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RESTAURANT

Michelin-starred Indian chef opens up new restaurant in Madrid

He became the first Indian chef to earn a Michelin star and is widely regarded as one of the best chefs in London. The Local talks to Atul Kochhar as he prepares to launch his new restaurant Benares in Madrid.

Published: 10 August 2015 10:47 CEST
Michelin-starred Indian chef opens up new restaurant in Madrid
The two-michelin starred Atul Kochar will open Benares in Madrid. Photo: Benares

Madrid already has its fair share of Indian restaurants, most of them found in the vibrant streets of  Lavapies but in September something special is happening, and it promises to tickle the taste buds of anyone lucky enough to get a table.

The Local was invited behind the doors of the new Benares, a spin-off from Kochhar’s Mayfair restaurant (which won a Michelin star in 2007) for a sneaky peek ahead of next month’s opening.

 

 

On the upmarket street of Zurbano, just around the corner from the ruling Popular Party headquarters, workmen are busy transforming the site into a colonial style extravangza  that promises to transport diners to the bank of the Ganges.

At front of house will be a cocktail bar with a modern twist on the sort of décor one might have found at an Officers’ club during the Raj – chequerboard tiles, rattan furniture, heavy on the palms – with Indian street food style tapas.


The colonial style cocktail bar at Benares will serve Indian style tapas. Photo: Benares

“I’m going to enjoy playing with the tapas concept drawing influence from street food from all across India,” Kocchar explained.

Moving into the restaurant itself and there is a chef's table alongside the open kitchen where diners will be able to watch Kochhar’s team in action preparing his particular style of cuisine.

It’s hard to pin Kochhar down on his style but he rejects the term 'fusion'.

“I was born in east India, moved with my family to north India and studied in south India so I take influence from all over.  It’s more pan-Indian but it also takes into account locally-grown produce, so Madrid will be different to my other restaurants.”

One of the biggest challenges, he accepts, is to cater for the Spanish palate. “It is a challenge I am really looking forward to. Spanish palates have become a lot more discerning. Spaniards have become more experimental, more open to learning about ethnic food.”

Asked if he is going to tone down the spices for a Spanish audience he insists that won’t be necessary. “Spaniards may not be used to spicy food but in fact my food has always been more about flavours rather than the heat from spices, so I think we’ll be fine.”

But he is going to be trying out new ingredients. “It is very important to adjust to what is available locally and Spain has a huge variety of ingredients that are new to me. I am really looking forward to trying out dishes with octopus and hake, which I haven’t used before.

“Also pork and beef, which I haven’t used in London, is so prevalent here that I will be creating dishes with those meats,” he said. “It’s a chance to get a bit more into the Spanish mindset.”


Diners will be able to watch the team preparing dishes in the open kitchen. Photo: Benares

For intimate occasions there is a private dining room located within the bodega, and diners will be urged to sample some of the 150 labels on the “small wine list”, about half of them Spanish wines alongside wines from the new world including from India itself.

One of the restaurant’s ambitions is to challenge diner’s preconceptions about what to drink alongside a curry.

“Once upon a time people thought only beer went with Indian food. But we will be offering a lot more,” explained general manager Vicente Górriz, a former sommelier. “Indian food actually goes really well with champagne, with heavy white wines, like a New Zealand chardonnay. But red wine is also a very good accompaniment. 

“Right now people want to taste new flavours and they want a sommelier to guide them,” said Górriz.


The ceiling of the main restaurant recalls the wooden slats beneath parasols. Photo: Benares

And while sipping their wine and dining on the exquisite flavours provided by Kochhar’s team, diners will be spirited away to the banks of the Ganges.

Stretching the length of the restaurant above a shallow pool of flowing water, a film shot from a barge floating past the ghats of India’s holy city of Varanasi will be projected onto the exterior wall.

“The idea is to recreate  the feeling of Varanasi, the light, the sights, the smells,” mused Kochhar. “I think people will enjoy it.”

The 44-year-old chef won his first Michelin-star at his London restaurant Tamarind in 2001 before earning another with his Mayfair restaurant Benares in 2007. Could he be set for a third in Madrid?

Benares opens in September at Calle Zurbano, nº5. For reservations call: 913198716 and follow the restaurant on twitter: @BenaresMadrid

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RESTAURANT

Restaurant of legendary chef loses third Michelin star

The restaurant of famed French chef Paul Bocuse, who died almost two years ago, has lost the coveted Michelin three-star rating it had held since 1965, the guide said on Friday.

Published: 17 January 2020 11:01 CET
Updated: 17 January 2020 13:17 CET
Restaurant of legendary chef loses third Michelin star
L'Auberge de Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or was 'no longer at the level of three stars', the guide said. Photo:
The retraction of the coveted three-star ranking, coming just three years after Bocuse's death,  has prompted anger and dismay from many of his peers.
 
The Auberge du Pont de Collonges, near food-obsessed Lyon in southeast France, was the oldest three-starred restaurant in the world, having held the accolade without interruption since 1965.
   
The Michelin Guide told AFP on Friday that the establishment “remained excellent but no longer at the level of three stars” and will have only two in the 2020 edition of the famous red book — known as the “Bible” of French cuisine.
 
The Bocuse d'Or organisation, which holds the annual international cooking competition he created, greeted the announcement with “sadness” and expressed its “unwavering support” for the restaurant.
   
Bocuse's family and his kitchen team said they were “upset” by the decision, and celebrity chef Marc Veyrat, who recently sued the Michelin Guide over a lost third star, described the move as “pathetic”.
   
“Monsieur Paul”, as Bocuse was known, died aged 91 on January 20, 2018, after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
   
Dubbed the “pope” of French cuisine, he was one of the country's most celebrated of all time, helping shake up the food world in the 1970s with the lighter fare of the Nouvelle Cuisine revolution, and helping to introduce the notion of a celebrity chef.
   
Michelin boss Gwendal Poullennec visited Bocuse's restaurant on Thursday to deliver the news, guide spokeswoman Elisabeth Boucher-Anselin told AFP.
   
Even before Bocuse's death, some critics had commented that the restaurant was no longer quite up to scratch.
   
But Michelin's decision, a year after stripping Veyrat of his third star just a year after awarding it, immediately stirred controversy.
 
'Irreparable'
 
While food critic Perico Legasse told BFM television the guide had committed an “irreparable” error in a quest for media attention, Veyrat said he had “lost faith” in a new generation of Michelin editors he accused of trying to make a name for themselves by taking down the giants of French cuisine.
   
“I am sad for the team that took up the torch at Collonges,” tweeted the three-starred chef Georges Blanc.
   
The restaurant has been modernising its look and its menu, pursuing a philosophy its management team describes as “tradition in motion”.   
 
“The chefs have reworked the dishes. They have been refining them for more than a year, evolving them while retaining their original DNA and taste,” the restaurant's manager Vincent Le Roux told a regional newspaper recently.
   
The restaurant is scheduled to reopen on January 24 after three weeks of renovations — three days before the official launch of the latest Michelin Guide.
   
Bocuse described himself as a devotee of traditional cuisine. “I love butter, cream, wine” he once said, “not peas cut into quarters”.
   
According to Michelin, restaurants are selected on four criteria: the quality of the products, the expertise of the chef, the originality of the dishes and consistency throughout the meal and across seasons.
   
But critics say the costs of ensuring such standards have made Michelin stars an untenable proposition as more diners baulk at spending massively on a meal.
   
A handful of French restaurateurs have in recent years relinquished their prized three-star status because of the stress of being judged by Michelin inspectors.
   
In 2018, the guide allowed, for the first time, a restaurant to withdraw from its listings after Sebastien Bras, the chef at Le Suquet, said he no longer wished to cook under that type of pressure.
   
The 2003 suicide of three-star chef Bernard Loiseau was linked, among other reasons, to speculation that his restaurant was about to lose its three stars.
 
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