OT: Where did you grow up?
Vineet Bhatia: I’m a Bombay boy. I grew up in Santa Cruz, went to St Xavier’s and then moved to Father Agnel for my pre-engineering.
OT: How was your relationship with food as a child?
Vineet Bhatia: Tenuous. Of course, we had good, simple Punjabi food at home but I was a poor eater, too picky. And, no, Rasoi wasn’t even on the horizon.
OT: Pre-engineering? Really? What got you into the food lane?
Vineet Bhatia: Well, in the end my grades were too low for engineering. I had a couple of false starts as well—I gave the NDA a shot; I tried textile design. I finally settled on a course in hotel management, with suitable discouragement from the family. It was while interning with the Oberois over the summer that I discovered my muse. There was no vacancy in the bar (which I had been rather keen on), so I was assigned to the kitchen. I was a willing bakra, quite happy to cut the baingans and the bhindis, do the dishes. I think the cooks were a bit lazy—so they eventually let me do the cooking as well.
OT: You went on to work with the Oberois. What was that like?
Vineet Bhatia: We were told to forget everything we had learnt in catering college. The first three months were spent doing just that, as they trained us to their standards. My heart was in Indian food, so although they put me in the continental section, I used to go down to the Indian kitchen in my spare time. My motives were purely selfish. I went on to run the Indian operations at both the Oberoi hotels in Mumbai. I was just 22.
OT: How did you land up in London?
Vineet Bhatia: At the Oberoi they would do things only a certain way—at least when it came to Indian food. I wasn’t growing as a chef. I’d do a mango raita with a tadka and serve it with kababs, and people would be horrified. But if a continental chef did a mango-flavoured mayo and paired it with duck, he’d be heaped with praise. That really pissed me off. So when an opportunity came up (in 1993), I left. I chose London because of—believe it or not—my fascination with flying. Heathrow is this great aviation hub and I was thrilled at the prospect of living here. I think moving to London was the biggest and boldest thing I ever did.
OT: Did London treat you well in the early years?
Vineet Bhatia: It was a struggle. I was just 24. After a rather cushy stint at the Oberoi, the city was a shock. I worked at the Star of India, which was nothing more than a glorified curry house, with a contrived menu designed to please British taste buds. The owners were supportive though and let me fool around with the dishes. But when I made a proper rogan josh, the customers complained bitterly (“Where’s that capsicum gaaaarnish?”). So I decided to call it ‘slow-cooked Kashmiri shank of lamb’ instead. We ultimately created a special section in the menu called ‘Contemporary Indian’. I’d do a tandoori chicken but marinate it in a Goan-style green masala. That’s when the press started to take notice.
OT: How did Rasoi Vineet Bhatia come about?
Vineet Bhatia: After five years at the Star, I left. We went through a rough patch. I worked at a place that never really took off. I had a young wife and a child and at one point we had a £10,000 overdraft on our credit card. In 1999 I opened Zaika in partnership. Although we got a Michelin star two years later, the idea had never been to gun for accolades—we just wanted to make the restaurant a financial success. It was at Zaika that I started plating Indian food the European way and came up with five-course tasting menus. The Michelin star created quite a buzz—this was the first time an Indian restaurant had got one. Although Zaika did well, the partners chose to plough the profits back into other restaurants rather than pay out dividends to ourselves. In 2004, I decided to strike out on my own. We got a bank loan with our house as collateral and opened Rasoi. Everyone said, the guy can cook but he can’t run a restaurant. Six years and eleven restaurants later, we’re still here.
OT: So what’s all the fuss about? How is a Vineet Bhatia dish different from its desi avatar?
Vineet Bhatia: If you close your eyes and eat our food, it will taste a hundred per cent Indian. But if you open your eyes, you’ll see it looks very contemporary, visually very attractive. And it’s a jugalbandi of flavours. The fish could be Goan, the base a South Indian upma, the sauce North Indian. Indian food has great depth and flavours, and I try to tap into that.
OT: What’s the Rasoi experience like?
Vineet Bhatia: The restaurant is very cosy, the service personal. We’re in a Chelsea townhouse and you actually have to ring a bell to get inside. We like to think of ourselves as a boutique restaurant—we just do fifty covers. In 2006, we got our Michelin star. Rasoi is a well-oiled machine now, but my wife Rashima and I are still pretty hands-on. We’re one of the most expensive restaurants in the UK (£110-150 per person), so it’s a special-occasion place.
OT: That’s expensive! Will we be able to afford a meal at Rasoi anytime soon?
Vineet Bhatia: To be honest, it’s not cost-effective to bring prices down and offer the same experience and quality. At least not at this time.
OT: What are your signature dishes?
Vineet Bhatia: Oh, there are so many. We do this lobster with ginger, chilli and curry leaf. It’s served with a broccoli khichdi, and on the table we sprinkle it with unsweetened cocoa. The bitter cocoa counters the natural sweetness of the lobster and actually enhances it. Our smoked tandoori salmon is no cousin of the Scandinavian variety. It comes to the table in a cloche filled with smoke so when you open it, there’s all this smoke everywhere and then it’s gone in seconds. It’s pure theatre. Our chocolate samosa, which we serve with a gulab ice cream, is a hot seller.
OT: Any ingredients you’re particularly excited about?
Vineet Bhatia: Actually the really basic ones—curry leaf, ginger, cumin and mustard seeds. They’re so versatile and can be added at any stage. But if you were to ask me to pick a favourite, I’d say it’s saffron. It’s so luxurious, so sexy to have in a dish.
OT: You use European ingredients and techniques liberally. Do these agree with Indian food?
Oh, yes. I mean foie gras is at the end of the day our kaleji. At our restaurant, we crust it with kadhai masalas and pan-sear it. We do a wild mushroom naan. And we pair our wild mushroom khichdi with a sweetish makhani ice cream. The hot and cold combination tickles the palate and prevents taste fatigue (an important consideration for a seven-nine course meal). Our food is very wine-friendly as well.
OT: When Vineet Bhatia’s not cooking, where’s he eating?
Vineet Bhatia: I don’t like overly done or overly presented food. In London, frequent Nobu and Ronda Locatelli. I love Japanese khana, its emphasis on subtle flavours, quality ingredients and technique. Ronda Locatelli is this back-to-basics Italian joint.
OT: Are the many Rasois cookie-cutter copies of each other?
Vineet Bhatia: The essence is the same. But our Mauritian restaurant relies on a lot of seafood. The Geneva restaurant is heavy on red meats. At Ziya, in Mumbai, the flavours are stronger. We’re on home turf, so we’re not shy of using masalas. There are more vegetarian options at Ziya as well.
OT: So how many Michelin stars do you have right now?
Vineet Bhatia: Two. One each for the Rasois in London and Geneva.
OT: What about molecular gastronomy? Been there, done that?
Vineet Bhatia: I’m not a big fan. I know it has something of a cult following these days but I like my food to be natural, to be real. You don’t want to have a fancy ten-course meal and come out feeling like you’ve eaten nothing at all.
OT: Chefs you admire?
Vineet Bhatia: I’m primarily a self-taught guy. So I don’t really have role models. But I do admire chefs like Alain Ducasse and Joël Robuchon. They’re serious professionals. You’ll never see them on the telly, or faffing around. And they’ve achieved this extremly efficient system which enables them to run dozens of restaurants around the world without compromising one bit on quality. I see myself in the same tradition.
OT: Is it true that British food is finally becoming respectable?
Vineet Bhatia: There is certainly a movement in the UK. British cuisine is no longer about boiled ham, bacon and cabbage. Many of the younger chefs, who’ve trained in France, have returned with new techniques and ideas. What we have done to our khana, they are doing to their food. They’re adapting.
OT: Never wanted to be on TV?
Vineet Bhatia: Not really. A food show should be an eye opener, an education. Not gimmicky, like most of them are.
OT: Gordon Ramsay’s India series was certainly an eye-opener.
Vineet Bhatia: Was it? I think the show barely scratched the surface and he modernised the food a bit too much.
OT: Ziya and Azok in Mumbai have been a homecoming of sorts, particularly Ziya at the Oberoi. How does it feel to have your own restaurant replace Kandahar, where you started out?
Vineet Bhatia: I am very happy to be back at the Oberoi. But like I told Mr Oberoi, if you want someone to make maa ki dal and chicken tikka, then I’m not the right chap for the job. He gave me a free hand and I opened Ziya. It’s a fine dining place, while Azok is more a lounge, serving tapas-style eats.
OT: You’ve played your part in making the British aware that there’s more to Indian food than chicken tikka masala. But is there a curry house you fancy?
Vineet Bhatia: No, no, they are all universally vile. I dread to go back.
OT: What about keeping the fine tradition of Balti cuisine alive?
Vineet Bhatia: When I was a kid, a balti was something we used for washing our backside in the morning. Tradition? It’s a cuisine contrived in Birmingham and should have died a quiet death there.
OT: Do you travel around India to keep those creative juices flowing?
Vineet Bhatia: Actually, I’ve never done that. I do Goan curries, but I’ve only been to Goa as a child. I do a fish moilee but I’ve never been to Kerala. But I’m hoping to travel with my family to Rajasthan this month. On a proper holiday.