How many times have you been here? I ask as we settle down at Lan Thai, situated in the foyer of the 5th Avenue Mall, on Bangalore’s busy Brigade Road. “Twice,” smiles Manu Chandra, executive chef of Bangalore’s Olive Beach. “That’s saying a lot as I don’t eat out much,” he clarifies.
Lan Thai is busy on a Saturday afternoon. The 15-odd tables are occupied by students, families and even some tourists. The manager, who doubles up as the waiter and junior chef (he was busy peeling onions in between taking orders), finally makes his way to our table.
The menu is extensive and representative of street-side food in Bangkok. We order stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts; green papaya salad in a spicy, tangy sauce, beef chilly, vegetables with mushrooms, sweet chilly chicken and vegetable phad thai.
Chandra, who is also the chef partner of The Fatty Bao and Monkey Bar restaurants across the country and the recently opened Toast and Tonic in Bangalore, studied history at St. Stephens college, Delhi, before applying to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York. His advice to other budding chefs is to get an education before going for something that is seemingly vocational. “Look around you, all the chefs who do well nowadays, professionally and commercially, are those with varied backgrounds. “They are not just ‘bawarchis’ in the true sense.”
While in the US, Chandra volunteered at different restaurants every weekend. “That’s how it’s supposed to be. Unfortunately, it doesn’t exist in this country. Kids just want to party as opposed to working and getting their hands dirty and learning how the real kitchen works.” “You cannot become a chef by reading recipe books,” he adds.
Before returning to India, Chandra worked on the opening team of the Mandarin Oriental in Manhattan. It was one of the biggest openings in Manhattan in decades. “It was very challenging but also a phenomenal experience as it was very high profile. Everybody and anybody was there — from U2 and Bono to Madonna.” But work was killing and overtime was the norm. “I once clocked 110 hours of overtime in a 45-hour week,” smiles Chandra.
So why did he return to India? “I always wanted to return to India. I was just looking for the right opportunity.” That opportunity arose when Chandra met restaurateur A.D. Singh at Olive Bar & Kitchen, Delhi. “It was during the winter and I was dressed like a New Yorker with my overcoat, designer sweater and shoes. AD, being the fashionista that he is, said that look at this young child who has come for an interview for a cook’s position and is so well dressed, he’s hired,” laughs Chandra as he recounts the episode.
AD told Chandra that he was planning to open a third Olive in Bangalore and would like Chandra to set it up. “I was like, are you sure you want to hand it over to a 23-24-year-old and he was like yeah, why not. So that was that.”
Ten years ago, Bangalore wasn’t as cosmopolitan as it is today. While there was an IT boom and a decent expat population, the local Bangalorean wasn’t exposed to the kind of food that Olive was offering. “People’s unwillingness to try anything different or new was the largest impediment. People were still stuck to their pasta drowning in spicy sauce, insipid and overcooked and here I was trying to do a dry cavatelli with country sausages and sage. Their reaction was, what are these guys trying to do? The expats, on the other hand, loved it.” Olive survived the first couple of years thanks purely to the expat population. “There were evenings when we didn’t have a single table occupied by an Indian.” But Chandra stuck to his guns and refused to compromise on the menu. Olive started a brunch which was hugely popular as it was the first standalone restaurant to do so. It got a lot of traction. “It opened the gates for a large number of people who came in for value and then realised it wasn’t that bad.” Soon the tide turned. Today, 10 years later, Olive is one of the most popular restaurants in Bangalore. “Last year was our best year ever,” says Chandra. “You have to keep working. You cannot forget your roots, you cannot forget the kitchen and you have to keep pushing. You can’t get complacent in this business,” he adds.
As our food arrives, a group of international students stream into the restaurant. Bangalore has a huge student population from the Far East, and Lan Thai is popular among them. “Food here is non fussy and unpretentious. It has big flavours and that’s what Thai food is all about,” says Chandra, as we dig in. He gives the thumbs up to the chicken and mushroom dishes but suggests that the beef could be improved with a better cut of meat.
So is it authentic? “Authenticity is overrated. If you keep saying authentic, nothing new will ever come up. Being true to flavour and true to form is important. Could I improve it (the beef chilly) by using a different cut of meat? Yes. Would that make it authentic? No, but it would make it better,” explains Chandra. “What defines authenticity? Is it a time-frame? If something is 70 years old does it become authentic or does it move generation to generation. It’s a very prosaic and badly used concept. I don’t buy it for a minute.”
What about fusion cuisine? What does he think about that? “It is impossible to create cuisine without fusing different influences. Indian food wouldn’t be Indian food if we didn’t have influences from everywhere. Bengali food will not be Bengali food without chenna. As per Hinduism, anyone who split milk was a heretic. The entire Bengali cuisine is based on chenna so they are all heretics. The Portuguese infused it. The rasgulla is more Portuguese than Bengali. Is that not fusion? Of course it is,” he says excitedly.
CHEF'S PICKS
Chef Manu Chandra’s five favourite places to eat in Bangalore
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VEENA STORES
187, 15th Cross, Margosa Road, Malleshwaram
Must Try: Idli, vada and chutney; Bisibele Bhath
DAKSHIN
ITC Windsor, 25 Windsor Square, Golf Course Road, Sankey Road
Must Try: The non-veg thali at lunch; melagu kari — lamb cooked with pepper
KUDLA
16, Raja Ram Mohan Roy Road, Richmond Road
Must Try: Seer fish rava fry; chicken ghee roast
RIM NAAM
The Oberoi, 37-39, MG Road
Must Try: Steamed fish in lemon, coriander and garlic; stir fried tenderloin with fresh chilli and sweet basil
TREAT
3047, HAL 2nd Stage, 80 Feet Road, Indiranagar
Must Try: Masaledar bhindi; baingan ka bharta
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It was Chandra’s desire to create something new that led to the Monkey Bar and then The Fatty Bao chain of restaurants being set up. “As a company we were missing one of the largest chunks of the market — the mid-market. So we knew we wanted to do something in that space.” Monkey Bar started much as a mom-and-pop operation, “We put different things that we liked to eat on the menu. But it resonated with so many people at so many levels. Suddenly gastropub became a buzz word for everybody. We put things like vada pao on a pub menu and made it trendy.”
Chandra tries not to micro-manage the Monkey Bar or The Fatty Bao restaurants in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai, but he does get involved. The new dishes being put on the menu are being created by the team itself. “Of course, I taste it and try and improve it in whichever way I can before it is put on the menu.”
What about setting up a place serving Indian food? “I just haven’t had the time or the right opportunity to do so but I’m very keen. I’ve prepared Indian food for the longest time. I still do, but only for select people. I have a very different approach to it. I would rely on the techniques that I have learnt over the years and then refine them to fit with that flavour profile. That’s not really happening today. Hopefully I can do it before the next person does.
