198 JUNE - JULY 2019
SCAPES | CHEF’S TABLEThe advent of Mumbai’s modern dining scene can, in large part,
be attributed to chef-restaurateur Rahul Akerkar, who has been
serving up some of the city’s most experimental meals for three
decades. Here, the man behind the wildly popular but now-shuttered
Indigo and the newly-opened Qualia, looks back on the milestones
that made him a household nameWHAT’S COOKING
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROHAN HANDEW
hile working restaurants
in New York City in the
1980s, my life played out
like a sex-and-booze-
fuelled episode of
Kitchen Confidential. So, when I came back to
India in 1989 and found the country stuck in a
colonial time warp, with the ‘white sauce baked
diss’ (sic) representing all Western food, I knew
I had my work cut out.
There wasn’t a basil leaf in sight when I
started cooking here. I grew the herb at home
and was the only guy in town with the stuff.
On weekends, we’d have sheets of fresh pasta
drying all over our living room. It was mental. I
even started a delicatessen chain — Indigo Deli —
just so I could make myself, and everyone else,
a wholesome bloody ham and cheese sandwich!
In the early ’90s, cooking here was not craft-
driven, and the restaurant business wasn’t chef
driven; the seths counted money in the front
while the cooks worked in sweatshops in back.
So, when Under The Over opened in Mumbai in
April 1992, on my birthday, there was no other
dining experience quite like it in the country,
outside of a hotel. And when we opened Indigo in
a beautiful heritage bungalow in Colaba seven
years later, at the turn of the century (once again
on my birthday), there was nothing like that either.Indigo became famous for an elevated
dining experience with modern and classic-
modern food at the centre of everything.
The first restaurant in India to have over 300
wine labels and a schmoozy Sunday brunch.
It was just correct ‘restauranting’, if you will.
Sometimes, I think that maybe all we did was
to accidentally be in the right place, at the right
time, just doing things right, you know?
But of course, it’s more than that.
As entrepreneur chefs, we consciously took
the decision to not hide behind our toques
(white hats), and instead, wear them with a
sense of pride and ownership. This also made
us a lot more accountable for what we were
serving our guests. Which was intended to be
innovative, creative, flavour-centric food. A
menu that never ignored its context...
We did a popular red snapper with a solad
chi kadi-inspired sauce, a basil pesto poha and
a tuna loin spiced with methi in a Shiraz wine
and clove reduction. I didn’t just replicate
what I had learned abroad. I adapted it. I had
to. After all, my chefs were Indian, their taste
buds were Indian, my ingredients were Indian
and the audience also, mostly Indian. Growing
up with mixed parentage (an American mother
and a Maharashtrian dad), my taste buds were
all over the place — food at home was always a