Which came first – the chicken or the egg? And no, I’m not asking this with reference to the bird flu scare. It’s the first question I asked Chef Arun Tyagi, Corporate Chef of the MBD group of hotels when I visited a festival of breads that featured 100 different varieties. On the other hand,…
Delhi’s foodies are keeping their fingers — and palates — crossed that the trickle turns into a flood before long.Restaurants are opening at the rate of one a week. Most of these are of the stand-alone sort. Of these, Food Heritage in Hauz Khas Village is the brainchild of three young people. Sheemita Saxena’s first love may be sculpting,…
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,…
When Ismail Merchant brings back souvenirs from his many travels, he doesn’t put up them up on his drawing room shelves but in the refrigerator. For Merchant is at once a gastronome, a citizen of the world, a film-buff and a film-maker. His varied interests show up as much in the spread he lays out for…
Traditional Srinagar, isolated by militancy for the past decade, is reinventing itself in the cyber age. A halfway house between the old city of Srinagar and its plusher areas, Dalgate is a colourful tumult of brick buildings, shops crammed with tourist kitsch, and a road too narrow by far to handle its traffic. Here, poised…
Ever wondered about the planning that goes into a restaurant? “It’s not unlike having a baby” chorus husband and wife team of Janis Fraser and Sumer Arora. When Janis and Sumer decided to go into the food business, they called in food consultants Under One Roof to thrash out a concept, plan a menu, design…
If you don’t wish to see a steamed up Chef Olaf Niemeier, try and refrain from muttering the mantra of fusion cuisine before him. “It’s become almost a term of abuse,” he explains of the trend, and pleads: “Please don’t refer to my style as fusion.” Eclectic international then, you say to yourself, mentally agreeing…
It’s dinner time at the Oberoi’s La Rochelle and to do justice to the candle-lit ambience, Chef Jean Marc Gonzales has traded his toque for more suitable evening-wear. His attention, however, is riveted by the plates of food arriving at the next table. It’s easy to see the single passion that runs like a thread…