Over the years, Indian Accent has consistently proven to be India’s best restaurant and brand that is loved by diners across the globe. Whenever an Indian or International list featuring the best restaurants from the world is drawn up, the name from India that is always expected to show up on it, is Indian Accent. In 2024 as well, Indian Accent and Comorin made it to the list of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants for 2024. Indian Accent, New Delhi, was ranked 26th while Comorin, Gurugram, was ranked 79th in the extended list. The restaurant which has consistently been touted as India’s #1 was helmed by a chef who has broken the glass ceiling for decades.
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Chef Manish Mehrotra’s long and spectacular career doesn’t need any introduction as such. Over his almost three decades-long career his work, his skill and his culinary innovations have been celebrated with the highest accolades.However, when the chef announced his decision to take a break from the two award-winning restaurants it brought back a flood of memories for restauranteurs, chefs, and diners alike. Who can forget the Blue Cheese Naan that foodies could never get enough of or that Daulat Ki Chaat that transformed the humble offering from the streets of Delhi into a fine-dining gem?
The chef who hails from Bihar has seen the transformation of Indian cuisine, how the world perceives it and is without doubt one of the pioneers who have led this movement from the front and inspired generations of young chefs who hope to follow in his footsteps. Currently on a break which he says was “much needed,” he looks back at his journey and shares some delicious stories. Excerpts from a chat.
Photo Credit: Manish Mehrotra/ Instagram
What led to taking this decision of this being the right time to take that break?
It's been 24 years with this company. I started working in 1996 and it's been 28 years plus 3 years of hotel school so it's been 31 years of doing this and since 1996 till now I don't think I have ever taken such a long break. It was always work, work, work, work.
It’s not an easy industry to be in, considering the working hours…
These days no industry is easy. Everybody has to work hard. The difference in our field is that when everybody is enjoying that time is your busy time so that becomes a bit of an issue and the timings are slightly odd so yes it is a bit tough and the environment is tough, people's expectations are high.
I thought this was the correct time for me to leave because Indian accent is on top and it has received top accolades at all the prestigious food awards. Indian Accent and Comorin are in good hands. Chef Shantanu Mehrotra, Executive Chef of Indian Accent New Delhi, who has been with me right from Day 1. When I joined as a junior sous chef, Shantanu was a management trainee at that time so he has been trained under me for such a long time.
Similarly Chef Rijul Gulati who is the Head Chef, Indian Accent Mumbai. Chef Raveesh Kapoor at Indian Accent, New York and Chef Dhiraj Dargan at Comorin have all worked with me for so many years.
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So from that kind of schedule how does it feel to be able to take a break?
It's feeling really good. At least now I have a routine. I am trying to have a routine. At the moment I am not thinking about what I want to do next. I do have things in mind that i would like to do but details such as how to do it, with whom to do it it's too early to think about that.
The last few times when we heard of iconic restaurants such as Noma coming to a close or chefs taking a break, it resulted in the chef doing something that's closer to his heart, like a food lab or even Prateek Sadhu’s Naar. After this glorious, long career, what is that you still want to explore?
Cooking is the kind of thing where I don’t think anyone can say that they have done everything. All these chefs Prateek or for that matter even Thomas Zacharias. I am 50. I have been at Indian Accent for 15 years, the careers of these young chefs haven’t been 15-year-long yet. I think I have been able to achieve some of the things I wanted to in these years but there are still things that I want to do. I may not be sure of when and what exactly but I’m definitely not hanging my boots. I’m not planning to retire. I still have a few more years to work before I do that.
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At Indian Accent, you had a new menu so often. What does it take to keep innovating at that rate?
It takes a lot of hard work. I have just cleared my office today. All my stuff has come in from there to my house today. You won't believe it, I have 15 big cartons of books and they have come to my house from the office today. I will open them and put the books in my library which already has around 500 - 600 books. So yes, innovating takes a lot of research, and a lot of study has gone behind it. I think more is yet to come. It feels good to be able to do that and I think the journey so far has been very good.
I have seen so many changes taking place in the industry, new things happening, my dishes being copied in different places. Yesterday I saw one of my techniques and my recipes being used in a restaurant in America by a chef who used to work with us earlier. So you continue doing what you're doing, keep innovating new things, you keep teaching, you keep training people.
What prompted the decision to go to catering college?
Going to catering college was a career decision because I was not good in studies and at that time it was in fashion (around 1993) to do hotel management, if you weren’t too good in studies. Some of my cousins were taking it up so I said I’ll also take it up. My family was in business. My father owned a petrol pump and I said I will not run a petrol pump. I am from Bihar so there, if you are good in studies, you become a doctor, engineer or an IAS officer but since I was not good in studies, I could not do all that. I took up hotel management then started working in the kitchen and then liked it very much.
You grew up in a household that was vegetarian?
Yes, we were a complete vegetarian household. We did not even eat onions and garlic but my parents never stopped us from eating outside. So we respected that freedom and never cooked or ate non-vegetarian food at home but would eat outside with family and friends. I grew up eating normal home food, which taught me that simple ingredients, simple cooking, simple methods can make tasty food and that you don't need 100 different masalas and ingredients to make a dish.
Does what you ate back then find a reflection in what you make now?
There are a few dishes, for example the Chini Malai Toast in the Comorin menu. These days kids don’t carry lunch boxes. Fancy schools provide food in canteens. We used to carry lunch boxes. My mother would wake up in the morning and make it and when there was a rush, a simple Chini Malai Toast was packed in these boxes. We would put home made malai and sugar on a toast and cut it in triangle and put it in the box. I also added Dal Muradabadi in the Indian Accent menu and everybody said who will eat this? However it became very popular.
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What inspired the iconic Blue Cheese Naan?
When I ate blue cheese for the first time I hated it.I thought these people were crazy. What kind of rotten things do they eat? But the thing is it grows on you. Now I love blue cheese. It becomes like an amuse-bouche, it amuses all your senses. I grew to like the ingredient and really wanted to use it in Indian cuisine. When we first started using it, a diner called me and politely asked me to check the naan because she thought it had gone bad. I apologised to her, went back into the kitchen and made her a plain cheese naan which she loved. Today Indian Accent is known for its Blue Cheese Naan. Some ingredients grow on you.
Another such ingredient is fish sauce. At the first restaurant where I worked at Thai Pavilion, new management trainees were ragged and they would be asked to taste a spoon full of fish sauce. Many of them threw up. Later I loved it so much that many evenings dinner would just be a simple meal of sticky rice, fish sauce, chopped chillies and some crispy garlic. It was so tasty that I couldn't stop myself from eating it.
What are some of the major changes in the way Indian food has been presented globally, over the years?
It has changed a lot. Young people have started going to Indian restaurants again. That had stopped in between. When I joined there were either Indian restaurants like Moti Mahal or then the Indian specialty restaurants such as Bukhara or Dum Pukht, in 5 star hotels. So either you went to Pandara road or street side joints, dhabas or 5 star hotels. The menus at these restaurants would also be very similar. One would order the same things there, whether it was butter chicken dal makhani or kadhai paneer, tandoori chicken or chicken tikka, gulab jamun and kulfi. If you wanted to be a bit adventurous and exotic then brownies with vanilla ice cream would be ordered.
This has changed with the newer restaurants. Back in the day, who could imagine that someone would open a 17 cover restaurant in the middle of the mountain, like Naar or a 12-seater restaurant in Bandra, in Mumbai, like Papa’s which is open only 4 times a week.
I have seen these things changing. When we opened Indian Accent, the same time Chef Gaggan Anand opened Gaggan in Bangkok. Today he is one of the top Indian chefs in the world. Similarly, when Chef Himanshu Saini worked in my kitchen I knew he would go on to do great things because he is so talented.
I would say I feel happy to have been part of this change. Indian food in so many years has gone through so many changes not only in India but all over the world.There is more focus on regional food. There is more awareness. In Delhi earlier South Indian food was only available at places such as Sagar Ratna and Sarvana Bhawan. There were hardly any restaurants serving Goan food, Parsi food or Kashmiri restaurants but it’s all there now.
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Will this change be seen beyond metro cities, in small towns as well?
Most definitely. For example cities such as Patna are at the same level now where Delhi was 15 years back, in terms of innovative Indian food. When someone first put chicken tikka on pizza, instead of pepperoni, it must have been an innovation, right? So, 30-35 years ago, someone must have done this innovation. After some time you started getting chicken tikka pizza in small towns. So maybe in a decade you will find blue cheese naan in a small restaurant in a small city also. Why not? And I would love to see that.
Food doesn't have any boundaries. I would like our regional food to go more to the interior. So that if someone is in Bihar, they don't think that South Indians eat only eat idli-dosa or Bengalis eat only fish. They should know that Karnataka's sambar is different from Tamil Nadu's. People are slowly understanding these things. And the ball has started rolling in the correct direction.