Atul Kochhar’s 2017 chef series to include Cyrus Todiwala and Dominic Chapman
He will also be joined by BBC MasterChef winners, Malaysian chef Ping Coombes, and Jane Devonshire.
Once a month, working across Kochhar’s Sindhu and Indian Essence restaurants in Marlow and Petts Wood respectively, the chefs will each present a one-off six-course tasting menu, with three dishes from the guest chef, and three from Kochhar.
Todiwala – the Bombay-born chef-owner of Café Spice Namasté and Mr Todiwala’s Kitchen – will cook on 11 May at Indian Essence, and 29 June at Sindhu; while Dominic Chapman, chef-owner at The Beehive in White Waltham, formerly at the Michelin-starred Royal Oak in Berkshire, and former head chef for Heston Blumenthal, will appear at Sidhu on 9 May.
Islam will appear at Sindhu on 21 February and Indian Essence on 22 February, cooking dishes inspired by the Lasan Group’s own south Asian influences, while Coombes will appear at Sindhu on 15 and 16 March, adapting her Malaysian style to East Asian cooking.
Finally, Jane Devonshire, MasterChef 2016 winner, will cook at Sindhu on 26 April and Indian Essence on 27 April, bringing her family-style food to the tables.
More chefs are to be revealed for later in the year.
"I am excited to welcome such a variety of talented chefs,” says Kochhar. “The mix of skill, passion and creativity is outstanding. Here are chefs who, like me, promote and encourage seasonal British ingredients as well as Indian, Italian and South Asian.
“It's important for me to adapt and adopt - cultures, cuisines, ingredients, everything. To bring diverse cultures closer, this is what food is about and these chefs understand and demonstrate these same important principles.”
Kochhar, who is best-known for his two-Michelin-starred London restaurant Benares, but also runs a Benares in Madrid, Hawkyns in Amersham, and the Rang Mahal in Dubai. He is also involved with the Not Really Indian (NRI) and Lima sites in the Bandra Kurla complex in Mumbai, and has also taken the Sindhu concept onboard P&O Cruise ships.