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Hindustan Times
23-06-2025
- Hindustan Times
The Taste by Vir Sanghvi: Is gastro-tourism the new way to travel?
Are you a gastro-tourist? It's not a term I use very much but maybe I should! It was The New York Times that got me thinking. Reporting on the announcement of the list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants a few days ago, the Times listed the familiar criticisms of the way the list is compiled. Also read | The Taste by Vir Sanghvi: Is the era of the anonymous restaurant critic over? Gastro-tourism is a a burgeoning trend.(Pexels) Though these criticisms have been made before — ever since the list was hijacked by food PR agencies and so-called influencers — and the Times was more restrained in its sneering compared to many food platforms, I was struck by one term in the report. After commenting on the deeply unsatisfactory way the list is compiled (rumours say that 50 Best will soon clean up its act, but who knows?) The Times added 'Nonetheless, the list has become a popular tool for gastrotourists.' Gastrotourists? Is that a thing? I asked around and discovered that it was indeed a burgeoning trend. Many tourists plan whole vacations just to eat at one or two of the restaurants on the list. This involves booking months in advance (because most of these restaurants are always full) and then, only if the reservation comes through, will the mechanics of the trip — buying air tickets, booking hotels etc — be considered. It's different from other kinds of tourism in the sense that, if you and I go to Italy then all the things we want to see, from the monuments to the natural beauty, will always be there. But for a gastro tourist the trip will not happen if bookings at say, Le Calandre or Piazza Duomo are not available. Also read | The Taste by Vir Sanghvi: The culinary trends that have lost their magic Even a decade ago this would have seemed incredible. But now it is the norm. At most world-famous restaurants, up to 80% of the guests are tourists (often from Asia). They have made the trip, flying thousands of miles just to eat a single lunch or one very expensive dinner. (This is less true of London or Paris and in Tokyo, the really top restaurants are too snobbish to let tourists in.) Are the meals worth the expense? The restaurant bill is not the real cost here though typically, it is always high. It's the flights and the hotels that make up most of the expense. I am not sure what the right answer to the 'is it worth it' question is because a meal is now worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. But chefs are aware that most of their guests don't just want a good meal. They want something that looks spectacular on Instagram; something they can brag about to their friends. So, there will be lots of caviar and truffles and every plate will be designed to look good on social media. Chefs know that gastrotourists are one-time visitors. Just as most of us see the Colosseum only once before moving on to another destination, Gastrotourists rarely go back to the same restaurant. They look for the next fancy place to hit. It's not the food that matters as much as the bragging. Has this changed the way in which the world's top restaurants design their food? I believe that it has. To win three Michelin stars you need to demonstrate creativity and consistency because you never know when a Michelin inspector might be in the house. Likewise, in Paris or New York where critics go again and again to a restaurant before reviewing it. Now because most guests will never come back and getting on to all the best restaurant lists is only a question of spending enough money on influencers and PR, there is less incentive to be consistent, creative or even, to make tasty food. Your profitably depends on PR and hype more than it does on the quality of the food. If you look at the toppers of the 50 Best list a decade ago, they were all restaurants that transformed gastronomy: El Bulli, The Fat Duck, The French Laundry, Noma, etc . Will many of the restaurants on recent lists change the way we eat? Well, some of them: Maybe. But mostly: Probably not. Also read | The Taste by Vir Sanghvi: Why Indian chefs hide their recipes There are still many ways to find good restaurants — the Michelin guides, reviews in such publications as Le Monde or The New York Times and a few specialist food sites — and despite the criticism of the lists of best restaurants, while I may not rely on them, I will always support anything that helps chefs and restaurants make money. But it is very hard to deny that over the last decade, the concept of a great restaurant has changed because gastrotourists vastly outnumber locals and constitute the overwhelming majority of guests. Speaking for myself, I often have to travel professionally for work purposes to try out and review restaurants, so that probably doesn't count as gastrotourism. But there are times when my wife and I have spent our own money and travelled only for meals. We went to Modena seven years ago to eat at Osteria Francescana. We made two special trips to Bray for The Fat Duck and The Hind's Head. We spent several days in Sichuan province only because I wanted to understand the food. We took a train from Barcelona to go and have lunch at Sant Pau and I have travelled to three different cities to eat at incarnations of Noma (Sydney, Kyoto and Copenhagen). And last month I made a day trip to Bilbao to eat at Etxebarri. Every single trip was more than worth it and I would happily do all of them again. So, what's the difference between me and a gastro tourist? It's hard to say. Most of us like to look down on all tourists when we travel: 'It's too touristy' or 'it's a tourist trap' are common putdowns. We never face up to the fact that we are tourists too when we travel? However much we may pride ourselves on our discernment or taste. So, I make no value judgements about gastro-tourism. All I will say is that it now dominates gastronomy at the highest level. And I am not sure that restaurants that are so cut off from their communities and do not cater to locals are necessarily a good thing.
Hindustan Times
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
The Taste by Vir Sanghvi: How Indian restaurant Tresind Studio won Dubai's first three Michelin stars
It was one of the more extraordinary things that I have done in my life. It started when Michelin called me to discuss something confidential. If you know how the Michelin Guide works then you will know that everything they do is confidential. Their inspectors are not gifted amateurs who like eating out. They are hardcore professionals who work full time for Michelin and eat at least 300 meals at restaurants every year. They are famously anonymous and because nobody recognises them they can pretend to be ordinary customers out for a good meal when they visit restaurants. Because restaurateurs may become familiar with some faces, Michelin mixes it up, sending inspectors from other countries to assess restaurants. So, if you run a Southern Italian restaurant in, say, Seoul one of the guys who reviews it may have flown in from Naples. No outsider knows what the inspectors decide, or how the final decisions about stars are made or even how many inspectors have visited the restaurant. Nothing is revealed except for the stars themselves which are announced at annual functions in the 50 or so locations where Michelin operates. So, when Michelin told me that our conversation was totally confidential I was not surprised. But what they said next did surprise me. The inspectors had finally decided to award three stars to a restaurant in Dubai, something they had not done for the three years that Michelin had been in Dubai. But now, in their fourth year, they were finally ready to take the plunge. Gwendal Poullennec, who is international director and the boss of the guide, was going to make a special trip to Dubai to tell the lucky restaurant two days before the formal announcement. Would I like to go with him to the restaurant when he broke the news? Would I? Of course, I would! They would tell me the name of the restaurant they said only if I agreed not to tell a soul. At this stage I had a trip booked to South East Asia and was not going to be available to attend the Dubai awards but the moment Michelin asked me, I decided at once to reschedule the South East Asia trip. (Naturally!) So which restaurant would it be? I suggested to them that it would be Row on 45 which had stormed into the list with two stars the previous year. Or perhaps it would be FZN which I had predicted would be the first three-star restaurant in Dubai. Also Read | Rude Food by Vir Sanghvi: A fortnight of fantastic meals They did not comment on my speculation but said that Gwendal wanted to break the news to an Indian restaurant. I knew at once which restaurant it had to be: Tresind Studio. There was no doubt in my mind that Tresind Studio deserved three stars. Except that Michelin had never before given three stars to an Indian restaurant. Was it now going to break that precedent? It was. I was overjoyed for the folks at Tresind who I have admired since I first wrote about the restaurant over a decade ago when it had just opened and nobody had heard of it or of its young chef, Himanshu Saini, who was still in his 20s but already showing signs of greatness. But most of all, I was really overjoyed for India. For decades now, Indian cuisine, one of the world's greatest, had been dismissed as an 'ethnic' cuisine, its reputation destroyed by cheap Bangladeshi curry houses in the UK. Even when an Indian restaurant got a star, it usually stopped at that single star and chefs who Frenchified their food were rewarded by most global organisations. Only Gaggan Anand in Bangkok kept India's foodie prestige alive by being daring. Admittedly this had begun to change once Gwendal (who is an Asia buff and a Japanese speaker) took the Michelin guide around the world and began recognising non-European cuisines. Indian restaurants began finally to get two stars and Michelin's old 'French is best' global image softened to reflect the modern era. But three stars for Indian food? Nah! Anyhow I kept my word to Michelin. My son said he wanted to go to the Dubai ceremony. I told him I would be in Thailand. Himanshu asked if I was coming to Dubai. I lied again. I posted Thailand pictures on my Instagram to confuse everyone. Then, two days before the ceremony, having sneaked into Dubai, I got into a car with Gwendal and we drove to Tresind Studio. Michelin had told the Tresind team that they wanted to shoot for a forthcoming event in Qatar so a TV crew was hard at work shooting with Himanshu upstairs while we hid in a coffee shop downstairs. Finally, the crew gave us the go ahead and we went up to let Gwendal convey the news. Himanshu says now that he was too dazed to notice I had entered but members of his team who did see me despite my best efforts at being inconspicuous, wondered what the hell I was doing there. Then Gwendal introduced himself and told the assembled team that they had won three stars. I have known Himanshu for a long time and he is pretty much the brand ambassador for gratuitous weeping, but to my surprise he held it together and made a cogent speech for the cameras. But it was Vipin, Tresind's super cool manager, who is responsible for the restaurant's impeccable service, who was overcome by emotion and burst into tears. So did much of the team. All of them were made to sign NDAs and to promise not to breathe a word till the official announcement. I was sceptical but they kept their word. Two days later when I went to the official ceremony, nobody had any idea that Tresind Studio had won the ultimate accolade. At the ceremony, I met Himanshu's wife, the rock of his life, and told her how surprised I was by Himanshu's composure. Well, she said, when he finally told her, she wept uncontrollably. And then Himanshu finally let it all out and joined her in her tears. Given the enormity of the achievement, they had a right to be emotional. So, is this a new beginning for Indian food at an international level? Gwendal who has worked so tirelessly to give non-European cuisines the respect they deserve, thinks it may well be. Rene Redzepi, one of the world's most influential chefs, thinks Indian food has begun its ascent. 'This is the first of many many more,' he told me. Gaggan Anand who set off this boom said 'so good to see a young chef do it and to pave the way for future generations'. As for me, I am relieved to not have the burden of keeping the secret any longer. And there was tension too: I broke the story on the Hindustan Times online edition just as the announcement was being made. (It was page one in the print edition.) I worried about filing too early and giving away the secret. Or of filing too late! But speaking as an Indian, I am delighted to see our cuisine get the recognition it deserves. And yes, I am thrilled to have had a tiny walk-on role in this saga. Michelin lived up to its reputation for confidentiality. Even as we kept the Tresind Studio secret, nobody let slip that another restaurant was also getting three stars. Bjorn Frantzen became the only chef in the world to have three restaurants with three stars as his FZN at Atlantis triumphed. It's a great achievement but now that the doors have opened I am sure that it is only a matter of time before an Indian chef challenges Frantzen! Because last week, in Dubai, Michelin ushered in a new era for the international acceptance of Indian cuisine.
Time of India
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Amitabh Bachchan reveals turning down commercial offers to maintain serious actor image in old interview: 'I was offered Rs 10,000 for an ad... I was earning Rs 50 a month'
, now a household name and a major brand ambassador, wasn't always keen on endorsing products. Despite struggling financially in the 1960s, earning just Rs 50 for radio spots, he turned down an offer of Rs 10,000 for an advertisement. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now At the time, Bachchan was focused solely on establishing himself as a serious actor and felt that modeling for ads would distract him from his ultimate goal. Even though he was living in difficult conditions, sleeping on benches near Marine Drive, he chose his passion over the temptation of quick money. Turning Down Lucrative Offers for the Sake of Acting In a 1999 interview with Vir Sanghvi, Amitabh Bachchan revealed that during his early days in Mumbai, he was approached by ad agencies with lucrative offers. However, he chose to resist the temptation, even when offered Rs 10,000 for an advertisement, a significant sum at the time compared to his Rs 50 monthly earnings from radio spots. Bachchan explained that he felt taking up such offers would divert him from his goal of being recognized as a serious actor. Financial Strain and Refusing Ads Amid Hardships This interview took place during a challenging time for Bachchan, when his company ABCL (Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited) was facing difficulties. Despite the financial strain, he admitted to endorsing brands to bring in money for the company. Reflecting on his early days in Mumbai, Bachchan shared that he had once been willing to drive a cab if his acting career didn't take off. He mentioned that all he had when he arrived in the city was a driving license, with his sole focus being to make it as an actor. Living on the Streets, But Staying True to His Dream As time passed, Bachchan's situation grew more dire, and he struggled to find a place to stay. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now At one point, he was forced to sleep on the streets. Despite the hardships, he remained firm in his decision not to appear in advertisements. He recalled spending a few days on the benches of Marine Drive, surrounded by large rats, as his living situation became more difficult. Bachchan explained that he had limited options, and the time spent with friends was growing short as he didn't want to overstay his welcome. A Shift in Perspective and Embracing Brand Endorsements Over time, Bachchan's perspective changed as his career soared. After cementing his status as one of Bollywood's biggest stars, he gradually embraced brand endorsements. Today, he is seen endorsing a wide range of products, a stark contrast to his earlier stance. With a filmography that includes iconic films like Zanjeer (1973), Sholay (1975), Deewar (1975), Don (1978), and Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Bachchan remains one of the most legendary figures in Indian cinema.
