Says Sharmi

Happy faces at Uno Chicago Bar & Grill I’ve eaten quite a few pizzas in these 35 years. Some really good ones, some exactly the opposite. Some fat ones, some the size of zero. Some oozing with molten cheese, some so dry that the Indian chapati felt softer in comparison. Some absolutely fresh and aromatic, some giving away the synthetic taste of canned marinara. Some just out of the woodfire oven, with the buffalo mozzarella glistening against the cherry tomatoes and rocket leaves, some sadly making do with tinned jalapeno, shrivelled up mushrooms and stringy chicken. Yes, I have had quite a few pizzas in these 35 years. But today I ate the best one of my life. A deep dish pizza that resembled a pie. Where the dough didn’t overpower the sauce and the cheese. A pizza that was invented at Chicago’s Uno Bar & Grill in 1943, and which has stood the test of time. Where the mozzarella folded in the chicken chunks perfectly without taking away from the flavour of the to

You might want to check the credentials of Chef Sujan Sarkar before walking into Baar Baar at Khan Market. He's an illustrious one. One of the first proponents of the farm-to-table concept, Chef Sarkar's mark is felt at this sunny little restaurant. That is if you are seated on the top floor. The lower rung is stylish in dusky pink and jade, in tandem with its New York cousin, the original space where the Chef dishes out a modern interpretation of regional Indian cuisine.   Well, haven't we heard that before? Modern Indian, contemporary twist, nouvelle, et al... It was time to test Chef Sarkar's rendition... Or rather, the tricks he has trained Chef Harpal Singh with… We couldn’t wait. The sun was streaming in, the homemade hummus and crisps had been pecked on and we were raring to go. Winters are for digging into good food and after Olive and Ek Bar, this was another turf that promised fun. While we waited for the food to be brought out at this India

The thing about weddings is that you throw the diet out of the window. That is, if your lifestyle is controlled by one. Regardless of what your stomach can brook, you gorge on delicacies one after the other as if there was no tomorrow and pray to God about making it to the next day by popping a digestive pill. No meal can be missed because weddings do not happen every day. So, the pill with the enzymes better be a strong one! I’m talking about Bengali weddings, where even if you do not remember what the bride wore or how beautiful the hall decoration was, there is detailed analysis of the mutton kosha, the pulao and the maacher paturi served at the party for the next ten years at least! When I received an invitation from the Holiday Inn to partake of Chef Regimon’s rendering of specialities from God’s Own Country, I tried to wriggle out. I was just back from Calcutta having participated in the wedding of my only blood brother. The only thing the body needed was to feed on it