New Delhi Rising

Priyam Chatterjee shares how a new breed of young chefs is pushing culinary boundaries in India’s capital.

The roots of North Indian cuisine comes from its history of enduring countless royal invasions. Each empire brought its own food culture to New Delhi, blended with the city’s supply of spices and local resources. The city saw a heavy influence of meat following the Persian invasion; the Mughals brought with them colonial British influences such as cream, which gave rise to the world famous murg makhani; while Indian partition refugees from the north western frontier provinces also added their own Indo-Pakistani flavour to food. New Delhi is a culinary melting pot of different flavours and genres, and there’s much more to its cuisine than just daal, tandoori chicken and naans.

A new wave of local produce

New Delhi’s dining scene is best described as being adventurous and curious, offering myriad international cuisines be it Italian, French, Spanish, Asian fusion or modern Japanese. Now we have an increasing number of Asian-influenced restaurants that are constantly pushing new flavour profiles through vibrant produce sourced from local farms and markets.