QUICK BITES: Zorawar Kalra Plans 45-Item Buffet for Made in Punjab

Zorawar Kalra’s Cool Quotient. Culinary legend Jiggs Kalra’s son Zorawar is determined to win his generation — the 20- and 30-somethings — over to Indian cuisine by lifting its cool quotient. This is the generation that sees Indian cuisine as being heavy and uncool, so Zorawar’s Made in Punjab chain of restaurant will be hip (you can ask for an organic lassi and get one) and VFM (his target average per cover is Rs 575), and it will have the most generous Indian buffet ever laid out by any restaurant. The Made in Punjab buffet will have 45 items, all served in cast-iron pots designed by the French company Le Creuset. By keeping curries and biryanis in these pots, Zorawar will ensure neither gets overcooked, which is a common complaint with chafing dishes.

Zorawar Kalra: Making Indian food hip for the young

False Alarm on Indian Accent: I am sorry I got the Indian Accent story wrong in my hurry to be 'first with the news'! A spokesperson for Old World Hospitality has clarified that Indian Accent is moving nowhere and that Alive, the restaurant of the Philippines-based spa resort, The Farm, is not opening at The Manor. The Farm, as we had reported earlier, will however manage the members-only spa opening soon at The Manor. My views on the popularity of Indian Accent and the celebrity status of the self-effacing Master Chef Manish Mehrotra remain unchanged.

Olive Beach R.I.P.? Are the bells tolling for Olive Beach at Hotel Diplomat in New Delhi’s exclusive neighbourhood, Sardar Patel Marg? The buzz in town is that the AD Singh restaurant, which seems to have lost its edge and is showing signs of premature aging, is on its way to being shut down. AD, anyway, has his hands full with Guppy by Ai and the upcoming first Olive Café and Delhi-NCR’s first Irani restaurant at The Hub in the DLF Cyber Park. Of course, this is unconfirmed news, so this may not be the last of what you hear about it.