FORTUNE COOKIE: How Delhi Became India's Gourmet Capital

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.

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.

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

Indigo Deli Wows Delhi in its Opening Weekend; Its Wafer Thin Pizzas are the Show Stoppers

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

No-nonsense comfort food: Indigo Deli's
Eggs Benedict comes sitting on two
generously proportioned slices of ham

I WAS at Delhi's first Indigo Deli on the opening night with a young man who has spent a considerable length of time in America. It was a night when a freak dust storm had wreaked havoc on the city, turning trees and street lights into mangled skeletons. At Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, where Indigo Deli is located on the third floor, one of the three air-conditioning plants had broken down because of the storm and the roof above Kylin Premier's popular Sky Bar had blown away. Indigo Deli had arrived with a storm in its wake, and as we were to find out later, it has taken Delhi by storm.

My young dinner-mate had said he would judge Indigo Deli by the standards of New York. At the end of the meal, he declared with a little touch of drama: "Indigo Deli has brought New York to New Delhi." I agreed. Like the minestrone soup, which I polished off with the hungry passion of Oliver Twist, Indigo Deli owes its reputation to its ability to serve the simple joys of life without compromising on authenticity.

The pastrami in its Reuben sandwich (the original recipe has corned beef) is cured at the restaurant for 21 days and is teamed up with sauerkraut and Swiss cheese, and then grilled in rye bread with Thousand Island dressing and gherkins. It's a New York specialty, though there's also a theory that it was invented by a German immigrant in Omaha, Nebraska.

The bagel and lox is prepared just
the way it is served in New York
 

I was reading a delightful article on this subject by Craig Claiborne of The New York Times, when I realised that the famous food critic of his generation named his column De Gustibus, which is also the name of the company created by Indigo Deli's first couple, the gregarious Rahul and Malini Akerkar. It reminds us of the famous Latin maxim, "De gustibus non est disputandum" (In matters of taste, there can be no disputes). All gourmets must make this the motto of their life so that they just enjoy food and not split hairs about it!

That's what Indigo Deli lets you do. There's a congeniality about the place that draws you in. It lets you engage in a meaningful conversation with friends as the warm yet unobtrusive waiters, whose smiles come naturally, serve you your order. It is comfort food that you get, but done with care and affection.

The Eggs Benedict sit on a pair of fat slices of ham and nicely toasted English muffins, bathed in a generous dollop of hollandaise. The juicy BBQ chicken in the Seriously Sloppy Joe, which comes in a baguette, complements the molten cheddar and the Deli's priceless mustard -- diverse tastes and textures make a great tag team in each of the Deli's top-sellers. The BBQ sauce works its magic on your taste buds one more time when you order the spare ribs and the meat just melts in your mouth -- perfect with the warm and welcoming corn bread it comes with. Talking about the condiments, each sandwich or burger comes with a little pot of honey mustard on the side that'll make you want to buy the entire stock. Yes, you can buy breads, and more, after you've had a meal at Indigo Deli.

But the show stoppers, without doubt, are the wafer thin pizzas. We ordered the Deli carbonara with crispy sage and molten parmesan and we just couldn't stop drooling over it. At another table, people were behaving in the same way with their pizza topped up with Parma ham, asparagus and scamorza. The menu has been engineered in a way that it gives you multiple reasons to keep coming back -- one time for breakfast, the next time for sandwiches, then for the pizzas and ice-cream, and then for the more serious stuff, like the 250gm chunk of char-grilled filet mignon with red wine sauce.

Akerkar will be flying in and out to inspire his Delhi team ("I'll be busy collecting frequent flyer miles," he says); his A-team from Mumbai is here to ensure that we are not denied the original Indigo Deli experience, so there are more waiters and the service is super-efficient; and Jaydeep Mukherjee, a Taj product who has been with Akerkar for 13 years, has come down to help the kitchen tide over its startup issues. Indeed, Indigo Deli is indulging Delhi. Let's savour our special position while we can, and give Akerkar the rousing welcome he deserves.

Get Ready to Welcome Indigo Deli at Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, But What Happened to Indigo?

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

Mumbai's star restaurateur,
Rahul Akerkar, has not had the
smoothest of starts in Delhi,
but he's hoping to make up
for lost time and keep his
staff morale intact by launching
Indigo Deli at the Ambience
Mall, Vasant Kunj

IT'S A PITY most people assume that Indigo Deli, which is formally opening tomorrow (May 30) at the Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, is Indigo Delhi. If Mumbai's star restaurateur, Rahul Akerkar, had the freedom to act according to his Delhi expansion plan, he was to launch Indigo, the restaurant that's won every award and accolade possible, sometime in mid-January.

He was to make a grand opening at the urban renewal project, an arts and entertainment space that was to have transformed what used to be an open drain opposite the Hyatt Regency, in the shadow of Netaji Nagar. And he was to roll out Indigo Deli, starting with the second floor of Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, in the space formerly occupied by Zambar, only after Indigo settled down as "a 'back-to-basics' address that will serve up eclectic modern European fare, coupled with an expansive bar and a private dining section". Indigo Deli will be next door to Pizza Express, which is the next high-profile opening to watch out for at Ambience Mall.

But for some mysterious reason, the area, which was blessed by the Sheila Dikshit government and is being developed by the father-and-son duo of Sanjeev and Samegh Batra, has been in suspended animation ever since Dikshit got a drubbing in the Delhi Assembly election, even though Delhi Metro has been constructing buildings next door at a frenetic pace. Was the previous government's showcase project not a priority for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) dispensation that followed? If that were the case, why did Lt-Governor Najeeb Jung not push it after the fall of AAP? No one is ready to share the real story.

"You know how officials work," was Sanjeev Batra's first response when I asked him about the delayed project. "But we will be up and running in a month," he added. Batra has been the man behind such significant heritage rejuvenation-cum-restaurant development projects at Mehrauli such as Olive Bar & Kitchen and The Kila, where blueFROG has re-opened, though after giving up the associated cafe and restaurant spaces.

Batra said that when it became clear the urban renewal project wasn't taking off according to the time-table they were working on, Akerkar came to him and shared his desire to launch Indigo Deli before Indigo. He had hired staff for Indigo and they had been trained in Mumbai, but they had no restaurant in sight, which was clearly a dispiriting prospect. He had to do something to retain his staff, which was why he fast-forwarded Indigo Deli, which is best known for its salads, burgers, sandwiches and ice-creams, and of course, its delicatessen.

"I feel a tinge of sadness, but when Indigo finally opens opposite the Hyatt Regency, the grandness of the setting and the cuisine that has given the restaurant its share of international acclaim will have their desired effect," Batra said, striking a hopeful note. For the sake of the city, we wish him luck! Delhi deserves an Indigo, as much as it can do with an Indigo Deli. Neighbouring Mistral's Mayank Tiwari has serious competition on his hands and even Chili's may experience some loss of lustre.

Gaggan's is Asia's No. 3 & Continent's Best Indian Restaurant; Indian Accent Rises 12 Notches, But At No. 29, Behind Bukhara's No. 27

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

WHEN I last met Gaggan Anand, the high priest of Progressing Indian Dining, at his namesake restaurant in Bangkok last year, he said it was his dream to reach the top of the World's 50 Best Restaurants -- in the footsteps of his icon Ferran Adria, at whose laboratory he had mastered the techniques that make his kitchen special. He was then at No. 66 on the hallowed world list -- the only Indian restaurant to make it to that pantheon of greats -- and I thought he had a long way to go.

The winners pose for the photo-op on the Asia's 50 Best
Restaurants awards night at Capella Hotel in Sentosa,
Singapore, on Monday, February 23.

Not anymore. Gaggan, a Kolkata-born Taj alumnus who made Bangkok his home in 2007, is today at No. 3 of the Asian's Best 50 List, which was unveiled at a glittering awards ceremony at the Capella Hotel in Sentosa, Singapore, on the night of Monday, February 23. He's up by seven notches from his 2013 ranking, next only to the list leader, Australian expat David Thompson's Nahm (also in Bangkok), and the No. 2, Yoshihiro Narisawa's eponymous Tokyo restaurant. That makes Gaggan's, without doubt, Asia's Best Indian restaurant.

That's also where the good news ends. For, India's Best, Bukhara at the ITC Maurya, figures 24 notches below Gaggan's, at No. 27. And Indian Accent, which is the closest to Gaggan's in style and deserving of a far better ranking, is at No. 29, thankfully up by 12 notches from its No. 41 in 2013. I still cannot fathom how you can have Bukhara, the last outpost of predictable dining that hasn't changed as long as Mount Everest has been around, Gaggan's, Indian Accent, Nahm and Narisawa on the same list.

I also wonder why Zorawar Kalra's Masala Library (Mumbai), which is Indian Accent's most serious challenger, Abhijit Saha's Caperberry (Bangalore), Rahul Akerkar's Indigo (Mumbai), the magician Vikramjit Roy's gastronomical laboratory, Pan Asian at the ITC Grand Chola, Chennai, or the brilliant Mickey Bhoite's creative playground, Le Cirque at The Leela Palace, New Delhi, not on the list. The Indian jury seems to be terribly out of sync with the country's changing reality, or it's too five-star-centric, that too stuck between ITC and Taj.

India is represented by six mostly uninspiring restaurants -- Dum Pukht at ITC Maurya, New Delhi (No. 30), which has lost its creative sparkle; Varq at The Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi (No. 32), which has quietly given up any claims to leadership on the Progressive Indian front; Wasabi by Morimoto at Taj Mumbai (No. 36), which is without doubt one of India's finest restaurants; and the has-been Karavalli at the Gateway Hotel on Residency Road, Bangalore  (No. 40).

India, like a patchy middle-order batsman, has been fumbling in the lower end of the list. Bangkok also has six names on the list, but the rankings of its restaurants, starting with Nahm and Gaggan, are far more impressive. Singapore leads the list with eight restaurants, followed by Japan with seven and Hong Kong with six.

Hong Kong's Fook Lam Moon, the unpretentious traditional Chinese restaurant that opened in Wamchai in 1948, has been the most spectacular climber, going up by 29 notches on a list where most restaurants have slipped. Barring Indian Accent, which has seen its ranking climb, the other Indian restaurants on the list have fallen behind -- Bukhara by one, Dumpukht by 13, Varq by two, Wasabi by Morimoto by 16 and Karavalli by five. The Best Indian Restaurant is now at No. 26, compared with No. 17 (Dumpukht) last year. But Indians at least have the consolation of savouring Gaggan's spectacular rise.

Sulafest Has Shown the Way for Others to Follow and Harvest the Gains

This article first appeared on Indian Wine Academy's website (www.indianwineacademy.com) on Feb. 11. Reprinted with permission. Click on http://www.indianwineacademy.com/item_4_589.aspx to see it in the original format.

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

Susheela Raman was one of the major world
music stars who performed at Sulafest 2014.
India's premier gourmet music event is a model
for others to follow to give the wine culture
a big thrust forward.

THERE was a time when sponsoring wine dinners was the only option available to wine producers and importers to make inroads into a society wedded to brown spirits. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of people like the late Ghulam Naqshband and our own Subhash Arora, whose Delhi Wine Club events have become launch pads for wines and restaurants that believe in the wine culture, and some five-star hotels as well as passionate restaurateurs such as AD Singh, Rahul Akerkar, Ritu Dalmia, Abhijit Saha and Tarsillo Natalone, wine dinners became an essential part of the social calendar of our big cities.

As they evolve, wine dinners have started attracting the same crowd and most of the regulars are on the wrong side of the age curve -- it's a market with not more than 10 to 20 years of longevity left. Organising a wine dinner is like preaching to the converted. If the wine market has to grow, the country's vast young population -- 70 per cent of India is below the age of 35 -- must be introduced to the heady joys of the wonderful world of wine. But this important market segment seems to regard formal wine occasions to be too stuffy, too 'grey', to merit any place in its crowded life. How does the industry win this vodka-and-white-rum-toting generation over to its side of the circle of pleasure?

Seven years ago, Rajeev Samant of Sula Vineyards, who's always one step ahead of the competition, hit upon a brilliant idea. It was called Sulafest -- a weekend in February dedicated to the pleasures of wine, food and music; "a gourmet wine festival". There couldn't be a headier mix, and soon, all roads were leading to Nashik, the headquarters of the country's top wine producer. And the pilgrims on this road less travelled were precisely from the generation that considered wine to be oh-so yesterday.

The idea wasn't entirely an original Samant brainwave. The inspiration came from the grape-stomping dramas that Chateau Indage would organise every year, with Mumbai's who's who in attendance, till the company went bust. But what Samant has done is give it a spin -- and every year, Sulafest has been growing, not only in the number and quality of music acts it hosts, but also in the turnout and fashion statements that the visitor flaunt. It is India's Woodstock with shades of Ascot.

I bumped into Samant at the VIP Lounge and, after admiring his orange shorts and exchanging notes on the political temperature in Delhi, asked him about the turnout at Sulafest 2014. "I have stopped counting," he said with a broad grin. I could see the sense of triumph in his looks. He deserved his moment in the sun.

For the past two years, Sulafest has tied up with the country's leading purveyor of world music, blueFROG, which is why homegrown artistes such as Susheela Raman, Vasuda Sharma and Avial performed to capacity audiences along with the British psychedelic music group Shpongle, the toast of this year's fest; the ska/reggae band from Croydon, The Dualers; rumba-meets-raga group Gypsy All Stars; dub music and big beat band Dub Pistols; and the Italian from London, Gaudi, who's one of the busiest solo performers in the electronica world. And then there were pleasant surprises such as singer-songwriter-guitarist Gowri, who held her own and kept her audience asking for more, despite the deafening boom-boom-boom emanating from the 'Electro Zone'.

The 'Electro Zone' was rocked by some of the trendiest names in EDM -- the Brazilian export DJ Anna; the multi-cultural exponent of psychedelic trance, Ma Faiza; the Russian DJs who have a cult following in Goa, Mescaluto (Victoria) and Sashanti (Alexander Sukhochev); and the desi boy Ankytrixx (Ankit Kocher). It was an eclectic mix of music, which was being canned by VH1 for future broadcasts, and with Vero Moda, the trendy international women's fashion brand, being the lead sponsor, floral colours and youthful style were in evidence everywhere. The food was just the kind that the young love -- from momos to shawarma, from rajma-chawal to egg/kebab rolls, washed down with Mount Gay mojitos, or Asahi beer, or the sparkling fruit drinks from Pune-based Good Juicery, the baby of former Cape Town resident Michelle Bauer and her food technologist friend Julia Madlener.

There was food and drink everywhere, but no one got drunk or misbehaved, and the hundreds of young women could do exactly what they wanted to do, without any man paying more-than-usual attention to even the shortest skirt. It was clean, unalloyed fun, and people minded their own business. I wonder how many people signed up for camping at the vineyards organised by LetsCampOut.com, which was surely a first for an Indian "gourmet music" event.

Seeing the scores of young people who had signed up for the winery tour and tastings, asking questions, sipping wines and excitedly shooting selfies, Ajoy Shaw, Chief Winemaker and Vice President, Sula Vineyards, said, "This is the market we must reach out to if we have to grow." We were at Sula's Tasting Room, drinking Rasa 2007, a delicately balanced Shiraz with still some years of life left.

Shaw, a Bengali who is proud to call himself a Maharashtrian (his parents brought him to the state when he was five months old), said at least 600 people, mostly in their late 20s and early 30s, show up every weekend at Sula for guided tours, wine tastings and gorging on the food served at two vineyard restaurants (Soma and Little Italy). They go back with bottles of wine and a sense of excitement about the wine culture. They become the ambassadors of wine.

We need more clones of Sulafest -- in Akluj, in Baramati, in Charosa, in Hampi, in the Nandi Hills -- if we wish to create new gourmet tourist destinations and get more people hooked on to the joys of wine. What is the point of producing increasingly better wines if the market moves at what used to be once called the "Hindu rate of growth"?

Rahul Akerkar Can't Find Executive Chef for Delhi Because Seniors Don't Want to Take Trade Test

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

I MET Rahul Akerkar at the Hyatt Regency, right across the road from where his celebrated restaurant, Indigo, is opening its Delhi innings by the middle of next month. With his bald pate capping a head brimming over with ideas and eyes glittering with anticipation, Akerkar said the "same thought process" that drives Indigo Mumbai would guide his Delhi venture. It would be food focused and chef driven.

Rahul Akerkar says Indigo Delhi will be
food focused and chef driven, but he
can't find an executive chef to run his
operations here. It means we're going
to see a lot of him in Delhi.

So who's the chef leading the project, I asked, and my question was enough for Akerkar to take off on "how tough it is to find skilled people" in Delhi. He hasn't found an executive chef in the city, which means, as he put it, he and his Executive Chef, Nitin Kulkarni (who has been with him since 1999), are going to collect "a lot of frequent flier miles" by dividing their time between Mumbai and the Capital. "It's tough finding skilled people," Akerkar said. "There's a huge lack of homegrown talent. That is a cause for concern."
He was also surprised by the reluctance of senior chefs to take a trade test. "How else would I know if they are as good as their CVs say they are? Akerkar asked retorically. Trained as a biochemical engineer at Columbia University, Akerkar found his true calling while he was working in New York kitchen to pay his bills. He's therefore not a chef-owner who doesn't believe in getting his hands dirty. And he expects the same work ethic from the chefs he hires.
Moving away from his complaints against Delhi's senior chefs, we got into a discussion of his menu for Indigo Delhi. It will be "mainly modern European with a healthy dose of Asian," he said. "We are quite seafood driven," he continued, assuring me that he has lined up some of the best suppliers in the business. But do 
not expect pomfret on the menu because Akerkar believes (and his words were music to my ears) it's "a very over-rated fish". There will however be "good duck and quail," he assured me, adding "I discovered Vivek Kushwaha much before the rest of the world." Akerkar was referring to the CEO of Gayatri Farms, the favourite poulty supplier of hotels and restaurants. And he kept emphasising that his menu has an equal share of vegetarian and non-vegetarian items.
The Indigo Delhi menu took Akerkar and his team up to three months to develop by listening to each other. "I read, eat and play around with stuff," Akerkar said. "I am learning all the time. I draw upon influences all the time, assimilate them and express them in my own way." Unsurprisingly, you'll find a tandoor in his 
kitchen, where he make a great chicken preparation with tamarind. And the rawas (Indian salmon) dish on his menu is an adaptation of his grandmother's kairi (green mango) curry.
More than anything else, Akerkar takes pride in being creative, in using the best ingredients and yet offering great value for money. "Guess what Indigo's average price per cover (APC) is?" he asked and then answered his own question triumphantly: "It is Rs 2,100-2,200 with alcohol." Explaining his philosophy of menu pricing, he said: "I don't believe in retiring with what I earn from the next meal I serve. Each dish has to be priced at a point that is reasonable. We are in the perception management business. The customer must believe he's getting value. I would rather somebody eats out four times a week and not once a month because it's too expensive."
I asked him about his wine list, which had got him the Wine Spectator excellence award for ten years in a row. "To get the award, you have to maintain a wine list of more than 300 labels," he said. "That's too much inventory. At one point, I had 63 chardonnays on my menu. My financial controller was very upset with me."
Akerkar's current wine menu is organised grape-wise, with the labels drawn from regions where particular grape varieties express themselves the best and then organised according to entry, mid-level and upper-end pricing.
And what does he believe to be the taste profile of the Delhi market? "Assessing people's taste is a very dangerous game," Akerkar said with an air of finality. "Taste is a very personal thing," he added, pointing out that the origin of the name of his company, deGustibus, is in the Latin aphorism: "Degustibus non est disputandem (You cannot dispute taste)." What he knows, though, is that "Delhi is a great market to be in. It is a consuming market, a well-heeled market."
If you go to Indigo Delhi, Akerkar would want you to ask yourself before you pass judgment on his food: "Are the ingredients good? Have they been treated with respect? Does the food sit well on my palate?" His final words summed up his restaurateuring philosophy: "Food must always take you somewhere. It must evoke some memory."

Check out my previous story on Indigo coming to Delhi:
http://indianrestaurantspy.blogspot.in/2013/09/indigo-delhi-opening-to-be-part-of.html

Indigo Delhi Opening to be a Part of Urban Renewal Project Across Hyatt

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

A PATCH of land across the road from the Capital’s Hyatt Regency hotel, skirting a busy road that’s called Africa Avenue, overlooking an old colony of government officials (where yours truly grew up, is transforming into a retail and entertainment zone where Rahul Akerkar’s celebrated Colaba restaurant, Indigo, will have its first outpost in Delhi.

Heritage real estate developer and chartered accountant Sanjeev Batra, who gave the cowlands of Mehrauli a new chic identity by turning around the stables of an old haveli into a restaurant space where Delhi’s first Olive Bar & Kitchen opened about a decade ago (and blueFrog more recently), acquired the patch of land from the Delhi Government about four years ago. Overlooking the busy Ring Road and Bhikaji Cama Place business district, it was a meeting point of anti-socials, with an open drain on one side, a sleepy Coffee Home run by the Government of Delhi-NCT not far from it and a beehive of car workshops behind it. It took Batra months to clear the area, but with the firm back of the Delhi Government and civic agencies, he was able to turn it around.

That was the project’s first phase. Batra had envisaged it as a recreated heritage zone, but then came his son, Samegh, after his higher studies abroad (University of Essex, UK) and turned the idea around to make it a contemporary space for young people to hang out. Apart from Indigo, the space will have fashion retail and handicrafts outlets, a performance area for art, fashion, theatre and music, and a park where families will be encouraged to have Sunday picnics with food hampers provided by Indigo and carts operated by the restaurant will sell hot dogs. There will also be a 200ft blackboard on the boundary wall for children to doodle on.

Rahul Akerkar makes his first foray outside Mumbai since
he opened his Colaba restaurant in 1999.
Image: Courtesy of www.foodindigo.com

“We want to create a space for citizens to savour the open-air pleasures that we enjoyed as children before the mall culture overtook the city,” says Sanjeev Batra. “The project will set the pace for the proper use of public spaces and the government has really backed us on it.” Samegh, his son, is the Managing Director of the House of Sunrydge, the company steering this urban renewal project.

Sharing his vision for Indigo Delhi, Rahul Akerkar, the man who opened the widely acclaimed restaurant in Mumbai in 1999, says in a media release: “Just as in Mumbai, Indigo in New Delhi  will be a ‘back-to-basics’ address that will serve up eclectic modern European fare, coupled with an expansive bar and a private dining section.”

Sanjeev Batra at his first development,
One Style Mile, Mehrauli, where Olive
Bar & Kitchen opened a decade ago

On his food, says the self-taught chef and entrepreneur, who got bitten by the restaurateur’s bug when he was dishwashing at a French bistro to pay his way through college in the U.S.: “The food is fundamentally ingredient-driven and contemporary in construction with strong and distinct flavours, with Indian and Asian influences.” Olive Bar and Kitchen loosened up the city’s stuffy dining culture when it opened at One Style Mile, Mehrauli. Indigo will complete this process of transformation.

Significantly, Indigo’s Rahul Akerkar and Olive’s AD Singh were once working together, running Just Desserts many moons ago in Mumbai, where Akerkar met his wife Malini. They have since gone their own ways, but now, they are in one city, so look out for the wheels of change working overtime.