi and Lucknow, Rampur being equidistant from both cities,” Osama Jalali greets us at the door of the restaurant where his festival is in full swing. The Jalalis are from the principality of Rampur; in fact, Osama’s wife Nazia Khan is a Rohilla Pathan, a community well represented in the…
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…
The advantage about being a cake- chocolate- and cookie-maker who works flexi-time from the house is that there are no overheads and consequently, no compromises in quality or menu. Abha Kohli of Vasant Kunj is one of these. Her perfectionism comes through clearly, her menu is intentionally small and her prices unbelievably reasonable. She bakes…
For the last three decades or so, Delhi has been exposed to the glories of Kashmiri food. Or, to be more specific, wazwan. It is a banquet conjured up entirely of lamb and it is cooked by a community of caterers called wazas. Usually eaten at weddings and other celebratory occasions, it consists of gargantuan…
If you feel sad when nice guys finish last, the reverse must also be true: that you become ecstatic when nice guys finish first. Chef Amit Chowdhury, Executive Chef of Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi, is one of the nicest chefs I know. Completely non-political and with a disposition that would give a ray of…
Rathin Mathur has been a corporate honcho with two decades of experience behind him, but, as the saying goes, there’s no tie quite as strong as that of blood. So when he comes home after a tiring day in the office, he likes to relax by exchanging his blazer for an apron and getting into…
