Folk Food Is The Newest Luxury: Kapil Chopra’s The Postcard Hotels Show How It’s To Be Done. Plus: Mithai Goes Upmarket. Plus: First Lady of Concept Restaurants.
SOME YEARS AGO, Karan Singh, a hotelier I hold in great esteem, said to me that luxury is no longer about the kind of room or the bed that your top dollars get; instead, it’s all about the experience that you are served. Having put Jaisalmer on the luxury destinations map with Suryagarh and Bikaner […]
The Eclectic Epicure: Atal Bihari Vajpayee Loved Paranthe Wali Gali Fare As Much As House of Ming’s Prawn Salt and Pepper
I have taken the image from www.patrika.com. To go to the original page, please click on this link: https://www.patrika.com/gwalior-news/atal-bihari-vajpayee-best-hindi-poems-1-3263444/. ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE stood out after Indira Gandhi as the only prime minister who loved good food and understood it like a gourmet. Mrs Gandhi, though a light eater, was partial towards fine food in the […]
CSE Exposes The Rot: From Canola Oil to Silken Tofu, Food Products with Genetically Modified Ingredients Sold With Utter Disregard for the Law
THE COUNTRY’S leading research and advocacy body — Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) — has red flagged the widespread availability of food products with genetically modified (GM) ingredients. And this illegal business is being conducted through friendly neighbourhood kirana stores without the knowledge of the store owners and, of course, the consumers. The import, […]
As AD Singh Looks Overseas for Growth, He Talks About Revival of Fine Dining Closer Home
I FIRST met AD Singh, the consummate restaurateur behind the Olive Bar & Kitchen and Soda Bottle Opener Wala, 15 years ago, before he officially opened the Mehrauli outlet of his signature Bandra restaurant. Since then, we have met at least two or three times a year, so I caught up with him last week […]
‘Eat Right’ to be the Most Ambitious New National Initiative of India’s Food Regulator
IN THE EARLY 1990s, when I used to be health writer, Dr K. Srinath Reddy, one of the country’s foremost public health advocates, used to lament the absence of any concern for ‘lifestyle diseases’, especially those that are diet-related and hence reversible, in the public sphere. He would refer wistfully to the Nordic model of […]
Kapil Chopra Advises Restaurants on How Farming Data on Customer Preferences Can Be Next Game Changer
Eazy Diner Chairman Kapil Chopra today declared that restaurants, especially in long-standing five-star hotels, must give up their dependence on reservation diaries and embrace the digital world to be able to effectively utilise their capacity. The restaurant business is worth $48 billion, yet it is sometimes run in the most backward ways, Chopra said in […]
Dilip Puri’s Indian School of Hospitality Promises to Lift Hotel Management Education to a New High
WHEN Dilip Puri was heading Starwood in South Asia, before the mother company merged with Marriott International to create the largest hospitality behemoth in the world, he was known for being an institution builder, for he opened doors for brands such as W, Aloft and Four Points by Sheraton and laid the foundation for the […]
Absolut Rolls Out Tiger-Themed Second Indian Edition for Global Travel Retail to Raise Funds for Forest Guards
THE Swedish vodka brand Absolut, a subsidiary of the global alcoholic beverage giant Pernod Ricard, rolled out its second India-specific edition for the travel retail sector this past weekend at The Oberoi Vanya Vilas in Ranthambhore, Rajasthan. No. 1 in global travel retail sales and also the No. 5 best-selling liquor brand in the world […]
Tyranny of Uniformity Rules World’s 50 Best: In A List That Reeks of European Bias, Massimo Back as No. 1; Gaggan Rises to No. 5; Indian Accent Wallows at 90
I JUST LOVED the way Eater.com described the World’s 50 Best Restaurants as “a list famous for its historic exclusion of top female chefs; for its bias toward expensive, European-leaning tasting menu venues; and for not requiring judges to pay for their meals”. A bundle of predictability, hyped up by cities trying to draw higher […]
The Chef Gordon Ramsay Described as the ‘Antonio Banderas of Cooking’ On Maiden Visit to the Land of His Great-Grandfather
HE HAS been called the “Antonio Banderas of cooking” by Gordon Ramsay; he has dissed Jamie Oliver for tweeting a paella recipe with chicken and chorizo sausages (an unholy combination for Spaniards who love their national dish); he has held responsible positions in the kitchens of Ferran Adria, Marco Pierre White and Jason Atherton. Omar […]
Dildeep & Zorawar Kalra to Launch Seafood Restaurant with India’s First Champagne & Caviar Bar in Mumbai Today
JUNE 22 will mark the birth of the newest child in the Kalra family of restaurants, which is fast expanding into uncharted territories. Opening at the Palladium Mall in Mumbai tomorrow, Rivers to Oceans (R2O) will not only mark the formal entry of Dildeep Kalra, Zorawar Kalra‘s better half and operations chief, into the world […]
Delhi Finally Has A Vegetarian Restaurant It Can Keep Going Back To
Restaurant: Kiara Soul Kitchen Address: M-30, M-Block Market, First Floor, Greater Kailash-II Cuisine: Inventive Asian Vegetarian Meal for Two: Rs 2,200/=. Awaiting Liquor Licence. Dial: (011) 4036 7904 Timings: 12:30 PM to 03:30 PM; 07:30 PM to 11:30 PM EazyDiner Link: https://www.eazydiner.com/delhi-ncr/kiara-soul-kitchen-greater-kailash-gk-2-south-delhi-653446 THE OTHER DAY, as I was listing my go-to ‘North Indian’ (Mughlai/Punjabi) restaurants for […]
From Pirates to Prank, Inderjeet Singh Banga’s Amazing Journey from Obscurity to Awards
WHEN I first met Inderjeet Singh Banga at Prankster in Gurgaon, after much persuasion by nearbuy’s Ajay Singh, a big fan of his successful Pirates of Grill restaurants, I was struck by the ease with which he is able to strike a chord with a stranger. A conversation with him is like a taking a […]
High on Thai: Zorawar Kalra Smartens Up a Familiar Cuisine and Gifts New Landmark to Mehrauli
After creating signature brands such as Masala Library, Farzi Cafe and Pa Pa Ya, Zorawar Kalra has dished up another super-hit, Bo Tai, next to Olive Bar & Kitchen in Mehrauli FOR MOST of his life, Zorawar Kalra has lived in the substantial shadow of his father Jiggs Kalra‘s reputation as a food writer and […]
The Story of Daniel Humm, Chef of the World’s No. 1 Restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, Who’ll Have Delhi Eating Out of His Hands This Weekend
Daniel Humm, the Michelin three-starred Swiss-American chef who has taken Eleven Madison Park to the top of the World’s 50 Best, will be cooking for American Express Centurion Card owners at The Leela Palace New Delhi this weekend. IT IS the visibly voluptuous global spending power of our millionaires that has been drawing international chefs […]
AnnaMaya: German Chef with ‘Make in India’ Vision Creates a Winner Restaurant with Food Stories to Tell
WHEN I first met Alex Moser last year at a food awards event, he had been in India for barely a week and was already a worried man. “I have been asked to source 401 traditional ingredients for my hotel’s upcoming all-day restaurant, and I have been able to identify just five so far,” the […]
Delhi’s Must-Have Streetside Vegetarian Treats That Are Yet to Make It to Any List
Akbar had nine jewels who adorned his court; Delhi’s street food universe has many more, beyond the done and dusted favourites of Chandni Chowk and Jama Masjid. The city’s walking chronicler Anubhav Sapra shares his list of ten vegetarian haunts you cannot afford to ignore. ANUBHAV SAPRA, who moved to Delhi in 1999 as a student […]
Delhi Celebrates India: The Masala Trail by Osama Jalali and the Birth of a New Food Republic
If there’s one trend that will define Delhi’s cosmopolitan palate in 2017, it is its growing openness to our wealth of regional cuisines I GREW up in a Delhi where anyone from the South of the Vindhyas was a Madrasi who ate only idli-dosa-vada-sambar, where Biharis were the Harrys taking over Mukherjee Nagar, where Bongs […]
Meet the Man Who Launched Chor Bizarre 25 Years Ago — And Then Made History with Indian Accent
BACK IN 1990, Rohit Khattar was 27 years old, and running the popular Hotel Broadway at the point where Old and New Delhi intersect on Asaf Ali Road. Wanting to do more than just be the custodian of a family legacy, he was overcome by the idea of launching a restaurant that would be very […]
With Sahil Mehta’s Midas Touch, Cravity Promises to be Delhi-NCR’s Newest Go-To Gourmet Dessert Destination
AFTER consulting with The Artful Baker and Breads & More, and establishing his credentials as Delhi-NCR’s most inventive young pastry chef, Sahil Mehta has teamed up with 25-year-old Rachit Goil to launch Cravity, a 550-square-foot, 16-seater cafe and chocolate shop, at Hauz Khas in South Delhi, bang opposite the old Dr Dang’s Lab. An investor […]
DFS Rolls Out Red Carpet for Whisky Connoisseurs at Changi Airport
WHENEVER I am at an airport suffering a long layover, I remember the Tom Hanks character in Steven Spielberg‘s bitter-sweet film Terminal, who gets stuck at JFK for nine months after his fictional East European country is de-recognised by the United States following a military coup — he can’t, as a result, be allowed into […]
Soul Food at Attari: Chargha Chicken from Punjab Grill, Courtesan Tales & Songs of Peace at India’s Final Frontier
In the shadow of the BSF’s last outpost on the Amritsar-Lahore road, little over a kilometre away from a bunker of the Pakistan Rangers, we savoured the flavours of Punjab as the state’s favourite folk singer, Gurmeet Bawa, sang songs of peace. AMRITSAR resides in the imagination of all Indians as the city of the […]
AGRA STREET FOOD CHRONICLES: Gorging on the Road in the City of Love
IT IS one of history’s many ironies that Agra, which was the seat of Mughal India at the time of Akbar and Jehangir, and of Shahjahan for some years (from 1556 to 1658, to be precise), doesn’t have any visible legacy of the robust cuisine that we attribute to that era. This accident of history […]
A Discovery of Punjabi Cuisine in the Mustard Fields of its Heartland
A group of journalists from across the country, hosted by Punjab Grill, savour the depth and diversity of the Punjabi table beyond the stereotypical butter chicken THE world believes butter chicken and daal makhni are the two poles of Punjabi cuisine, with chhole-bhature somewhere in the middle of this sea of butter and cream. I […]
Why Bangalore is Blessed to Have Karavalli, Chef Naren Thimmaiah’s Garden of Gastronomy. Plus: At 94, MTR Looks Set to Score a Century, and More.
WITH Middle India’s palate rooting for local flavours, and with the glamourisation of the tastes and textures we have grown up with, the rise of regional specialities to national prominence was only to be expected. This national wave of nostalgia for ‘my grandmother’s kitchen’ owes its origin and sustenance to restaurants that have given a […]
It’s Time to Say Namaste Stockholm!
You’ll find a little bit of India in nooks of Stockholm, but that is not the only reason for you to go to the Swedish capital to recharge your batteries WHEN you’re at the Nobel Museum (http://www.nobelmuseum.se/) in Stockholm, a treasure house of inspirational knowledge despite its cramped location in the Old Town (), you […]
Vile Feni? Give Up That Stinking Thought and Shout Viva to the Cashew Liquor When You’re in Goa
FENI is not a drink you’d serve in polite company. Even back in the 16th century, when people were more accustomed to quaffing rough drinks, the Italian traveller, Ludovico de Varthema, wrote that feni “will affect a man’s head merely by smelling it, to say nothing of drinking it”. Having spent three days drinking it […]
Leisure Inn Grand Chanakya Revives Old Jaipur Favourite; Offers Starred-Hotel Comforts at No-Star Prices
IT’S A COMMON refrain of hoteliers at every industry meet to extol the virtues of branded budget hotels. They say this under-developed category, ignored by established hotel chains, caters to not only the vast domestic leisure market, but also mid-level executives travelling on work to Tier-II and Tier-III cities and towns. It’s all talk. None […]
World Champion Pizza Acrobat Twirls & Serves His Signature Pizzas at Mumbai’s JW Marriott
Pasqualino Barbasso, the Sicilian pizzaiolo from Cammarata, may be the pizza world’s ‘twirling dervish’, but he says he’s as good as the 70-odd original pizzas in his repertoire, which is why he’s so picky about his flour. Barbossa can be seen in action at the Mumbai JW Marriott’s Lotus Cafe (9:30 p.m.) and Mezzo Mezzo […]
Emirates Woos Busy Indian Market With New Menu to Tickle Regional Tastebuds
This article appeared this morning in the Traveller section of Mail Today. It transports more Indians abroad than any other carrier operating in the country. Now, Emirates has become the first international airline to cater for India’s diverse taste buds by introducing region-specific meals. Even Air-India hasn’t done it. NUMBER CRUNCHER 135K … Average no. […]
From ITC Maurya to Marriott’s Top Echelons: Rajeev Menon Shares His Career-Making Moments and Leadership Mantras at HOSI
WE ALL have our career-changing moments, but the kind Rajeev Menon, COO (Asia Pacific – Excluding Greater China), Marriott International, has had in his 27-year career as hotelier have not always been, to put it gently, a walk down the garden path. Back in 1989, when he was a management trainee at the ITC Maurya […]
Enter, The Indian Expat General Manager of an International Chain Hotel: Barun Jolly Moves to Indonesian City Close to Borobudur as Crowne Plaza GM
QUICK BITESWhere: Bor IT IS NOT unusual to find an ‘expat’ general manager of a hotel in any part of the world – in fact, there was a time when Swiss and German hoteliers were most sought after for this position – but it is hardly as common to find an Indian leading from the […]
Meet Amuleek Singh Bijral, Chaiwallah from Harvard, & Savour the Chai Point Success Story
India’s First Tea Chain Banks on Sustainability, Systems & Sexing Up Its F&B Menu AMULEEK SINGH BIJRAL discovered the power of the chaiwallah much before Prime Minister Narendra Modi. When he was an MBA student at Harvard Business School, Bijral was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and his class project, which he refined under the […]
World’s Leading Hospitality School Pitches Global Programme and Wellness Management to Indian Students
WHEN the global market research company, TNS, surveyed the top hiring managers of the international hospitality industry in 2013, Les Roches figured among the world’s leading three hotel management schools. It is hugely popular among Indians because unlike its competition, the venerable École Hôtelière de Lausanne, Les Roches is an English-medium institution located in the […]
ChefsRUs: Home Cooks are Dishing Up A Storm and Getting Five-Star Hotels to Align With Them
WHEN The Oberoi hotels held their annual chefs’ conclave in New Delhi less than a fortnight ago, the person who ladled out dollops of insights into the intricacies of Awadhi, Rampuri and Dehlavi cuisines was not an acknowledged master of five-star kitchens, but a soft-spoken homemaker from Old Delhi. Nazish Jalali moved from Rampur to […]
Hotelier and Art Investment Guru Kapil Chopra to Open Gallery at Lado Sarai’s Art Mile
KAPIL CHOPRA, President, The Oberoi Group, who heads the luxury hotel chain’s operations in India, is all set to open artdistrict XIII. It is the newest gallery on the ‘art mile’ in the gentrified south-west Delhi village of Lado Sarai and, as you’d expect a venture by Chopra to do, it will open with a […]
As Wasabi By Morimoto Turns 5 in New Delhi, Grand Master Hemant Oberoi Shares His Inspirations
A MEETING with Grand Master Chef Hemant Oberoi can only mean an explosion of new ideas. As we waited for journalists and bloggers to trickle in for the media lunch organised to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Wasabi by Morimoto at The Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi, he had me riveted by recalling how he, […]
BIZ BUZZ: Beer Cafe Dispenses 1.5m Pints of the Brew; Aims for 33 Outlets by 2014-End
Founder-CEO Rahul Singh, a former textile engineer and avid single malt collector, says his dream is to make his brand the “Starbucks of beer” CAFE Coffee Day and Starbucks are two names you’ll hear quite often in the course of a conversation with Rahul Singh, Founder-CEO, Beer Cafe. “Do you know how many CCDs are […]
Kunal Kapur Launches His Must-Have Cookbook For ‘A Chef in Every Home’ At Diya
WHEN Kunal Kapur was a kitchen trainee under the redoubtable Chef Arvind Saraswat at the Taj Palace, New Delhi, he had the most unnerving experience on the day each member of his batch was to present a three-course meal for evaluation by their guru. An eager-beaver, who made a mark on his first day at […]
Groupon India CEO Bets Big on F&B and Sees Internet on Mobile as the Top Story of 2014
Ankur Warikoo shares the spectacular success story of Group India, which in three years has extended to 12 cities, signed up 6,500-plus unique merchants (including 56 per cent repeats), and almost every major hotel and restaurant in the countryWHEN Groupon India teamed up with Delhi Gourmet Club last year to launch Delhicious Week, the challenge […]
After 28 years in active journalism, I have decided to quit the hurly-burly of daily newspapers and the joy of editing (massacring?) the copy of helpless souls, and become the master of my own time…
Sourish Bhattacharyya on Kapil Chopra Advises Restaurants on How Farming Data on Customer Preferences Can Be Next Game Changer
July 8, 2018 at 11:38 amRohit Dasgupta on Kapil Chopra Advises Restaurants on How Farming Data on Customer Preferences Can Be Next Game Changer
July 4, 2018 at 10:08 amSourish Bhattacharyya on Tyranny of Uniformity Rules World’s 50 Best: In A List That Reeks of European Bias, Massimo Back as No. 1; Gaggan Rises to No. 5; Indian Accent Wallows at 90
June 21, 2018 at 1:39 am