Chef Arupam Baidya is a storyteller, and his menu, the tale.
At Parva, a new pan-Indian restaurant on OMR, he attempts to bring together dishes from 23 Indian states under one roof. The result is a menu that moves well beyond the familiar butter chicken-and-biryani formula, inviting diners to explore lesser-known regional cuisines without leaving Chennai.
“Most Indian restaurants serve Mughlai and Punjabi cuisine predominantly. I have travelled around India quite a lot and have eaten from every State. The idea to open an Indian restaurant has always been on my mind, so I thought why can’t we bring everything to one place,” says chef Arupam.
Drawing from his travels and interest in food culture, he has brought together dishes from states such as West Bengal, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Manipur, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, among others. The restaurant caters to a growing IT crowd of people from across the country who often find themselves missing the flavours of home. “I used to run a small catering business when I lived in this area and would often get requests for food from different states,” says chef as a chilled aam pora shorbot is set in front of me.
