By Sourish Bhattacharyya
DELHI is experiencing an efflorescence of dining like it has never
seen before. Today, it can lay claim with justification to the mantle of being
the country's 'gourmet capital' -- a crown that Mumbai regarded as its
birthright.
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| Rahul Akerkar (right), seen unwinding with his star executive chef, Jaydeep Mukherjee, is yet another established Mumbai restaurateur (after AD Singh, Riyaz Amlani and Jay Singh) who has recognised the potential of Delhi, which he describes as a "well-heeled, well-travelled, consuming market". |
I am using 'gourmet' not in the stuffy sense of the word, but
to signify an informed interest in good food, irrespective of its provenance,
whether from a hole in the wall that has stood the test of time or from a
white-tablecloth restaurant that is the rage of the season. Delhiites like to
eat and spend good money on food (as Mumbai's favourite restaurateur Rahul
Akerkar of Indigo once described the city me, "Delhi is a consuming
market, a well-heeled market"). And can they be opinionated about food and
hold forth on it (mostly intelligently) for hours!
Go to Facebook and you'll see in abundance this side of
Delhi. And just as you start thinking that you've seen the last of the food
groups on Facebook, another one pops up with its own fan following. There are
people who deride these culinary churnings as exercises in narcissism, as
outpourings of extremely boring people who live in some la-la land, but isn't
that true of people who are passionate about politics, films and sports?
Delhi's long march from the days when it used to be derided as
the Republic of Butter Chicken is being reflected in the new wave of
restaurants thriving across the city and now, increasingly, Gurgaon. I remember
AD Singh, the brain behind the national success of Olive Bar & Kitchen,
saying to me in 2004 that "Delhi goes to a restaurant to eat; Mumbai, to
see and be seen." He was very nervous, in fact, before opening Olive Bar
& Kitchen in Mehrauli, despite the success of its philosophy of laidback
fine-dining in Mumbai, because he was certain Delhiites would judge the new
restaurant primarily on what they got to eat, not the looks or the vibes. The
city's fabled love of good food, and the lengths it can go to be adventurous,
is mirrored in the new restaurants mushrooming all over, powered by imaginative young restaurateurs such as Zorawar Kalra, whose Farzi Cafe is the most anticipated restaurant launch scheduled for July.
Delhi was the country's first city to have a Spanish and a
Thai restaurant with expat chefs -- Esmeralda (1986) and Thai Pavilion (1992),
respectively, at The Oberoi -- but these turned out to be flashes in the pan. Its
love for the unfamiliar and the authentic, this time round, is here to stay and
get more intense as more restaurants open to cater to this gastrolust.
Delhi today has in Indian Accent the country's finest
'Inventive Indian' restaurant. It has India's first and only conveyor-belt sushi restaurant, which was started by Varun Tuli, whose calling card is his commitment to his calling, some eight or so years ago after he had just returned from higher studies at an American university. Delhi has also become the second home to regional
cuisines -- from stalwarts such as Oh Calcutta, Punjab Grill, City of Joy, Saravanah Bhawan
and Delhi Karnataka Sangha to newbies like Carnatic Cafe (New Friends Colony)
and Yeti: The Himalayan Kitchen (Greater Kailash-II, M-Block Market), to the
north-eastern quartet of Jokai (Assam Bhawan), The Nagaland Kitchen and Rosang
Cafe (Green Park Extension), and Dzukou (Hauz Khas Market), to the Cyber Hub
Gurgaon's quartet of Made in Punjab, Soda Bottle Opener Wala, Dhaba by Claridges
and Zambar, and Bernardo's, Delhi-NCR's lone flag-bearer of Goan food a little
farther away.
This passion to go regional now expresses itself even in
global cuisines showcased in the city. Before Neung Roi opened at the Radisson
Blu Plaza, Mahipalpur, did anyone care about the geographical divisions of Thai
cuisine? Or did anyone have the foggiest on Emilia-Romagna till Artusi opened
at the city's new foodie destination -- M-Block Market, Greater Kailash-II --
and popularised the region's cuisine? Today, we have what no one would have
wagered on not even five years ago -- a thriving French restaurant (Rara Avis),
a second outlet of the Spanish eatery Imperfecto, two more chef-driven
restaurants to give the grande dame
Diva company (Nira Kehar's Chez Nini and Julia Carmet De Sa and Jatin Mallick's Tres),
and a neighbourhood Japanese restaurant (Guppy by Ai). Welcome to the Gourmet
Capital!
FINE DINING UNDER THE
METRO
IT'S A great feeling to be able to sit below a Metro line and
have a fine meal without being shaken by the rattle and rumble of trains,
looking out to a garden shielding you from the bustle of one of the city's busiest
commercial complexes -- Nehru Place. I was at Fio Cookhouse & Bar, smacking
my lips after a soul-warming portion of broccoli raviolo soup, in Epicuria, the
country's first community food mall inside a Metro station.
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| Fio Cookhouse & Bar, without doubt, is the finest restaurant at the successful Epicuria food mall at Nehru Place |
The brainchild of entrepreneur Vivek Bahl, Epicuria has
transformed the Nehru Place Metro station into a destination. And with four
lead attractions besides Fio -- the hugely popular nightclub Flying Saucer,
Starbucks, Karim's and India's first Benihana (despite mixed reviews!) -- it
has brought home the idea of dining at a Metro station. Epicuria, thankfully,
will soon have three or four clones across Delhi, starting with the Airport
Metro station at Connaught Place.
Fio at Epicuria turned out to be a real discovery, for I had
last visited the original restaurant at the Garden of Five Senses in Said-ul
Ajab, and was piqued by its attempt to balance Indian and Italian menus. The
combination seems to have worked for its owner, Vineet Wadhwa, a 1980 graduate
of the Institute of Hotel Management, Pusa (New Delhi), who spent his green
years in the hospitality business under the tutelage of A.N. Haksar, ITC's
first Indian chairman.
At Epicuria, Fio is a tad more Italian with a food library
look. Its collection of culinary books neatly stacked in towering racks
accentuate the sense of walking into a retreat where food for physical
sustenance competes with food for the mind. After 11, though, the place transforms
into a party zone for the hip and young where new genres of music rock the
scene.
I haven't checked out Fio's desi menu, but sharing the chef's table, I was won over by the peri
peri olive chicken noisette and the petit roesti (a nifty cocktail snack)
loaded with butter beans, portobello mushroom, artichoke, caramelised onion and
cheese phyllo, followed by the basil lime steamed fish with balsamic butter,
the forest mushroom risotto with asparagus broth, and finally, the
unforgettable Viennese chocolate mousse.
A BEEHIVE OF ATTRACTION
A NUMBER of tall buildings have natural beehives, but it
takes a manager who thinks out of the box to turn one into a tourist attraction,
which is what has happened to the beehive thriving on the ledge overlooking a
glass pane on the 11th floor of Pullman Gurgaon Central Park.
To draw attention to the beehive, the hotel has put up a plastic
sign on the window, which tells us, among other things, that a beehive can
produce up to 27 kilos of honey in a good year. I doubt if anyone has ever
attempted to extract honey out of the beehive tucked away in a corner of the
hotel's exterior wall that even a spiderman would find hard to negotiate, but
it has become a tourist magnet.
Not a guest passes by without shooting a picture of the
beehive, or taking a selfie with the beehive appearing to rest like a crown on
top of the head. Touches like these can make even anonymous corners of hotels
become conversation points.
This column first appeared in Mail Today on June 19, 2014. Copyright: Mail Today Newspapers
This column first appeared in Mail Today on June 19, 2014. Copyright: Mail Today Newspapers
