Have you got children and have they
shown any interest in cooking?
during this time of the year, grouse and
partridge might appear on the menu.
I’ve got two, a ten-year-old girl and eightyear-old boy. They are definitely showing
an interest. My daughter certainly is
and my son is also showing that he is
interested in eating.
It all depends on the seasons and the
weather, for example, in September the
grouses start coming but things can
happen and you can’t have grouse, or
snow comes down and nobody can go
hunting, shooting, and you don’t have the
grouse so what do you do? We have to
keep that flexibility and sometimes the
crop goes bad, not so much anymore
and in London we are spoilt for choice.
So we have to keep a very close eye on
things and when I hear from my suppliers
that you can have this now, you can have
that now, then I go to change the menu.
Have you spent any time in Sussex?
That’s where our firm has its offices…
I know about Brighton. I know about
Lewes because my mate Jolly Ollie,
Ollie Smith…He lives there. So that’s
how I know about Brighton, I’ve been
there many, many times. So, yeah,
I absolutely love it. There are some
great restaurants that I have heard
about. They are on my list and I also
want to go and see Ollie and there’s a
restaurant called The Chilli Pickle that
I want to go and try – I’ve heard great
things about it.
Do you often change your menus with
the seasons, for example do you run a
festive menu?
Yeah, we do, we have evolving menus so
we constantly change. Whatever comes
in season we try to portray that on the
menu. So I never say that this is what we
will do next year, I keep it very close to
the time and then we see what’s coming
into season and what’s not coming…
so let’s say a very classic example
Has your son developed an interest
in cricket?
Yeah, he’s learning cricket also so he
would absolutely love it. He’s more into
rugby, I don’t know why. Indians don’t
play rugby. I keep telling him, he doesn’t
understand. He’s got that from school,
yes. He’s picked the Harlequins, which is
our local club, so he’s after my life to get
a lifetime ticket from there. He’ll try. He
just absolutely adores it and he’s on my
case that I should get some tickets for
next year’s Rugby World Cup. I haven’t
got any luck yet but I’ll keep trying. The
tickets are selling really expensive, 800
bucks. I think I’ll just buy a new television!
Dishes at Benares include starters
such as Paneer, Bharwan Shimla
Mirch Aur Palak (£14) which is
tandoori grilled paneer (Indian
cheese) and stuffed baby pepper,
with a pan-fried baby spinach
cake or Changezi Chaapein (£18)
which is smoked Kashmiri chilli
marinated tandoori lamb cutlet
with aubergine chutney.
Main courses include Tandoori
Macchi Aur Kekda (£29) which
is baked organic salmon, spiced
vermicelli, hand-picked Scottish
crab croquette and coconut and
curry leaf sauce or Ki Boti (£33)
which consists of sautéed New
Forest venison and dum biriyani
with Bengali aubergine chutney and
crispy courgette flower.
Desserts include spiced pear
and quince mille feuilles with
turmeric diplomat cream, Goan
delicacy benbinca with coconut
jelly and vanilla bean ice-cream
or deconstructed tropical trifle
with coconut and lime sponge and
mango bavorois all at £11.
By Liza Laws
17