Alps

I came across Alps when I was walking around Colaba the other day. I love the way the restaurant hasn’t changed itself over the years. Everything from the font used on the sign, to the type of material used, to the text on the sign – all take you back a couple of years. I definitly want to try this restaurant out someday.

How much does Chef Hemant Oberoi make?

93 lakhs a year according to Mumbai Mirror. That translates to about 7.75 lakhs a month after working for the Taj since 1974.

http://www.worldhum.com/travel-blog/item/mumbais-man-in-the-kitchen-39090201/

CIA Chefs in India

I really want to attend the Culinary Institute of America and have been snooping around to see what chefs from India are doing with their CIA degrees. Pretty impressive I must say.

Chef Kishi Arora – Mad over Donuts

Chef Nachiket Shetye – East

Chef Manu Chandra – Olive Beach

Chef Sujith Gangadharan – The Solitaire

Chef Keyur Chandorkar – Indigo

Chef Ajinkya Soundankar – Indigo

-If anyone knows of any other CIA chefs in India let me know so that I can add them to the list.

Is Salt Water Grille secretly open?

Mumbai Mirror carried an article about how nothing has been done to Salt Water Grille even though it was ordered to close down. Apparently demolition orders have been given and the open air restaurant should have been destroyed but no action has been taken. There is now a Salt Water Cafe in Bandra that many say is not upto the mark. Does this mean that there is a chance that the restaurant will open again?

Ramsay to test his skills with Oberoi

Bombay Times carried an article about how Chef Gordon Ramsay is going to cook South Indian food for a few guests – vegetarian Brahmin, Syrian Catholic and Malabari Muslim to be precise. Ramsay wants guests to tell him whether or not they are able to tell the difference between what he made and what Chef Hemant Oberoi makes. The article also talks about what Chef Hemant Oberoi made for Hilary Clinton when she visited Mumbai. Here is what she had in case you are too lazy to go through the entire article

eclectic mix of Indian food, Tandoori Seabass and Yakhni Pulao, Crab Galouti and Cheese Dosa, Raan to be carved on the table, its taste washed away with a Sugarcane Sorbet, and desserts of Kulfi, Phirnee and fresh Alphonso mangoes

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This is going to be one dinner where too many chefs certainly won’t spoil the soup. We are talking about the South Indian sit-down planned tonight by the Taj Mahal Hotel & Towers’ Executive Chef Hemant Oberoi and London’s Gordon Ramsay, OBE, chef, restaurateur, presenter of TV shows on competitive cookery and food, Amitabh Bachchan’s muse in Cheeni Kum, author, etc., etc. It is being held at the Gateway Room, entry is by invitation only — not for love or money, and open to just a clutch of Mumbai’s foodies. Everybody else can eat their hearts out, for Ramsay has fans everywhere in the world, and to be at the celeb chef’s table when he is presenting Indian food with Chef Oberoi… is every gourmet’s dream.

The fires in Chef Oberoi’s kitchen have been stoking some fabulous five star meals lately. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, an Indophile and gourmet herself, with an amazing memory of Indian food from her earlier visits, has been the recent recipient. He did two dinners, two breakfasts and one lunch for her in Mumbai, a different and eclectic mix of Indian food, Tandoori Seabass and Yakhni Pulao, Crab Galouti and Cheese Dosa, Raan to be carved on the table, its taste washed away with a Sugarcane Sorbet, and desserts of Kulfi, Phirnee and fresh Alphonso mangoes. Yes, fresh, the last crop of the season before the monsoon signed off mangoes in Maharashtra.

Ramsay, actually, has been slipping in and out of the country incognito, working on a three-part India season for his TV show next year. He’s covered the South, North and also the North-East. But Kerala appears to have tickled his imagination, fancy and tastebuds the most. And, he unburdened his excitement onto Chef Oberoi, expressing the desire to cook a South Indian meal for foodies in Mumbai. The menu, his interpretation of the exciting vegetarian Brahmin, Syrian Catholic and Malabari Muslim cuisines of Kerala, is being kept a secret. Chef Oberoi said, “Ramsay wants the diners to tell him whether his food is the same as ours or different.”

Source – Bombay Times via http://www.ifood.tv/blog/gordon_ramsay_amp_hemant_oberoi_cook_for_mumbai_tonight

Mall Food – Nirmal Lifestyle

More Mall food that noone really likes, this time from Nirmal Lifestyles, Mulund

1. Ruby Tuesday

2. McDonald’s

3. Meghdoot

4. Bond

5. o2

6. Bistro Grill

7. Rajdhani

8. Mocha

9. Fine Dine

10. Tibb’s Frankie

11. Monginis

Nirmal Lifestyle also had Sachin’s which was apparently something like Tendulkar’s except altered to suit people from Mulund, Bembo’s and Thacker’s.

Mall Food – RCity Mall

The newly half opened mall near Powai – RCity Mall has a couple of places to eat that I’m pretty sure I wont want to eat in. Anyways here’s a list if its your kind of thing

1. Urban Tudka

2. Rajdhani

3. Subway

4. Tibb’s Frankie

Yellow Chilli

Sanjeev Kapoor’s Yellow Chilli has opened up in Hiranandani Gardens above Mainland China. I’ve heard that Yellow Chilli is fairly average. They only have a buffet and is priced pretty well at about 300 rupees. Doesn’t really sound like the kind of restaurant I would want to go to but I’m sure there are a tonne of people who will love it. Does anyone know what restaurant Sanjeev Kapoor has worked in? His website didn’t really bring anything up other than Yellow Chilli. I guess Khana Khazana is what really made him famous.

Tote on the Turf

Rahul Akerkar is coming up with a new restaurant called Tote. Tote will be near Olive’s race course property and will be slightly more upmarket than Indigo. I have been waiting for Tote to open for a long time and it keeps getting delayed for one reason or another. Knowing Rahul Akerkar however, one can be assured that it will be worth the wait. I keep bugging the staff at Indigo for updates on Tote and I always get the ‘opening next month’ line.

Businesstoday did a pretty comprehensive writeup on Tote. The gist of it is –

1. Tote was a building at the race course where punters would set up bets during races and Akerkar decided to keep the name.

2. 25,000 square feet

3. Meal for two should cost about 4000 with a drink

4. Seperate bar, banquet facility and a dining section thats further divided into formal, veranda, outdoor and lounge.

A little snooping around and help from a friend(thanks Nupoor!)  brought me to architect Kapil Gupta’s website for some WIP pictures. Looks pretty branchy to me.

Good Luck Rahul Akerkar!

Henry Tham closed down?

I drove past Henry Tham the other day and was surprised to find it closed. The Henry Tham board was off revealing the previous name of the restaurant. I was of the impression that they were doing pretty well and can only assume that they’re rennovating or sometihng.

EDIT – Jack & Jones and Only opened up a store where Henry Tham once was.

Chefs in India

I was reading about Chef’s in India and realized that there really wasn’t any comprehensive list of Chefs. I’m not sure how much of this information is true so if you know of any changes please let me know.

Chef Rahul Akerkar – Indigo/Indigo Delicatessen/Indigo Cafe/Tote on the Turf

Chef Massimiliano Orlati (Max) – Olive

Chef Manu Chandra – Olive Beach

Chef Vicky Ratnani – Aurus

Chef Hemant Oberoi – Wasabi/Chef’s Studio/Zodiac Grill

Chef Nelson Wang – China Garden

Chef Arindram Bahel – Rodas

Chef Ritu Dalmia – Diva

Chef Sanjeev Kapoor – Yellow Chilli

Chef Moshe Shek – Cafe Moshe/Moshe’s

Chef Imtiyaz Qureshi – Dum Puk

Chef Brainard Colaco – Mocha

Chef Shailendra Kekade – Stone Water Grille (Pune)

Chef Gresham Fernandes – Salt Wate Cafe

Bistro Grill Express

Delivery in Powai has always been either Pizza or Butterchicken and ever since Pizzeria closed down neither has been very good. Bistro Grill Express brings a whole new cuisine to Hiranadani that has been subjected to the same kind of restaurants for far too long. Ofcourse Kareems (Marooush?) also makes Shawarma but the combination of their mediocre service and poor hygiene makes you think twice before giving them a call. Bistro Grill Express offers much better service and much better food. So far I have only tried their shawarma and Chicken Fathayer and have been pretty impressed. The shwarma is pretty standard and is served with a garlic sauce and pickled beetroot that I love. The Fathayer is something I haven’t tried before. Fathayer is minced chicken stuffed into a pocket of dough and baked. I was pretty satisfied and it went great with the garlic sauce that I love. They also serve pizzas with arabic flavoured toppings which is something I would like to try. Delivery times range from twenty to forty minutes and the staff is reasonably polite. I ate at the restaurant once and I’d say its probably a better idea to order home. The restaurant itself is split level so you do feel a little claustrophobic because of the headroom and lack of windows. They had also turned the air conditioning off until we went in which made it uncomfortable until it was finally time to leave. Stick to delivery and you should be fine. As you can tell I am reasonable satisfied with Bistro Grill Express and hope that they are able to survive in Powai where so many places open and close overnight.

Aromas

Aromas joins the hugely successful Cafe Coffee Day and Cafe Mocha to become the fourth coffee shop in Powai. CCD gets a little too crowded and though the food and deserts at Mocha are much better than CCD, the shady crowd often puts you off. Cafe Columbia opened up sometime last year but they had a horrible location and their food was probably the worst of the three. Aromas opened up recently in Hiranandani. Aromas is part of an Australian coffee chain and have entered the Indian market with their Hiranandani outlet. I have been to Aromas twice so far and have not really been that impressed. I ordered a slice of cake that was dry, and maybe a little stale too. A lot of things on the menu weren’t available when I went there which was atleast a good month after they had opened. They serve wine but haven’t started serving beer yet (although its on the menu). I had a mint shake as well which wasn’t strong enough and seemed a little diluted to me. Overall the food was pretty disappointing, perhaps average at best. They also serve breakfast which is something I would like to try. Their location opposite D-Mart can get a bit crowded especially during rush hour though I must admit that I enjoyed watching the chaotic traffic while relaxing inside. They have outdoor seating as well which is nice when the weather is good The interiors are pretty good and its a lot better done up than CCD. However it is more expensive than CCD so I guess that it’s balanced. Service was OK. They messed up my friend’s order and he had to wait a good ten minutes after we got our food. The staff is fairly polite so I guess that its not that bad. Overall I guess this is a pretty nice place to hangout if food isn’t really on the top of your list.