Dhamaka’s explosive success story
Anil Mulchandani
When the New York Times Food Critic announced New York’s Top 10 New Restaurants of 2021, topping the list was Dhamaka which is an Indian restaurant by Chef Chintan Pandya and restaurateur Roni Mazumdar that specializes in Indian food from the villages and small towns ofIndia.
In the same year, Chintan Pandya was recognised with the James Beard Award for Best Chef. The Indian food story of Dhamaka has fast become legendary. “ Most of the prestigious awards and lists recognise French and other western food restaurants. It is therefore an honour to have Dhamaka topping New York’s Top 10 New Restaurants list in New York Times. Esquire named us among the Best New Restaurants in America, 2021. TimeOut rated it among the 23 Best New Restaurants Around the World. New York Magazine (GrubStreet) ranked Dhamaka among The Best Restaurants of 2021. Finally, Indian restaurants like Dhamaka are talked about as exciting new openings, competing with French, European, Chinese, Mexican, Japanese or Pan-Asian restaurants that have dominated the lists. We had 5 Indian nominations as finalists, making 2021 a memorable year for our cuisine in the USA’’, says Chef Chintan Pandya.
What Dhamaka has done is herald a revolution in Indian food in New York. Not by creating a fusion style of indeterminate origin or making yet another Modern Indian Restaurant, but by bringing what Chef Pandya calls `Real Indian Food’ to the Big Apple. “I have explored small towns and villages in my quest to learn about Indian home food, as it is made away from the metros and cosmopolitan cities like Mumbai where I grew up,’’ says Chef Pandya. He states that India has a population of 1.4 billion with many cuisines and micro-cuisines, but the representation of Indian food in America has been limited to a few stereotypical dishes. “We decided to challenge that. We want everybody to be proud of Indian food. That is why we are giving people the opportunity to explore regional Indian food,’’ he explains. Thanks to the initiatives of Chef Chintan Pandya and Roni Mazumdar, Dhamaka offers dishes from Indian states as distant from each other as Meghalaya in the east and Gujarat to the west. Meghalaya’s Doh Khleh, Gujarat’s Bharela Marcha, Kashmir’s Tabak Maaz, Bihar’s Champaran Meat Curry, Rajasthan’s Khargosh, Bengal’s Begun and many other dishes star on the menu of Dhamaka. Today, Chef Pandya is a man who does not think he needs to explain what he is serving. Unapologetic Foods, the name of the hospitality group which he developed with restaurateur Roni Mazumdar, states the obvious: They will offer food the way it is served in its native lands.
“One lady asked me to apologise for serving hot and spicy food. I don’t believe I should apologise for cooking real Indian food as it is done in villages, towns and cities across the country’’, he says. Goat kidneys and testicles go into the Gurda Kapoora, the biryani at Dhamaka has goat’s neck meat, Dok Kleh is a pork salad with pig’s head. Ragda Pattice and Papdi Chaat are part of the chef’s nostalgic memories as a Gujarati boy in Mumbai. Paplet Fry, fried pomfret, is another specialty from the west coast of India. “My food philosophy is to keep things as simple and as nostalgic as possible,” he states. “The food at Dhamaka transports people to some place in India while still being in America.” He has proven his point: Tables at Dhamaka are among the hardest to get in New York City. Diners are enjoying the novelty of goat belly kebabs wrapped in cedar wood or the mutton in a clay pot cooked with dark chili oil and an entire bulb of roasted garlic. The pulao with cut up chicken steamed in a pressure cooker with basmati rice at the bottom is one of their specialties. Chenna Podda is baked and served in a small clay dish.
Surprisingly, Chintan Pandya in his culinary student days was more interested in western food as a career. “At Oberoi, I was exploring specializing in Italian cuisine or pastry chef, but they felt I would be most suitable for an Indian restaurant. That’s how I became an Indian chef,’’ he explains, adding, “growing up in a vegetarian Gujarati household, I had no experience with meat or seafood which was the first challenge. I also wish I had studied Indian regional foods in detail’’. After moving to USA, he worked in multiple jobs and cities before he got an opportunity to work for a fine dining Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in New York, Junoon. In 2017 with restaurateur Roni Mazumdar, he opened Rahi. Today, Roni Mazumdar and Chef Chintan Pandya have brought Indian food to New York with an explosive success story that does not just include Dhamaka – Long Island City’s Adda promises home-style and canteen- style food, Semma is a haven of South Indian food, Rowdy Rooster is a fast-casual fried chicken chain that takes inspiration from the fried chicken made in India, Biryani Bol is a delivery option. “Adda Indian Canteen was what made me realise that New York was ready for some real Indian food that was not just the stereotypical fare served in most Indian restaurants. Seeing the response to the food at Adda, with its house-made paneer and goat biryani, it was like Boom, we need to work on bringing real Indian food to this city’’. He proved his point with Dhamaka, with 1500 people as the average waitlist for tables at this restaurant which has dishes rarely seen on restaurant menus. At Semma, goat intestines, snails, and oxtails are all used in South Indian cooking, with nostalgic dishes of the chef, Vijay Kumar. Rowdy Rooster, opened in February 2022 with lines waiting to taste Indian-style fried chicken and other fast-casual dishes from India.
Pandya says, “There are just 5000 or 5500 Indian restaurants in USA as compared to tens of thousands of Chinese or Mexican restaurants. We have worked to give Indian provincial food its moment in New York. Masalawala was the first restaurant of the Mazmudar family, and this is the one we are launching again in Brooklyn’’.
