Happy Times
Bhatia is interested in keeping his guests happy as well, and is always imagining different ways to do just that.
He says: “The last thing I want is for people to come and say they didn’t have a good meal at my restaurant. That will hurt me.”
Creating food memories therefore, is Bhatia’s way of making sure diners at his venues leave satisfied. “It’s a constant thing for us, we’re always constantly trying to do something different and interesting, which people tend to remember and take back with them. For me especially, restaurants are all about going to a venue and having food memories,” he says.
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“In Dubai for example, the quality is already upmarket and classy. So what makes you stand apart from them? I want people to come here and remember what they get. I want them to say, ‘wow, I had an amazing meal’,” he adds.
He says this only happens when food is cooked with passion. “You have got to look after the guest. If you are cooking for your ego then you better close shop.”
And while fine dining restaurants don’t often see the presence of young children, Bhatia’s Indego by Vineet does have families dining out from time to time.
He welcomes this trend and says: “A lot of young children now are coming to our restaurant, which I think is very flattering because they feel quite comfortable. They are the future of our restaurants — when they are used to eating good food, they will go back.
They are memories you can never take away, and that is why, we as adults crave for the food our mom used to make at home, or me craving the chaat I used to have on Mumbai’s streets.
Those are the flavours we try and create in our restaurants with our own twist and style.”
Making a Menu
And indeed, Bhatia’s restaurants are known for their unexpected twists with traditional Indian food. He reveals that a new tasting and dessert menu has been worked on for Indego by Vineet at Grosvenor House Dubai, and will be a “good eye opener for everybody in Dubai on what can be done” and adds: “But one thing we will never compromise on is our authentic flavour and style of cooking.”
A hands-on chef, Bhatia cooks the dishes for his teams before letting them try it out themselves. “Nothing will change on the menu without me trying it out or trialling it myself first,” he says.
On the menu for his only restaurant in Dubai, Indego by Vineet, you will find intriguing items like cinnamon panna cotta paired with regular desserts instead of the trademark kulfi (ice cream), or butterscotch popcorn. Not just your regular high-end Indian restaurant then.
Bhatia smiles and says: “I don’t want to offer something which you can get in your normal restaurant or household. Everybody makes a halwa at home, but a halwa can also be modified, and that’s what we do. We add barley in them, we add apple in them, and apples go well with cinnamon, so the first thought is to put cinnamon in some form, so you add the cinnamon panna cotta ... you don’t want to be serving an ice cream or kulfi all the time.
“We have now come to the stage where we are pushing the food a little more, trying to be a lot more cutting edge, a lot more adventurous, trying to push the boundaries.”
He continues: “Luckily I can close my eyes and taste food, it’s a blessing. And fortunately it’s always worked.”
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