Category: Travel

MasterChef’s Sashi Cheliah gears up to launch Pandan Club in Chennai

Sashi was the winner of MasterChef Australia Season 10. This will be his first restaurant in India, in T Nagar, serving Peranakan cuisine and lemongrass cocktails

Police officer turned MasterChef contestant turned chef turned restaurateur Sashi Cheliah seems apologetic about his requirements for his first restaurant in India. “The thing is, we need professional chefs for this project,” he says, over filter coffee at the Leela Palace lobby, glittering with chandeliers and fragrant with vases of marigolds.

In Chennai with World On A Plate, Sashi is relaxing after cooking seven-course degustation menus, two nights in a row, for completely sold-out dinners at The Leela Palace. Then, true to form, the Singapore-born, Adelaide-based chef headed straight from the five-star kitchen to Chennai’s popular Erode Amman Mess for his own dinner. “It was fantastic,” he says, “When it comes to flavour there are so many great places to eat in this city.”

With roots in Tamil Nadu, including grandparents who came from Madurai, he has chosen to launch his restaurant, Pandan Club, in Chennai. A post on his Instagram profile, which has 1,29,000 followers, announcing openings for kitchen personnel resulted in a storm of resumes: many from fans and amateur cooks.

th

Hyderabad: Coin Museum inaugurated; free entry from June 8 to 13

The Saifabad Mint, which dates back to 1903 and excelled in producing coins, notes, stamps, and other engineering goods, is a source of pride for the Deccan heritage.

The Coin Museum at the city’s Mint Compound at Lakdikapul was inaugurated on Tuesday, with the collection displaying a wide range of currency notes, coinage collections, and old handheld tools used to make coins, and other materials like counterweights.

siasat/hyd/first

Another feather in cap for Telangana mountaineer Poorna as she climbs Mt Denali in US

Poorna, who hails from the erstwhile Nizamabad district, scaled the highest peak of Mount Everest at the age of 13 years and became the youngest Indian and the youngest girl in the world to have reached the summit.

“I am very happy to climb Mt Denali, I thank my sponsor Prof YV Gopala Krishna Murthy, Chairman of Ace Engineering Academy, Dr RS Praveen Kumar for identifying my talent and Bhukya Shoban Babu, Chairman of Bhukya Shoban Babu Foundation, Hyderabad, for supporting me,” Poorna said in a statement.

With the sponsorship of the ACE Engineering Academy for the Mt Denali expedition, she started for North America from India on May 18 and reached the starting point Anchorage in Alaska on May 19.


She was accompanied by four other Indians — Ajeet Bajaj, Padma Shri Awardee in adventure sports, Deeya Bajaj, Anmish Varma from Visakhapatnam and Varma, a mountaineer.  

nie/youngest

India, Bangladesh flag off New Jalpaiguri-Dhaka Mitali Express

Three days after restarting two cross-border trains stopped amid Covid-19 pandemic, India and Bangladesh jointly flagged off a new passenger train – Mitali Express – on Wednesday.

The new bi-weekly Mitali Express will connect New Jalpaiguri in North Bengal with Dhaka in Bangladesh through Haldibari in India and then Chilahati in Northern Bangladesh. The train will travel the 513 km distance in about 9-10 hours twice a week from India and back.

ie

Chef Vikas Khanna first Indian to make Gazette Review’s global top 10

Indian celebrity chef Vikas Khanna was ranked sixth in Gazette Review’s rankings of the top 10 global chefs. The list is topped by Gordon Ramsay.

Michelin star celebrity chef Vikas Khanna has been ranked among the top 10 global chefs in the world by Gazette Review, becoming the only Indian chef who has made it to the prestigious list. Gazette Review ranked Mr. Khanna sixth, with British chef Gordon Ramsay leading the list.

The 50-year-old Amritsar-born and New York-based Khanna is known for taking Indian cuisine across the globe and on the world food map. He is the only Indian origin chef who has made it to the list along with great names in the industry.

Mr. Khanna, who also wears other caps including that of being a writer, filmmaker and philanthropist, took to social media on Tuesday and shared his joy on being listed.

In elite company

Others on the list include Anthony Bourdain, Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse, Emeril Lagasse, Marco Pierre White, Heston Blumenthal, Wolfgang Puck and Jamie Oliver.

Mr. Khanna is one of the first Indian chefs to receive international acclaim. Since 2011, his main restaurant Junoon in New York City has received a Michelin star, a hallmark of fine dining.

Mr. Khanna has served food to the former U. S. president Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and many other world leaders and celebrities.

Mr. Khanna is known for creating the most expensive cookbook in the world. From 2011, Khanna hosted five seasons of Master Chef India, a series based on the original British version.

th/first

** From Jharkhand to Singapore, Chandradev Sharma’s fairytale journey . Restaurant Entrepreneur.

Chandradev shared his story with IANS. He said that because of his family’s poor financial condition, he started distributing newspapers at the age of 15-16. In those days the undeclared rule of the Maoists was prevailing in their village and the surrounding areas. He used to give news and information of the area to a newspaper office in Hazaribagh district headquarters. Due to this people also started recognising him as a reporter in the rural areas.

During the year and a half, the company’s director Mahadevan got very impressed with Chandradev’s dedication, hard work and honesty. In those days, the company decided to open a restaurant in Singapore. Mahadevan sent some people, including Chandradev to Singapore. There also, Chandradev started working as a waiter, but his salary increased to Rs 30,000. After a few months, seeing his efficiency, he was made the manager of the restaurant.

Impressed by his behaviour, a frequent customer of the restaurant offered Chandradev to open a new restaurant in partnership. By that time Chandradev had saved about Rs 3 lakh from his salary money. The estimated cost of opening the restaurant was Rs 50 lakh. The person offering the partnership said that even if he invests Rs 6 lakh, he will make him a partner in the restaurant. Chandradev raised the money by borrowing from friends and then opened the first restaurant — Tandoori Culture — in partnership in 2011.

Chandradev did not leave the job of Oriental Cuisine even after opening his restaurant. He worked there during the day and at his restaurant at night. Within a year, his restaurant got established and made a profit of about Rs 50 lakh.

In 2013, another restaurant with a capacity of 70 people with the same name was opened by him on a partnership basis. Chandradev said that as per the rules of Singapore, a person who is not a citizen there is only allowed to do business in partnership with a local citizen.

In the year 2020, on February 28 and 29, on two consecutive days, he opened two different restaurants, namely ‘Tandoori Zaika’ and ‘Salaam Mumbai’.

dw/nri-pio

SCOTLAND: Glasgow Indian restaurant named the best in Scotland, as wedding venue scoops top award

An Indian restaurant and a wedding venue in Glasgow have been named the best in Scotland.

At the Scottish Entertainment Awards, Swadish, on Ingram Street, won the Best Indian Restaurant Award, beating off competition from across Scotland.

There was also success for another three Glasgow venues, as The Auditorium at Òran Mór was given the award for Best Wedding Venue, The Record Factory in Partick, famous for its live music, won the Best Late Night Venue award, and Connolly’s Irish Bar won the Best Irish Bar award.

Swadish has scooped other awards in the past for its fine dining experience, which brings together seasonal Scottish ingredients and traditional and modern Indian culinary techniques.

glasgowworld.com

SCOTLAND : Edinburgh restaurant voted Scotland’s best Indian by Uber Eats hailed as ‘heavenly curry mecca’

An Edinburgh restaurant is celebrating success after it was shortlisted for the inaugural Uber Eats UK and Ireland Restaurant of the Year awards.

Mother India’s Cafe – based on the Old Town’s Infirmary Street – featured as one of ten Scottish nominees, with customers who voted deeming it the best Indian restaurant in Scotland , along with Mother India’s sister sites in Glasgow.

For the next stage in the awards process, customers can view the shortlist and vote for their favourite restaurants from across the UK and Ireland from until 16 June at ubereatsawards.com.

edinburghlive.co.uk

Delhi Airport replaces Dubai as the world’s second busiest airport in March: Report

The Delhi Airport was in 23rd place in March 2019 before the pandemic.

Delhi Airport was the world’s second busiest airport in March 2022 in terms of domestic and international flights handled, said Official Airline Guide (OAG), a global travel data provider, in its recent report.

Whilst Atlanta retains its position as largest, Dubai is knocked out of second place this month (March) by Delhi which moves up from third place last month (February),” the OAG’s report mentioned.

The Delhi Airport was in 23rd place in March 2019 before the pandemic, it added. In March this year, airports in Atlanta in the US, Delhi in India and Dubai in the UAE handled 4.42 million, 3.61 million and 3.55 million seats, it mentioned.

dnaindia.com

** The Indian leg of the Great Backyard Bird Count records an impressive 1,017 species

Hobby birders and students collaborated with naturalists from across the country at the 10th edition of biggest four-day bird-o-thon and documented over 1000 bird species

A pair of bright yellow eyes stared right back at Angeline Mano, a 23-year-old birder, as she zoomed in with her binoculars. Angeline was at Stanley Reservoir in Salem, one of the largest fishing reservoirs in South India, documenting birds for the recently-concluded, annual Global Backyard Bird Count (GBCC). The bulky bird with a finely streaked breast, was a brown fish owl, perched on a branch just 10 metres away.

The India leg of the four-day event, coordinated by Bird Count India, allowed participants to count birds for as little as 15 minutes from a particular location. They upload their sightings online, on eBird (www.ebird.org/india), the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science platform.

th