Masala Library, that claims to be the first modern Indian molecular restaurant, is all set to debut in the city after its successful stint in Mumbai, where it opened three years ago , post which "it will only go overseas."
"This will be the second and last of all the Masala Libraries in India. Now it will only go overseas. Where? We are not allowed to disclose," says Zorawar Kalra, Founder and MD of Massive Restaurants Pvt Ltd.
Massive Restaurants Pvt Ltd is Zorawar's latest venture that owns and operates several dining brands like Masala Library by Jiggs Kalra, Made in Punjab, Farzi Cafe and Pa Pa Ya.
For Masala Library, Delhi, Zorawar and his team have kept the restaurant's original concept of combining traditional recipes with modern cooking techniques untouched, but have "revamped 90 per cent of the menu, except for some of the signature dishes which were extremely popular."
The 60-seater restaurant located in Janpath, which is scheduled to open to public from July 18 (dinner only for first few weeks), promises to take food lovers on a "gastronomic journey of the South Asian sub-continent.
It will include cuisines from not just the whole of India but also nations like Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
"We have completely revamped the menu. We used to call Masala Library, Bombay as Version 2 for Indian food. We are calling this Version 4 and not Version 3 because we have done so much innovation that it has now skipped a version.
"It is very cutting edge food and equally cutting edge technology. It is truly a marriage of modern science with ancient forms of cooking. This restaurant represents not just India but the entire the sub-continent," Zorawar says.
Some of the items on the tasting menu, which he recommends
as a "must try" include tawa keema, pickled bitter gourd among others.
According to him so much research has gone into the recipes that some of the dishes take no less that 6-7 days to be prepared.
The pickling and the processing of the bitter gourd, for instance, takes about 6 days.
He says that his father has been closely associated with the team which has been working on the menu for over a year now and have travelled all over the sub-continent.
"Research has been going on for decades. We have utilised my father's repertoire of knowledge, extensive travel, modern techniques, a lot of our hit-n-trial and experimentation," he says.
Even though the Delhi outlet will bring flavours from a host of countries, Zorawar and his team have also kept the quintessential Delhi flavour in mind and have incorporated recreated renditions of the city's "chaats" in the menu.
"There are many Delhi-influenced dishes on the menu. There are a lot of chaats but with modern techniques - which are an ode to Delhi," he says.
