By Bikramjit Ray
IT IS not often that a restaurant turns 25 and still stays relevant. The Karavalli, which is the star of the Gateway Hotel Residency Road Bangalore there, is an important part of restaurant lore of the city as well as South India. BW Hotelier had the opportunity to interact with Chef Naren Thimmaiah, executive chef of the hotel and the man who is synonymous with the restaurant he started working in when it was just one year old.
One of the unique features of the restaurant, is the fact that the chefs and teams work tirelessly with their suppliers as well as others in the market, to get the best produce available in the area for the table.
’Even when we have a contract with a supplier, I still have the right to refuse if I am not happy with the produce,’ Thimmaiah tells us.
The secret of the success according to Thimmaiah was the fact that the food at the restaurant was made in strict accordance to mothers and grandmothers’ recipes. ’The menu at Karavalli represents the cuisine of Goa, Mangaore and Kerala covering the Goa Portuguese, Konkani, Bunt, Havyaka Brahmin, Namboodri, Moplah Muslim, Syrian Christian and Kodava cuisines,’ Thimmaiah added. The food hasn’t changed and neither has the recipe. One of the secrets is that instead of making the food in portions like in a commercial kitchen, much of it is cooked in one go, like at home. The success can only be measured by the fame and of course, on a more practical angle, revenues. Karavalli, according to Thimmaiah contributes to 32 per cent of all F&B income of the hotel.
The restaurant celebrates its 25
th anniversary in a very unique way. ’We knew that most of the people who come to eat at our restaurant would not want to be part of a gala evening celebrating the special day,’ Thimmaiah says, so the management came up with a unique proposition, the restaurant is celebrated throughout the anniversary with special meals for select guests, people who have been regulars at the restaurant, be they the who’s who of Bangalore or ordinary citizens, hosted by the Chef, GM and his team. The menu is a collection of the greatest hits which numbers quite a few of the over 80 dishes which have been featuring on the menu for decades and reflects the single-minded dedication of Chef Thimmaiah and his team.
In The Photo: Standing left to right: Ramachandran. K.V, Vasudevan Pillai,’? Balachandran. K, Naren Thimmaiah, Ganesh Sheregar.-Kneeling left to right: Jeronimo D’Souza, Gurudas Natekar, Lata Prakash, Uday Shetty.
The author is Executive Editor, BW Hotelier.
IT IS not often that a restaurant turns 25 and still stays relevant. The Karavalli, which is the star of the Gateway Hotel Residency Road Bangalore there, is an important part of restaurant lore of the city as well as South India. BW Hotelier had the opportunity to interact with Chef Naren Thimmaiah, executive chef of the hotel and the man who is synonymous with the restaurant he started working in when it was just one year old.
One of the unique features of the restaurant, is the fact that the chefs and teams work tirelessly with their suppliers as well as others in the market, to get the best produce available in the area for the table.
’Even when we have a contract with a supplier, I still have the right to refuse if I am not happy with the produce,’ Thimmaiah tells us.
The secret of the success according to Thimmaiah was the fact that the food at the restaurant was made in strict accordance to mothers and grandmothers’ recipes. ’The menu at Karavalli represents the cuisine of Goa, Mangaore and Kerala covering the Goa Portuguese, Konkani, Bunt, Havyaka Brahmin, Namboodri, Moplah Muslim, Syrian Christian and Kodava cuisines,’ Thimmaiah added. The food hasn’t changed and neither has the recipe. One of the secrets is that instead of making the food in portions like in a commercial kitchen, much of it is cooked in one go, like at home. The success can only be measured by the fame and of course, on a more practical angle, revenues. Karavalli, according to Thimmaiah contributes to 32 per cent of all F&B income of the hotel.
The restaurant celebrates its 25th anniversary in a very unique way. ’We knew that most of the people who come to eat at our restaurant would not want to be part of a gala evening celebrating the special day,’ Thimmaiah says, so the management came up with a unique proposition, the restaurant is celebrated throughout the anniversary with special meals for select guests, people who have been regulars at the restaurant, be they the who’s who of Bangalore or ordinary citizens, hosted by the Chef, GM and his team. The menu is a collection of the greatest hits which numbers quite a few of the over 80 dishes which have been featuring on the menu for decades and reflects the single-minded dedication of Chef Thimmaiah and his team.
In The Photo: Standing left to right: Ramachandran. K.V, Vasudevan Pillai,’? Balachandran. K, Naren Thimmaiah, Ganesh Sheregar.-Kneeling left to right: Jeronimo D’Souza, Gurudas Natekar, Lata Prakash, Uday Shetty.
The author is Executive Editor, BW Hotelier.
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