The truffle on your plate in India is rarely the delicacy it pretends to be. What most diners encounter is a loud, perfumed imitation of luxury rather than the real, earthy, fleeting thing. And that illusion has become the new normal—something even chefs struggle to correct. As Chef Parth Saxena, head chef at The Arts Room in Delhi, puts it toward the end of yet another truffle-scented service, “Truffle is aspirational but perishable. So, restaurants resort to oil. And because real infused oil is costly, most settle for synthetic versions. Tha…
Italian food is often reduced to its staples — pasta, pizza, and risotto — but this week at Sorrento, Shangri-La Eros’s fine-dining restaurant, Michelin-starred chef Riccardo Sculli is bringing Delhi a very different slice of south Italy--his hometown Calabria. The region, largely rural and blissfully untouched by mass tourism, is known for its vast coastline, sunset-perfect beaches, and its fiery seafood-forward cuisine. At this five-day pop-up, chef Sculli — renowned for his seafood restaurant Gambero Rosso — brings the flavours of his chil…
Some of the world’s healthiest and longest-living people follow the practice of hara hachi bu — an eating philosophy rooted in moderation. This practice comes from a Japanese Confucian teaching which instructs people to only eat until they’re around 80% full. More recently, it’s been gaining attention as a strategy for weight loss. But while hara hachi bu might emphasise eating in moderation and stopping before you’re full, it shouldn’t really be as seen as a method of dietary restriction. Rather, it represents a way of eating that can he…
TOKYO: Japanese sushi legend Jiro Ono won three Michelin stars for more than a decade, the world’s oldest head chef to do so. He has served the world’s dignitaries and his art of sushi was featured in an award-winning film. After all these achievements and at the age of 100, he is not ready to fully retire. “I plan to keep going for about five more years,” Ono said last month as he marked Japan's “Respect for the Aged Day” with a gift and a certificate ahead of his birthday. What’s the secret of his health? “To work,” Ono replied to the…
Pooja stands silently in the corner of Matamaal, her fingers tracing the edge of a faded photograph on the wall. Her eyes glisten as the smell of saffron and walnuts drift through the air. “It feels like home,” she says. This is no ordinary restaurant. It has a portal—a place where food, memory, and identity intertwined. Matamaal—“House of Grandmother”—is the dream of Nalini Moti Sadhu and her husband Surender. What began as a small effort to serve authentic Kashmiri Pandit cuisine in Delhi has grown into something far deeper: a living archiv…
From the comfort of Indian cuisine to global delicacies, everything finds a home in this city. But with that abundance, it’s easy to get lost. Sometimes, all you want is a place where you can just relax—have a chill brunch with friends or family without feeling like picking a restaurant is a pre-brunch workout in itself. Freshly revamped, Marièta in Gurugram reopens as a Euro-Asian Kitchen & Bar—exactly the kind of space that’s laidback, unfussy, and effortlessly charming. According to Sukriti Chopra, the brand and strategy head of Nineca…
Matcha, a centuries old green powerhouse drink that once fuelled Zen monks, is finding its way from Instagram’s addictive algorithms to modern kitchen menus. Forget the basic tea. It’s more than just the ordinary tea and iced lattes—that your feed is pushing for. Chefs across the world are brewing this newly found ‘green gold’, into things which even that crazy viral Instagram reel won’t show up. It’s part of the soft serve ice creams, fudgy brownies, fluffy soufflé pancakes, chewy mochi doughnuts, and even the unimaginable velvety cheesecakes…
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