Chef Saby All Set to Open New Restaurant in Association with Kenilworth Hotels

The Kenilworth Hotel in Kolkata is in for a gastronomic facelift this year. BW Hotelier spoke to Raju Bharat, Chairman and Managing Director of The Kenilworth Hotels and Sabyasachi Gorai about the new venture and plans for the future.

Gorai, riding high on the success of his restaurant Lavaash which came about through extensive research into Armenian food in India was stirred by the challenge given to him by the management at the Kenilworth. “The idea was to do a pure vegetarian restaurant but with things like mock meat on the menu,” Gorai told us explaining the initial concept note given to him.

For the restaurant, Gorai went with the whole theme of Ahimsa, he told us. “I dug deep into history and discovered that there existed a silk route from India to South East Asia, during the Mauryan Empire, which spread the Buddhist philosophy and to an extent the vegetarian ethos as well,” he told us, adding that excavations happening at the mouth of the Rupnarayan River in Tamluk was a great inspiration for him, as it was here that the port of Tamralipta, the exit port for the Mauryan Empire was located. So the food would have an Indian influence but be South East Asian, we believe.

Raju Bharat, called it a lifestyle outlet. “We expect to open by August 2016,” he said, adding that once the first restaurant was up and running, there were plans to expand outside the hotel itself. “We are definitely looking at Pune and Mumbai to do a similar concept,” he said, Delhi still has to wait for a suitable partner interested in working with them. The definite direction would be to open multiple restaurants across India once the unit at Kenilworth, Kolkata was up and running, he added.

“A similar outlet in the Goa hotel will be a challenge, but I plan to introduce a lifestyle restaurant here too”, Bharat added.

“Once the restaurant is up and running, we will then look at doing a gastro pub where Big Ben is currently located,” Bharat said, explaining the redevelopment plan for Kenilworth later in 2016-17.

Photo: (L to R) Chef Sabyasachi Gorai; The original building of Kenilworth Hotel, Kolkata and; Raju Bharat, Chairman and Managing Director of Kenilworth Hotels.