Latest news with #Michelin-stared
Yomiuri Shimbun
20-07-2025
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Award-Winning Noto Chefs Design JAL In-Flight Meals; Special Dishes Seek to Promote Region, Encourage Quake Recovery
KANAZAWA — Special dishes created by two chefs from the quake-stricken city of Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture, are being served in economy and premium economy classes on Japan Airlines' international flights until the end of August. The project aims to promote food from the Noto region and raise awareness of the recovery efforts following the Noto Peninsula Earthquake. The two chefs are Toru Kawashima, 40, of Ipponsugi Kawashima, a Michelin-stared Japanese restaurant on Ipponsugi street, and Kyohei Kurokawa, 37, of Restaurant Blossom, a Western-style eatery in the Wakura Onsen area. Both have achieved outstanding results in RED U-35, one of the largest competitions for young chefs in Japan. Kawashima's chicken dish is topped with a white miso sauce and rice steamed in broth mixed with pickled greens, while Kurokawa's dish consists of a hamburger steak paired with mushroom butter rice.A total of about 420,000 of the meals are expected to be served, covering 33 daily flights traveling from Japan to North America, Europe, Australia, South Asia and Southeast Asia. 'I hope people enjoy the synergistic umami flavors,' Kawashima said. Kurokawa said, 'I hope the in-flight meals spark interest in Noto.'
The Guardian
14-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
UK's oldest Indian restaurant faces closure in dispute with crown estate
It has been a fixture of British-Indian dining since it first opened its doors in April 1926 on the day of Elizabeth II's birth, serving guests over the decades ranging from Marlon Brando to the late Queen herself. Yet despite surviving the Blitz and London's relentlessly competitive restaurant sector, a dispute with the current monarch's property developer threatens the survival of London's oldest Indian restaurant just short of its 100th anniversary. The crown estate, which owns Victory House, the listed building housing the Michelin-stared Veeraswamy restaurant near Piccadilly Circus, has said that it cannot continue to extend its lease against the backdrop of plans to refurbish and upgrade offices in the same property. Veeraswamy's co-owner Ranjit Mathrani is now heading to the high court to attempt to have the lease extended. He intends to lodge objections to the plans. Mathrani is also sure that the royal family would be unhappy to hear what is being done in their name to a restaurant long regarded as the grand dame of British-Indian food. He said: 'They believe in history, in living history, and that's what this restaurant is. It's not just a museum, and I think they would be disappointed that an institution bearing their name would be so heartless.' At lunchtime on Monday, diners waxed lyrical about the restaurant's heritage and current menu, which includes classics such as patiala shahi raan en croute, a Welsh lamb shank slow-cooked for six hours before being wrapped in pastry and grilled in a tandoor. The same menu includes photos of its historical equivalents, which included wartime offerings of lobster mayonnaise, jugged hare and sherry trifle. While the fare has evolved and sought to keep pace with modern British-Indian cooking, celebrity guests have remained constant. One diner said: 'It's just a really lovely place and for as long as I can remember there's always been a sort of excitement about it. It was a few years ago but I can remember coming here and the Prince of Wales was in another part of the restaurant. They had curtains drawn but there was a buzz.' Established in 1926 by Edward Palmer, the great-grandson of the first governor general of India's private secretary and a north Indian Moghul princess, the restaurant was intended to 'educate' Londoners about Indian food decades before the era of celebrity chefs. It was sold in 1934 to an MP, Sir William Steward, who made it a fashionable rendezvous among royalty and British elites returning from India. After a period of decline in the 1980s, it was bought by Mathrani and Namita Panjabi, who poured resources into recreating its past glories. In 2008, the restaurant catered for a function held by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace and it was invited back to launch the UK-India 2017 Year of Culture. In 2016, it was awarded a Michelin star. Nevertheless, modern commercial motivations are now a factor in its future. The crown estate, the royals' ancient portfolio of land and property across England and Wales, wants to take back the restaurant because it plans to extend a ground-floor reception area for offices upstairs in the building that houses Veeraswamy. Knocking into the restaurants's entrance area, where a uniformed usher greets visitors, would give an extra 11 sq metres. The crown estate said in a statement issued this week that it needed to carry out a comprehensive refurbishment of Victory House. 'This includes a major upgrade to the offices and improving the entrance to make it more accessible,' it added. 'Due to the limited options available in this listed building we need to remove the entrance to the restaurant, which means we will not be able to offer Veeraswamy an extension when their lease expires.'
