The stars of India

Goodbye chicken tikka masala, hello Michelin stars. Caroline Stacey reports on new-wave Indian cuisine

For a chef about to open his own restaurant Atul Kochhar has an ambition stranger than wanting to make a profit. "I wouldn't mind being the man who got rid of chicken tikka masala from Marks & Spencer," he confesses. As one of the most talented Indian chefs working in this country he might be in a position to achieve it. But it sounds like heresy considering it's his take on chicken tikka masala – among 47 other Indian dishes – that's been gracing the M&S chilled cabinets for the past six months, and putting many take-aways to shame. How many, after all, offer a marathi lamb shank, an aubergine masala or prawn kadhai?

Kochhar was also the founder chef of one of the best Indian restaurants in London. His boldly brief, beautifully rendered north Indian menu made Tamarind one of the first of two subcontinental restaurants to be awarded a star in the usually French-biased Michelin guide two years ago. Since then starred Indian chefs have been in the ascendent. When Kochhar's own restaurant Benares opens in Mayfair this week, it will further advance the frontiers of Indian cooking. And this time, not just of the north.

In a basic by-the-yard, from-the-jar form it's north Indian food that we have adopted wholesale. But as it comes of age, the culinary diversity offered by an inspiring group of chefs is putting Indian food on a par with the best French, Italian and Chinese.

Kuldeep Singh at Chowki restaurant in the West End of London highlights dishes from three different regions every month. "Ten to 12 serious Indian chefs are working in London to raise Indian food to a degree of respect," Singh maintains.

British Airways, meanwhile, started serving coconut, lime and chilli prawn masala and chocolate and cardamom cake to first and business class travellers this month. The airline has enrolled its first Indian chef, Vineet Bhatia. Up there with the best in the country, Bhatia's restaurant Zaika won its Michelin star at the same time as Tamarind. "My idea is to be one of the best restaurants in London not the best Indian restaurant," he states.

Before Zaika, Bhatia had worked with entrepreneur Iqbal Wahhab in the creation of London's Cinnamon Club. Now his vision of "modern and beautiful food, presented on the plate ready to eat", is interpreted by another Indian chef, Vivek Singh. At the Cinnamon Club MPs and, famously, union leaders run up large bills on meals that bear little resemblance to what was once thought of as a cheap night out.

The chefs responsible for such a shift in attitude are an élite corps, schooled in India. Often, as in Kochhar and Bhatia's cases, at the most exclusive of training grounds, the Oberoi group of hotels. And in the UK they are able to cook with a freedom from the restraints of regions and ethnic loyalties that's almost unheard of in India itself.

Born near Calcutta to Punjabi parents, Kochhar was sent to chef school in Madras and trained in Bombay. He draws influences and methods from all over India, with dishes like tandoori subj chaat, a vegetarian salad of grilled peppers, onion, pineapple, pears and Indian cheese like that done on home barbecues in Uttar Pradesh, or crab salad with vermicelli-coated fried prawns and kumquat chutney, a Keralan idea with his own additions.

On regular trips back home, Kocchar investigates pockets of cooking relatively unexplored even within India, where the size of the country and complexity of the culinary traditions impose limits. "Whenever I go back it amazes me that I know so little. That's what keeps me going."

Both Kochhar and Bhatia have been influenced by ingredients available in Britain. The latter's tandoor-spiced smoked salmon is much copied, and it can't be long before his chocolate samosa becomes as common as kulfi.

Now chefs are coming from India to see what those working here are up to. "It's cool to be Indian in London," agrees Roopa Gulati, the editor of Tandoori Magazine, which represents the views of the nation's Indian restaurateurs. "Chefs here have freedom and don't have to operate with cultural baggage. These guys can start messing around with sauces and spices."

"I have never cooked chicken tikka masala," boasts Bhatia. "We want to change the perception of Indian cuisine," says Singh. Even before Kochhar's ambition is realised, these chefs are already doing exactly that. E