Manish Mehrotra is corporate chef of Indian Accent, which is operated by Old World Hospitality. He is one of India’s leading chefs, cooking modern, inventive and critically acclaimed food with international influences. Mehrotra began his career working under Ananda Solomon, one of India’s top chefs, at the Thai Pavilion restaurant in the Taj President hotel in Mumbai. In 2000 he joined Old World Hospitality and became head chef of the pan-Asian Oriental Octopus restaurant at Habitat World, India Habitat Centre, a convention and performing arts centre in New Delhi. In 2009, when Rohit Khattar (founder chairman of Old World Hospitality) opened Indian Accent in the luxury boutique hotel, The Manor, in the lush Friends Colony area of New Delhi, he wanted to create an inventive Indian menu. Manish, who then specialised only in pan-Asian food, offered to work with him. Rohit believed in him and Indian Accent was born. In early 2016, Indian Accent opened in New York at Le Parker Meridian hotel in midtown to critical acclaim. It is scheduled to open in Mayfair, London in late 2017.

The three Indian Accent restaurants are all cool, contemporary spaces that mirror the chef’s cutting-edge approach to Indian cuisine. Mehrotra refracts classical, nostalgic Indian dishes through a prism of modern global techniques and influences so that duck khurchan comes in a cornetto-like cone topped with herb yoghurt and chilli chutney, refined galautis kebabs are served with foie gras and he fashions pulled pork tacos from puffed phulka flatbreads. Mehrotra also offers no less than nine different types of bread including Camembert and potato bhuna kulcha.

Time Out, New York called Mehrotra ‘one of the world’s best Indian chefs’ while the Hindustan Times called him ‘the most exciting modern Indian chef in the world today’. The Times of India said Indian Accent is ‘a path-breaking restaurant … a taste of Indian food 50 years from now … the menu is one of its kind’.

The many accolades won by Manish and Indian Accent include Best Restaurant in India, S. Pellegrino Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2015, 2016 and 2017 (Indian Accent has also been included in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants List for the last three years), Best Chef in India, American Express, No.1 Restaurant in India, Trip Advisor 2014, 2015 and 2016 and Best Restaurant in India, Time Out Food Awards.

Mehrotra’s TV appearances in India include MasterChef India and winning Foodistan, a game show that pitted the best chefs in Indian and Pakistan against each other. He is the author of the Indian Accent Restaurant Cookbook. When not cooking or travelling the world for his work, he lives with his family in New Delhi where he enjoys watching movies and cricket matches and cooking for his 10-year-old foodie daughter, Adah.