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.”
I'll tell you one thing. I entered the kitchen at the age of 10. My inspiration was my father. Those days, Punjabi men did not enter the kitchen. But this was not the scene at my home ~ my father used to cook a lot. Another reason for his entering the kitchen was that my mother was a vegetarian. It meant my father had to cook non-vegetarian food. At that time I used to help my father, then my love towards food developed. However, when I stepped into a commercial kitchen for the first time, I found it very different from home kitchen.
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