Foodies' Capital

Chatpati Delhi”, “Food Capital”, “People of Delhi are foodies”… These are but some fond descriptions given to the Delhi foodie, who rarely lets go of a chance to gorge on a good spread. Known for its diversity, Delhi is also the melting pot for not just people and culture but also cuisine. From roadside kiosks and dhabas to five-star hotels, from a simple daal-rotito a gourmet offering, the city has it all. A truly “food Capital”, all the states find a place here and restaurants offering authentic cuisine, be it from Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Bengal, Nagaland,Assam,Kashmir,Gujarat or Rajasthan, leave Delhiites spoilt for choice. Just take a walk through the city and one can find each street and lane filled with a history of gastronomic glory, offering the flavours of heritage, tradition and a passion for food that has been shaped over eras, across borders and in the hearts of the people.
When it comes to international food, the ubiquitous Chinese fare was always around, so were the Thai, French and Italian dishes that figured in the menus of posh restaurants and hotels. But what is interesting is that, lately, a host of international players are setting up their base in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). Authentic Chinese, Mexican, Pan Asian, Russian, Ukranian, Greek, Arabian, Lebanese and South African restaurants are cropping up in the Capital, drawing its citizens, ready to explore new culinary delights.

Multi-cuisine to single
Being the Capital city of India, Delhi gets noticed worldwide very easily; therefore, many international players, who intend to start their business in India, prefer Delhi as their first choice. It is like a gateway to India - whosoever visits India comes to Delhi first.“Delhi is the first place, where most of the tourists from all over the world land,” said Vikas Pall, vice president of BB Hospitality Ventures Pvt. Ltd. “During their stay, they look for international cuisine. I think this is one of the reasons we can find many standalone international cuisine restaurants are thriving in Delhi.”
Just a decade back, most of the restaurants in Delhi were offering only selected Indian cuisines with a dominance of North Indian food. However, down the years, the taste of Delhi has witnessed a drastic change. If recent trends are to be believed, now people are more open for international taste. Therefore, it is nothing to be amazed at that international chains such as McDonalds, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Pizza Express, Wimpy and TGIF have a good strong presence all over Delhi.
“Earlier the restaurant owners used to play safe by offering multi-cuisine menu in one restaurant. Moreover,there were very few restaurants in Delhi (only in five-star hotels), that catered to international tastes. But now, you can see there are a large number of standalone restaurants thriving in Delhi,” said Vineet Wadhwa, owner of Fio Cookhouse and Bar, Nehru Place, and Fio Country Kitchen and Bar, Saket. Both outlets are two-cuisine restaurants, offering Indian and Italian food. “When I started this restaurant four years ago, I was warned by my friends against offering only two cuisines but I thought I should try it,” said Wadwa,who has not regretted the decision.

Restaurants all over
This is not the case just with Fio House.One can find many such restaurants in Delhi, which are offering just one international food to its patrons. Take a look at some of the popular outlets: Neo Rong in Radisson Blu just offers Thai food; in Hauz Khas Village, Imperfecto dishes out authentic Mediterranean food; for popular Chinese food Taipan of Oberoi or Empress of China is a good option;for European fare step into Orient Express, Taj, or Brix at Grand Hyatt; and for Lebanese food, there are many restaurants like Kabir'z FnB, The Tummy Section and Shawarma Point.
While these are big names, what is more heartening is the increasing number of restaurants bringing a gastronomic variety. “Earlier many of the restaurants were situated in five-star hotels only. But now many standalone restaurants are coming forward,” informed Wadwa. Moreover, it is not that Delhi is only housing restaurants belonging to popular global cuisines. One can now see many lesser-known foods, which are flourishing as well in the Capital. For instance, Bline in Chankyapuri offers Russian food. Located in the posh Anand Niketan (Chanakyapuri), Bline is a tiny place with just four tables, each being a four-seater. An open counter to the kitchen lets you catch wafts of what’s cooking and a wall mounted television set is usually turned on to a Russian channel. All in all, this is one of those places where one can expect to get authentic Russian food.
Bayt al Arab at Lajpat Nagar, is well known to Indian and Arabs as it offers authentic Arabian dishes. Similarly, It is Greek To Me in Safdarjung has become a foodie hub for those who like Greek food. Hi Lanka for Sri Lankan food, Kayalan -Truly Malaysian offers Malasian food in Saket. Recently, Barcelos, a South Africabased casual dining restaurant chain opened its first outlet at Khan Market in Delhi to provide authentic Portuguese cuisine.
“Delhi is the place where one can find taste from all corners of the world,” said Rohit Malhotra, Indian GM Operations Barcelo. “Here people are ready to experiment with taste. And yes, the economy of India is growing very fast. Therefore, nothing could be a better place then Delhi to start our first chain.”
If we dig into Delhi’ culinary history two decades back,one would find that 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 new-found love.

Well traveled

Saumitra Chaturvedi, the food and beverages manager of Raddisson Blue Ghaziabad, who manages three restaurants - Avatar: The World Kitchen, Kama: An Epicurean Culinary Journey,and Lust:The Cocktail Bar - cites another reason for the surging of international restaurants in Delhi. He opined that now Indians are traveling extensively abroad and are very familiar with the global taste. “Now a good number of Indians go abroad for vacation. During their stay abroad, they happen to taste many dishes. Thus, after returning home, they look for the same taste in India too,” Saumitra suggested.
Echoing the same, Akshat Mallick, chef of Taj Palace, informed, “Of course Indians have traveled all over the world. Now you can’t fool them by twisting tastes, bringing Indian flavour in international cuisine.”
The other reason for the growing popularity of international cuisine is Internet - now people learn about the dishes online and ask the chef to cook the same. “In Blue Ginger, which is famous for Vietnamese cuisines, I saw many people asking about the local dishes of Vietnam,which sometime we don’t have in our menu. Then after consulting with the chef we prepare those dishes for them,” said Akshat Mallick.
Apart from this, Indian chefs are very popular all over the world. They go to different restaurants across the world, learn the basic of international dishes and serve Indian consumers. “Now the time has come when Indian foodies want to experiment with the tastes.Therefore,many chefs bring popular international cuisines to India,” said Vineet Wadwa, who is himself a chef.

Expats and MNC
culture The growing numbers of expats in Delhi has also led many restaurants to include international dishes in their menu.In Delhi, one can spot people from all nationalities roaming around the markets. A lot of them are from the various missions or embassies here but then a fair number are tourists visiting the country.
But then, these foreigners are willing to shell out more for authentic, good quality food. One reason is that the cost of living is very low for an expat, who commands an overseas salary in the company he is working in. The same is true of those employed in a multi-national company (MNC). Ever since, MNCs have flourished in the NCR, people from all over the world started flooding to India, making this their second home. Food joints catering to their tastes were but a natural outcome.

Developing new taste

Anand Parkash Tiwari, a young retailer and resident of Rajouri Garden, is not a foodie, but likes tasting new dishes. He prefers international cuisine, something different from the regular Indian and Chinese dishes. “I don’t like eating the same Indian food daily.I think we should try every dish in the world. I want to try all the dishes around the world,” opined Tiwari.
However, Gaurav Yadav, who is not as choosy as Anand, is more health conscious. He finds international cuisines to be more healthy. “Punjabi food is very oily and it has adverse effect on health. Whereas,if we look at international cuisine,many are healthy,” said Yadav.
Sharing this opinion, the chef from Taj, Mallick, informed that earlier most of the eating joints had a conventional choice of food, which is either Punjabi, Mughlai or Chinese.“But these youngsters are more health conscious. This led to the development of several eateries serving Turkish, Mexican and Italian food only. Some restaurants are even changing their menu to authentic speciality cuisine,” informed the chef. Most players believe that the trend has emerged due to the change in taste of Delhiites that has been brought about in no small measure by the globe-trotting tendencies. “We tried to Indianise most dishes thinking that it would suit the taste of the customers, but we were wrong,” asserted a chef in a popular restaurant. “We have seen that the demand for authentic food is high hereand so we are changing the menu.”