Manu Chandra READY TO SERVE

The chef talks about his evolution as an entrepreneur, the business of running successful fine-dining restaurants, and his new venture LUPA

- Shrabonti Bagchi

Chef Manu Chandra has been profiled several times in the Indian media, including in the pages of Lounge. Anybody who follows the restaurant scene in India knows about the meteoric rise of the young chef, fresh from culinary school in New York, who took over as executive chef of the Olive group and opened its Bengaluru outpost, Olive Beach, in 2004, helping transform a nascent stand-alone fine-dining scene into the vibrant, competitive space it is today far more interesting than its five-star competition, once the unquestioned leaders of fine-dining in India.

So do we really need another profile of chef Chandra? Well, it becomes difficult to avoid when he reinvents himself so completely every few years. In his new turn as an entrepreneur and business owner, 42-year-old Chandra today is on the brink of opening his own restaurant; one that promises to refresh the jaded fine-dining scene in Bengaluru. He is watched by everyone in the industry-as someone who gave pub food a quality upgrade with Monkey Bar in 2012, brought the baos and ramens of Asian cuisine into focus while breaking the hegemony of Indian Chinese with Fatty Bao in 2014, and propelled the gin revolution in India with Toast and Tonic in 2016 (all in Bengaluru before branching out in other metros). Chandra is universally acknowledged as someone who knows not just what the next big thing is going to be, but who can flip it into an of-the-moment trend.