Star-spangled dinners

Three Indian restaurants in the US, Indienne, Semma and Rania, have been awarded Michelin stars. Each has broken from tradition, stirring love into the mix

- VIR SANGHVI

Like all other Indian foodies, I am delighted by the news that Michelin has awarded stars to three Indian restaurants in America. Frankly, the choice of the restaurants is no surprise.

Indienne in Chicago, with a famous chef, a manager taken from Alinea, the city's top restaurant and a topnotch American serving staff had long been expected to get a star.

Semma, the hit New York restaurant that is part of Roni Mazumdar and Chintan Pandya's Unapologetic Foods group, already had a star and merely retained it this year.

Washington DC's Rania is both new and not so new. It used to be an excellent restaurant called Punjab Grill and has been relaunched under a new name and with a new chef. I always thought the original Punjab Grill would get a t a Michelin star- it might well have if the pandemic had not intervened.

Do these stars represent a breakthrough? Has Indian food finally made it in America?

I'm not so sure. Contrary to what we may think, there have always been celebrated Indian chefs in America. In the 1990s, Danny Meyer, the king of New York's restaurant scene, opened Tabla with the late great Floyd Cardoz as chef. Floyd combined his mastery of French techniques with his understanding of Indian flavours. Tabla did not get a Michelin star, mainly because there was no Michelin guide to New York until 2006.