Bengal on the menu

FOOD: India's largest fine-dining company sets its sights on Delhi now.

Move over tandoori chicken, smoked hilsa is here. Delhi has been shedding its philistine culinary image for some years now, and the latest cuisine to woo the city's palate is Bengali "" highlighted by the entry of speciality restaurant Oh! Calcutta.

Part of a well-known chain with two outlets in Mumbai and one in Kolkata, on the menu are the likes of Kakra Chingri Bhapa (a signature dish; crabmeat and shrimps steamed in banana leaf), Calcutta Irani cutlets (a Jewish influence), Dak Bungalow Chicken (a throwback to the Raj), and fish fry, the likes of which is now perhaps only available in Cal clubs.

The USP is food from a city "that has a 300-year-old culinary history influenced not just by royal Bengal but also by the Mughals, the French, the British...", Anjan Chatterjee, owner, points out. And a bit of Russia too (think Shashlik and Chicken a la Kiev).

"In the last two years people have moved beyond the tandooris and rogan joshs," Chatterjee notes.

The latest Oh! Calcutta is the fourth in the country and underlines Chatterjee's success in establishing what is perhaps India's biggest chain of fine-dining restaurants. Industry insiders point to the difficulties involved with a fine-dining chain (as opposed to McDonald's type fast food joints) "" chiefly consistency and quality control.

It is usually five-star hotels that have attempted to take their brands multi-locational, say a Bukhara/Peshawari by ITC. Adman-turned-restaurateur, Chatterjee is one of the few to have replicated such success.

Chatterjee's "closely-held company" Speciality Restaurants has 21 fine-dining restaurants all over the country. Oh! Calcutta apart, brands like Mainland China (with a presence in Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad; and one coming up in Delhi), and Sigri (serving food from "undivided India") are part of the stable.

The company has an annual turnover of Rs 50 crore (24 lakh covers a year) and hopes to make Rs 70 crore next year "" a far cry from the days when Chatterjee and his wife set up the first Oh! Calcutta, ironically enough in Mumbai in 1990. This was a tiny 32-seater where the couple personally cooked and served.

How does the company meet the challenges of maintaining consistency? It has a dedicated catering school in Kolkata.

"We never hire people across the board like other restaurants," he explains, since "you are only as good as the last customer that walks out of your restaurant". With the aftertaste of a satisfying Daab-Chingri lingering on, you couldn't agree more.