And finally in Mumbai

Indian Accent's new outpost, at the Jio Centre in BKC, features its modern-Indian classics, plus brave new additions that keep Manish Mehrotra ahead of the game

- VIR SANGHVI

I was at a preview of the stunning new Indian Accent in Mumbai (which may have opened to the general public by the time you read this), and as I tasted the food (on current form: better than the Delhi original), I thought back to the seminal role Indian Accent has played in the development of modern Indian cuisine.

I know because I saw it from the very beginning. It happened this way: I met Rohit Khattar in the 1990s, when he was running Chor Bizarre in Delhi. It was a revelation: The first real attempt to take authentic Kashmiri cuisine out of the state.

But Khattar, who had studied hoteliering in America, was not content. He wanted to open all kinds of new restaurants. Some were ahead of their time. His spa-cuisine/health food restaurant was an unusual addition to Delhi's restaurant scene. He opened an American diner long before the hamburger boom reached India.

But it was the third one, a pan-Asian place called Oriental Octopus that really shook Delhi up. Though I did not know it then, the mainstay of the kitchen was a young chef called Manish Mehrotra, who had trained at the Thai Pavilion in Mumbai.

Rohit spotted Manish's talent early on at the Habitat Centre restaurant, and when he opened a club called Tamarai in London, he'd sent Manish to be the chef there.

That's when I first met Manish and ate his food. I knew right away that he was an exceptional talent but at that stage, he was still an Oriental chef.