It was exactly 15 years ago, on a hot June afternoon that I first met chef Manish Mehrotra, now regarded as India’s most path-breaking chef, the father of ‘modern Indian’ gastronomy.
It was 2009. Bukhara ruled the roast, Varq was the buzz. But in the kitchens of India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, chef Manish Mehrotra, a Thai chef, known to just a few people from his stints at Oriental Octopus at the Habitat and Tamarai in London, was pottering away.
Mehrotra had invited me that afternoon to sample a few new dishes he had invented. Emerging from an ophthalmologist’s appointment, with a pupil so dilated that I could barely open an eye, I walked into Oriental Octopus as Mehrotra brought out his first prototype of what would be Indian Accent food. There was that tamarind seabass, a work-in-progress then, that would become a widely recognised dish soon. A month later, restaurateur Rohit Khattar opened Indian Accent at the Manor in a leafy New Delhi neighbourhood, and the rest as they say is history.
Although the restaurant wasn’t immediately commercially successful, Mehrotra himself was recognised fairly early into his innings as a creative genius his flavours setting him apart from others who had made similar ‘modern Indian’ attempts, primarily in London, a few years before him. If that food had come across as a bit ‘Frenchified" and restrained on spices, pandering perhaps to a White audience, Mehrotra’s was food that the Indian millennial could appreciate. Global and yet desi nothing felt laboured or force fitted, something that chefs making their individualistic brands of hyperlocal Indian food could perhaps learn even today.
As Mehrotra quits the brand that turned him into a celebrity, his food into the new Indian cuisine that everyone enjoys equally, and which paved the way for a new generation of Indian chefs trying to reinvent regional Indian foods, an era has truly passed. It’s a watershed moment for Indian gastronomy.
“Manish has won every possible award, achieved every milestone, cracked every glass ceiling and left Indian Accent as the country’s top restaurant not just on award lists but in terms of revenue generation and profitability. He is entitled to his own journey now," says Khattar, whose EHV International owns the brands Indian Accent and Comorin, of which Mehrotra has been culinary director. “He will always be a part of our family. And I have told him that he has the full right to check any chef in the group if he sees them lag."
Even as the star chef moves on, Khattar is set to open a fourth Indian Accent (after Delhi, New York and Mumbai) in an international location in the next few months. In fact, EHV International is on a rapid expansion spree with nine restaurants planned this year, including an ambitious reopening of the Kashmiri speciality Chor Bizarre at the historic Broadway Hotel on Asaf Ali Road in Delhi. This was Khattar’s first restaurant, and one that shut during the Covid-19 pandemic. An upgraded avatar is set to open this August.
“We are opening five Comorins, four Hosas, six Firebacks, six Chor Bizarres and five American Diners in India and internationally in the next two years", reveals Khattar, tight-lipped on the venues for now, but both Mumbai and Hyderabad should see a couple of openings in the next few months. With the Anand Mahindra (and others)-backed EHV International being cash rich and debt-free, and working on business models where partner developers put in the capex, Khattar says EHV is on course to double or triple the number of restaurants its operates every year. This would perhaps make it the most ambitious expansion for a restaurant company in the upscale casual dining space.
In India, standalone restaurants with ex-Indian Accent chefs and managers are too many to count. And, in fact, Khattar had earlier mentioned to me how he finds it both endearing and embarrassing when the hospitality at other establishments gets extra thanks to this network. Recently, a hotel in BKC (Mumbai’s?) recreated Indian Accent’s star dishes, including the gol gappas and water in test tubes, as room amenities for Khattar.
EHV International runs a coveted four-year ‘chefs in training’ programme, where fresh graduates are trained in restaurant kitchens “with the highest salary for the rung in the industry". It is this pool of talent that should stand Khattar and company in good stead as they expand furiously.
As for who next after Mehrotra, the various Indian Accents are well settled for now: Executive chefs Shantanu Mehrotra (Delhi), Rijul Gulati (Mumbai) and Raveesh Kapoor (New York) head the three outlets, while chef Hitesh Lohat, who is Shantanu Mehrotra’s deputy in Delhi, is ready to take over the slated new opening. His style of cooking is reportedly somewhat different from his mentor’s and he may exercise some creative freedom with that. How the food changes, or doesn’t, remains to be seen. But new talent is always the way for cuisines to evolve and a legacy to live on.
First Published: Jul 30, 2024, 18:47
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