It all started from small town of Jamshedpur when Atul Kochhar, who qualified an MBBS exam and got selected for one of the prestigious colleges denied to attend the medical college instead showed his interest in taking culinary studies as an option. Nobody, including his family, then knew, that he would become the first Indian chef to win a Michelin star and redefine Indian cuisine at the global level. “I remember when I got the first Michelin and called my father informing him that I have got the star, he was not even aware about the same and asked me why would a tyre company give an award to a restaurant and chef,” he smiles sharing this as his father was his greatest motivation and has helped him in becoming what he is today. At present, he owns some of the top celebrated restaurants in London and also operate a restaurant in Gurgaon, India called ‘Saga’ in partnership with restaurateur Vishal Anand. Excerpts from the interview:

Sustainability as a Trend

We as an Indian society should learn sustainability from our home, our ancestors and parents on how they make everything sustainable around us. I don’t remember anything was wasted at my home when I was a child. Anything, vegetable that used to come at our home was cooked and every part of it was used and whatever was left was minced and used as a manure. And, nothing was wasted ever. It’s important that whatever you have put on the table should be used as food and whatever is not used one should make sure that it’s going back to the earth to make sure it’s grown again.

Entering India

Whenever I come back to India my heart is filled with joy and happiness to see how the hospitality industry is growing and progressing. There’s lots of good restaurants coming in and the youngsters are putting hours to do lots of new things and there’s work around our heritage. I want to see restaurant in the farm where the produce is coming from the farmer and the food is served fresh in the farm. I already operate a restaurant ‘Saga’ in India as of now and there’s no plan having another venture.

India vs UK

Indians who live in UK have the British attitude now as they are living there for a long time. They come with Indian culture but are more British now. They are very different in their attitude, travelled Europe and the world. But the new breed that’s coming out of India, have started to travel are no less. They are affluent and experienced and they have the palate. There was a time when a family of four of Indian origin would come to our restaurant we used to think that we won’t make money but today they are the spenders, they want to experiment and there’s no difference today with rest of the world. And, it’s a great welcoming change that has emerged in the last 10 years. Lots of Indians are adventurous but are not meat eaters. All the American chefs across the world, they have vegan, vegetarian menu now. Now, they are taking special efforts to make beautiful dishes from vegetables and our Indian guests when they go there they have fantastic time because they have the money, affluence. 

Trends in India

There’s lots happening at the culinary sector. One important trend that has come out is opening of more regional and local restaurant and that’s really our strength as a country. And, there will be time when people will fly to India to experience that.