Bangalore Diary

Adventures in cuisine in India's garden city

Where do you take friends for dinner if you are in a city you do not know very well? In my case, there is an added complication: the people I have to take out are often the world's best chefs. They are either people I have conducted events with or just friends, eager to get a taste of India.

In Mumbai and Delhi, it is not so hard. We took the Spanish chef Dani Garcia to Bukhara and he loved it. A few months ago we took Massimo Bottura to Mumbai's Soam and he was fascinated by the paani puri. (Puchka or gol gappa to people who don't live in Mumbai.) I once took Gaggan Anand and his team of chefs to O Pedro in Mumbai and they were delighted.

Sometimes it is even easier. After my event with Alain Ducasse we had lunch at the ISH/Ecole Ducasse complex, eating food prepared by the students. Ducasse had eaten all over Delhi, but he seemed particularly fascinated by Indian Accent, where he had been the day before.

I once had a lazy, wine-fuelled lunch with Heston Blumenthal on a balmy winter's day as the sun poured down on a terrace at the Maurya. The Dum Pukht chefs served him their greatest hits. It was, he said, one of the best afternoons he had ever had. And it certainly was one of the most memorable meals of my life. But then, everything about Heston is special.

I mention all this to explain the quandary I faced when I did an event with the Suhring twins in Bangalore. The Suhring restaurant in Bangkok has two Michelin stars and they have been to both Mumbai and Delhi before. So, where could we take them to eat in the five days they were in Bangalore?

I asked around and I got very little joy.

The responses all went something like this:

"Oh why don't you take them to Vidyaarthi Bhavan/CTR/Brahmins?"

FLAVOURS FROM THE NORTH

The Suhrings liked Kababs and Kurries so much they went back with their team