"Never a Dull moment with me"

MEET MANU CHANDRA, FOUNDER, PARTNER, CHEF MANU CHANDRA VENTURES WHO IS WHIPPING UP A STORM WITH HIS POTS AND PANS ACROSS THE WORLD

-  NAMITA GUPTA

The ever so affable and dapper yet reticent Manu Chandra has been the face of Bengaluru’s culinary scene and is now creating quite a splash after his tryst at the Festival de Cannes 2022. Manu was Chef Partner of the Olive Group of Restaurants and the brainchild behind the award-winning restaurant brands Toast & Tonic Monkey Bar, The Fatty Bao, Olive Beach and Cantan. Most recently Manu was seen at the 75th-anniversary edition of the Festival de Cannes 2022 in the south of France, cooking the inaugural dinner for Indian luminaries, including the union minister, as well as running a unique catering offering with Single Thread at the official India Pavilion at Cannes.

Chef Chandra was invited by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to curate and manage the catering for the India Pavilion at the 75th edition of Festival de Cannes 2022. India is the ‘Country of Honour’ at the Festival de Cannes 2022. It is also the year India is celebrating 75 years of independent, 75 years of Cannes Film Festival, and 75 years of diplomatic relations between France and India.

He first curated the menu for the Inaugural Dinner this year hosted by Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, and Sports and Youth Affairs. The guest list at the inaugural dinner included – H.E. Shri Jawed Ashraf, Indian Ambassador to France, actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, music maestro A.R. Rahman, director Shekhar Kapur, music director Ricky Kej, actor R Madhavan, writer Prasoon Joshi, actress Pooja Hegde, among a host of others.