Paris may be one of the world's greatest gastronomic centres but its Indian food is largely restricted to several cheap restaurants serving faux Mughlai fare and a few Udupi-type eateries run by Sri Lankan Tamils in the northern precinct of La Chapelle, where they mostly live.
But in late July, the world's café capital got an elegant bistro-style restaurant called MG Road, which serves original pan-Indian dishes rustled up by chef Manoj Sharma. He comes here from the chic and contemporary Cinnamon Club in London, before which he worked for the Oberoi group in India.
MG Road has the distinctive décor of a Mumbai Irani café, that disappearing breed of beloved eating places. Its name, of course, has nothing to do with Irani cafés, representing instead an easily recognisable name, Mahatma Gandhi. (London already has a chain of restaurants influenced by Irani cafés.)
"The space had a very 1940s look and since I was planning to open an Indian restaurant, it seemed obvious that it should be in the Irani café style, which is similar to the French bistro, with wooden chairs and tables with marble tops," said Stéphanie de Saint-Simon, a French entrepreneur who also imports furniture and home accessories from north India. "I knew that it would appeal to the French, that they would recognise already familiar cultural codes."
Few Indian restaurants
But she also hopes many of the 30,000 non-resident Indians and people of Indian origin in Paris will visit MG Road. "There are also more and more Indian students, from Gujarat, Punjab and other parts of north India," she said. "They seem to be happy to have an option like this."
Fewer than 200 of the country's 200,000 restaurants, or less than 1% of the total, serve Indian cuisine, according to the Union des Métiers et des Industries de l'Hôtellerie, a trade body.
MG Road is located in the heart of the city at a spot where an old hosiery shop used to stand. The neighbourhood is upmarket, a few hundred metres away from the Centre Pompidou, a museum of modern art, and close to the historical nightclub Les Bains-Douches.
Several firms have offices nearby and the adjacent streets are lined with art galleries, trendy hair salons and contemporary jewellery shops. MG Road fits perfectly into this locality.
It has a grey marble façade and sober interiors. No garish Bollywood posters, heady agarbatti fumes, cheap paintings of the Taj Mahal, all fixtures of many run-of-the-mill Indian eateries, are to be found here.
The food is clever and creative. Chef Manoj Sharma revisits classic dishes such as butter chicken by mixing them with local side dishes and pickles such as salicornia, a plant found both in France and in India.
"Paris always fascinated me," Sharma said. "It's a good market because the choices available are very limited. The good thing is that people know about food and they want to try new things."
Sharma doesn't hesitate to add street food to his mix: MG Road is perhaps the only place in town where you can sample gol gappas, or pani puri as they are called in western India.
"It is very important that my food is fresh and appealing to the eye," he said. "I try to incorporate food from all regions of India. For example, I have a fish dish from Maharashtra, but the side is from southern India with mustard seeds, curry leaves and turmeric. It's a mix. But I grew up in Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi, so I also really wanted to have street food too. It's a great influence on me."
In his pursuit of freshness, Sharma sources his spices from Khari Baoli, one of Asia's largest wholesale spice markets, located in the heart of his native Old Delhi, while his fish arrives daily a mere three hours after having been caught.
The high quality so far, the familiar bistro ambience, the not-so-steep prices and, crucially, a lack of competition have combined to make MG Road a hit. The day the restaurant opened, the 30-odd customers were mostly garrulous French thirtysomethings. As their dishes arrived, their chatter ceased and was replaced by appreciative murmurs.
This is by no means a small feat in a country whose gastronomy is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
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But in late July, the world's café capital got an elegant bistro-style restaurant called MG Road, which serves original pan-Indian dishes rustled up by chef Manoj Sharma. He comes here from the chic and contemporary Cinnamon Club in London, before which he worked for the Oberoi group in India.
MG Road has the distinctive décor of a Mumbai Irani café, that disappearing breed of beloved eating places. Its name, of course, has nothing to do with Irani cafés, representing instead an easily recognisable name, Mahatma Gandhi. (London already has a chain of restaurants influenced by Irani cafés.)
"The space had a very 1940s look and since I was planning to open an Indian restaurant, it seemed obvious that it should be in the Irani café style, which is similar to the French bistro, with wooden chairs and tables with marble tops," said Stéphanie de Saint-Simon, a French entrepreneur who also imports furniture and home accessories from north India. "I knew that it would appeal to the French, that they would recognise already familiar cultural codes."
Few Indian restaurants
But she also hopes many of the 30,000 non-resident Indians and people of Indian origin in Paris will visit MG Road. "There are also more and more Indian students, from Gujarat, Punjab and other parts of north India," she said. "They seem to be happy to have an option like this."
Fewer than 200 of the country's 200,000 restaurants, or less than 1% of the total, serve Indian cuisine, according to the Union des Métiers et des Industries de l'Hôtellerie, a trade body.
MG Road is located in the heart of the city at a spot where an old hosiery shop used to stand. The neighbourhood is upmarket, a few hundred metres away from the Centre Pompidou, a museum of modern art, and close to the historical nightclub Les Bains-Douches.
Several firms have offices nearby and the adjacent streets are lined with art galleries, trendy hair salons and contemporary jewellery shops. MG Road fits perfectly into this locality.
It has a grey marble façade and sober interiors. No garish Bollywood posters, heady agarbatti fumes, cheap paintings of the Taj Mahal, all fixtures of many run-of-the-mill Indian eateries, are to be found here.
Photo: Yann Deret
The food is clever and creative. Chef Manoj Sharma revisits classic dishes such as butter chicken by mixing them with local side dishes and pickles such as salicornia, a plant found both in France and in India.
"Paris always fascinated me," Sharma said. "It's a good market because the choices available are very limited. The good thing is that people know about food and they want to try new things."
Sharma doesn't hesitate to add street food to his mix: MG Road is perhaps the only place in town where you can sample gol gappas, or pani puri as they are called in western India.
Photo: Yann Deret
"It is very important that my food is fresh and appealing to the eye," he said. "I try to incorporate food from all regions of India. For example, I have a fish dish from Maharashtra, but the side is from southern India with mustard seeds, curry leaves and turmeric. It's a mix. But I grew up in Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi, so I also really wanted to have street food too. It's a great influence on me."
In his pursuit of freshness, Sharma sources his spices from Khari Baoli, one of Asia's largest wholesale spice markets, located in the heart of his native Old Delhi, while his fish arrives daily a mere three hours after having been caught.
The high quality so far, the familiar bistro ambience, the not-so-steep prices and, crucially, a lack of competition have combined to make MG Road a hit. The day the restaurant opened, the 30-odd customers were mostly garrulous French thirtysomethings. As their dishes arrived, their chatter ceased and was replaced by appreciative murmurs.
This is by no means a small feat in a country whose gastronomy is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.