There has been talk of celebrity chef Dharshan Munidasa, the half Sri Lankan–half Japanese man behind the popular Ministry of Crab restaurant in Colombo, opening an outlet in India, for sometime now
Dharshan Munidasa
That old crab story?
There has been talk of celebrity chef Dharshan Munidasa, the half Sri Lankan–half Japanese man behind the popular Ministry of Crab restaurant in Colombo, opening an outlet in India, for sometime now. It was earlier learnt that Virat Kohli, who was a fan of the enterprise, had shown interest in partnering with the chef in Mumbai. Now, word comes in that Munidasa will have a Ministry of Crab outlet in India next year.
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Also read: This is where Virat Kohli, Sanjay Dutt, Sachin Tendulkar go to eat crabs
Virat Kohli at The Ministry of Crab
"Chef Munidasa has been in talks with Ramit Mittal, the nephew of Bharti Group chairman Sunil Mittal, for some time now," informs our source. Ramit is the enterprising promoter of the UK-based Pizza Express chain in India, and has seemingly convinced Munidasa to finally open his restaurant in India, in partnership with him. "Ministry of Crab India will be followed by Munidasa's other top-rated Japanese restaurant Nihonbashi at a later stage," adds our source. For the beatific smiling, Buddha-resembling Munidasa, known to be one of Asia's top 50 chefs, the expansion plans of a new franchise and talk of an upcoming London outlet is par for the course. But we wonder whether MOC will be able to challenge the long-standing perches of the city's other eateries famous for crab dishes – Trishna and Gajalee. That will be a claw to the finish.
Rose McGowan and Suhel Seth
Biryani nights in Dilli
Friday evening saw a glittering do with the Capital's best and brightest in attendance, when (as first reported on this page) marketing guru and world traveller Suhel Seth opened the doors to his sprawling apartment in Gurgaon, for a dinner in the honour of the visiting Naomi Campbell and Rose McGowan (Bianca Jagger had to cancel her trip). Naomi was in the country for a day, to speak at a high-profile conference, about her numerous philanthropic ventures, and she along with Rose McGowan (who had recently spoken about the sexual misconduct of disgraced former Hollywood honcho Harvey Weinstein), were overheard talking about their mutual love for India.
Seth's eclectic guest list included Bollywood designer Manish Malhotra (who had dressed Naomi in a traditional red saree for the occasion), Natasha and Adar Poonawalla (who was in Delhi to receive his 'Indian of the Year Award' along with Virat Kohli), besides Rohit Bal, Bina Ramani, Pablo Ganguli, Roshan Seth and Raian Karanjawala amongst others.
Manish Malhotra, Naomi Campbell
And we are informed the party went on till the wee hours with the two guests of honour dancing to Bollywood tunes, followed by a quintessential 'Dilli' after-party meal of Dal Bukhara, Butter Chicken and Dum Biryani!
Karam Puri and Priya Kapoor
New Age and old-world charm
It's been a spate of high-profile weddings in Delhi these past few weeks, and what's interesting is rather than occurring within the Capital's political and business clans, they are to celebrate nuptials amongst its leading intelligentsia and self-made professionals. No sooner had the ceremonies been completed at legal luminaries Manik and Raian Karanjawala's daughter Tahira's wedding to Jatin Mongia, when the other legal luminary, Harish Salve, and wife Meenakshi hosted the wedding of their daughter Sakshi over the weekend, which saw the likes of Mukesh Ambani and Amitabh Bachchan amongst others in attendance. Now, it's the turn of Priya Kapoor, publisher of Roli books and daughter of its founder, Pramod and Kiran Kapoor, who is marrying photojournalist Karam Puri, in a union as serendipitous, New Age bookish and old-fashioned as you can get.
Priya Kapoor at her mehendi ceremony along with her family members
As she tells it, Priya had been reading a book over a weekend getaway, on a relatively obscure subject, and been moved to post about it on Instagram. She was delighted to receive a considered comment on it that turned out to be an informed fellow bibliophile, Karam Puri, who'd been traveling the world as a photojournalist. After months of communicating via social media, the impassioned publisher and intrepid photographer had met to discuss a project, which after months of research and travel had become the award-winning 'Dining with the Nawabs' by Meera Ali for Roli with photographs by Puri. But more than a book had emerged from that initial response on Instagram. Priya and Karam had decided to get married. But made in publishing heaven, as this union the product of New Age IT is, it could just have likely been an arranged one - both bride and groom are products of the Indian public boarding school system with similar interests and passions. When do you intend to focus on your upcoming wedding, we had teased Priya a few weeks before the event. The bride had blushed, but kept right on discussing new projects and work. But sources from Delhi inform that as expected, she makes for a lovely bride and that the festivities include an elegant Lucknow 'chaat' lunch in old-world charm.
What's interesting is a slice of Mumbai media's young turks namely Malini Agarwal (Miss Malini) and Devraj Sanyal; old friends with the Kapoor siblings, Kapil and Priya, will add the Mumbai zing to the celebrations.
Madhulika Bhattacharya, Ashwini Kakkar and Dildeep Kalra
Here's some of the city's best food, wine and limericks
If there is any doubt that Mumbai is witnessing its most acute foodie phase till date, then this could be the clincher. Last week, the city saw two back-to-back dinners featuring some of the world's best international foods and wines. Thursday evening saw two of Delhi's formidable F&B divas, Madame la Cave (Madhulika Bhattacharya) and Dildeep Kalra of Massive Foods invite a few friends for a sit-down six-course dinner at Kode, Lower Parel, in the company of Jean-Marie Bourgeois, the 10th generation of the family, which produces some of the Famed Henri Bourgeois wines of Loire Valley, including Sancerre and Pouilly Fume. The next evening, the Taj Chambers hosted Michelin Star chefs Fernando Rodriguez of A Estacion and Rafael Centeno of Maruja Limon, for a five-course sit-down dinner with wines, paired by a celebrated father-son duo as part of its Spanish extravaganza (there were tapas and flamenco on the terrace too).
Both dinners saw their share of high-profile guests. Bhattacharya and Kalra had on their table the likes of ad guru Sonam Dabral with wife Beverly Soares Dabral, Aarti and Kailash Surendranath and Nisha JamVal with her delightful and feisty mother Shashi, a former Xavierite, who regaled us with stories of Mumbai in the sixties. What's more, the dinner had also given rise to much food for thought. Corporate head honcho Ashwini Kakkar was so inspired by the evening that he penned a few limericks commending the occasion, which he scribbled onto the back of the menu, dedicated to Zorawar Kalra and the evening's two hostesses, and read it out to great applause. We could not get our hands on the ones to Zorawar, but for the ladies, Kakkar had penned, 'All came in their suits and not in jeans Of food and beverage they were queens Madhulika and Dildeep Had us all in a heap The place for 'boomers' and 'teens'. Guess you had to be there…
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