An exclusive food arena
Kuldip Dhiman
When Shiwani Tomar from Chandigarh and Aditya Prabhu from Mangalore met in the virtual world, and later tied the knot on in the real world, an idea was born. As both of them loved music and food, they decided to start a restaurant that offered food no other outlet offered. Gourmet Nine, thus came into being in Zirakpur four years ago.
“We are here to sell our customers an experience, not just good food. It is like a theatrical experience, our dining hall is an arena where our dishes are played out,” says the couple.
What kind of experience are they talking about?
“To begin with, we try to give our customers as much warmth as possible. We have designed the interiors in such a way that you don’t feel you are eating in a restaurant, but at home. Our customers tell us that as they enter here, they feel the vibes are very warm. This is because we have trained our staff so thoroughly. Yes, it is business, but it is not just business, but much more than that.”
You normally go to a restaurant with an idea what you want to eat, but at Gourmet Nine, the staff interacts with you and tries to customise the menu according to your liking.
“We try and pitch in our items that are exclusive to us. We call ourselves ‘Gourmet Nine’, because we have nine different types of cuisines which we play around with. We are strong on Bengali, Rajasthani, Hyderabadi, and Luckhnowi food. Then we are experts at food from the whole of south coast which covers Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka.”
Having worked with The Taj, Bangalore and other top-notch hotels, Aditya holds that cooking food is basically an art of playing with the spices. If you know your spices well, and if you know how to change ‘gears’, it becomes easier to satisfy a customer.
However, Shiwani and Aditya do not list all the dishes they offer in their menu. Why? If it is not listed, how would the customers know what to order?
“That is where our experience comes in, Sir. We guide the customer. We do not list everything because a larger menu always confuses the customer. After going through forty items, the customer gives up and plays it safe saying, ‘Okay, then get me butter chicken.’ Further, we do change our menu every six months because, leave alone the customer, we also get bored with our menu after a while.”
What the menu offers
Meen Pulichattu
Meen Pulichattu is made using fish from the backwaters of Kerala. Meen means fish, and Puli means tamarind. It is prepared with dried red chillies and tamarind with a tempering of mustard and caripatta. It is then wrapped in a banana leaf and served.
Atta chicken
It is a double marinated chicken, says Aditya. “We have our own special recipe for it. We first cook it in the tandoor, re-marinate it and then cover it with the dough and dry heat it. The moment it is opened, it is moist, fresh, and tasty.”
Banjara kabab
Banjara kabab is basically marinated chicken with ginger, garlic, cashew paste, and brown onions. The flavour comes from the cashews and brown onions.
“And we are very popular for our dimsums because nobody makes them in the city. We call them chicken puffkins. They melt in your mouth because the dough is made of maida and milk, so they are very soft,” claim Shiwani and Aditya.
Customers of Gourmet Nine are mainly from Tricity and the towns around it such as Dera Bassi, Ambala, Kharar, Kurali, Pinjore etc. At Gourmet Nine, they do only very niche outdoors, and they do not believe in volume catering.
A couple can dine here for about Rupees 1, 200 to the sound of live music. Home delivery is accepted only online through Zomato, and is delivered within a radius of 3 km. Gourmet Nine is located in Global Business Centre, Zirakpur, just after the flyover if you are driving from Chandigarh.
