Little does one hear of a pastry chef pivoting over to the savoury side of the culinary industry; and yet, here stands chef Rahul Rana, the mastermind behind Dubai’s one MICHELIN Star vegetarian Indian restaurant, avatāra. A first of its kind in the city, restaurant’s chef has spent the majority of his career exclusively creating delicate pastries since starting in Ananda The Himalayas in 2007 and making his way up the culinary ladder, until he found himself in Dubai, working as the Executive Pastry Chef of MICHELN-selected Trèsind in 2016.
Since then, chef Rahul has created exceptional desserts, but in 2019, he needed a change. “The idea of avatāra was born in 2019 and I discussed this with Passion Food & Beverage group’s owner, Bhupender Nath,” he recalls, “I casually asked him one day, ‘I'm now getting bored with the pastry. I want to tell you about the concept: we want to do a purely vegetarian restaurant, can you open a restaurant for me?’” A bold question worth asking as he managed to get Nath’s nod of approval, with flying colours.
Fast-forward to 2023, avatāra earns its one MICHELIN Star distinction during the MICHELIN Guide Ceremony Dubai 2023, almost a year after opening in 2022. Here, diners can enjoy an exquisite 16-course menu, fully vegetarian and one that honours its titular meaning of “incarnation."
“avatāra, it is the incarnation of the Indian cuisine,” chef Rahul explains, “and when we say incarnation, we mean it can be modern and it can be traditional as well, so based on that we choose this name and that's why we are saying of avatāra is a reincarnation of soulful Indian vegetarian food.”
Growing up in Rishikesh, located in the northern part of India at the foot of the Himalayan mountains, chef Rahul was exposed to the culinary world through his family, specifically his grandfather, a chef for the Maharajas. In this article, he chats with the MICHELIN Guide to give some insight how it has been since receiving a MICHELIN star.
Read More: Discover MICHELIN Guide Dubai's 2023 selection
What is your first food memory?
I still remember I used to do the hiking and the mountain with my grandparents and when you are going across to the forest you find so many lovely berries which grow there. I used to pick all the berries from that forest, and then we bring that home and would make a berry salad.
Tell us about your cooking style
I play with the flavours, and I'm very good in pairing food together. When you come from a pastry background, you know how to pair things, you know how to conceptualize a dish. I always use very simple spices. When you talk about Indian food, one dish requires 30, 40 spices to make it and you have to balance it. But at avatāra, we use a particular spice to create one dish, and that's how the flavour has changed. So, I would say my cooking style is very, very simple. I always believe in cooking in the same way you would in an Indian household. I never use lots of oil and fat, which make your food flavourful. Of course, the pastry techniques are there because that comes naturally when you are from that background. And one thing I've learned from pastry is the precision in the recipe. Making Indian food with the recipes is quite challenging, but at avatāra all our food has a set recipe.
What was feeling you had when you received a MICHELIN star?
I think for the first time in my life I got so nervous before that event. It was a sleepless night for me. On May 23rd, I was sitting with so many chefs, including chef Himanshu Saini (Two MICHELIN Star Trèsind Studio) and chef Omkar Walve, who received the Young Chef Award. Michelin started announcing the list of selected restaurants, and last year, we were on that list, so at that point I was just crossing my finger and I was saying no, I am not on that list. I don't know why they have invited me. I kept asking myself, ‘Am I getting a star or no?’ so when they moved on to the one MICHELIN star list and I was started to feel comfortable and then they announced avatāra. And for five seconds, I was in another world. I was just thinking about the opening day of avatāra. We had opened avatāra without any hope, any idea of the future. At that time, we all were thinking we just have to run this restaurant, we have to run this concept because it is something very beautiful and the world needed this, so we were just thinking about that. When we saw we got this recognition from the MICHELIN Guide, I walked to the stage to receive the chef jacket and plaque with the one MICHELIN star title, I was so nervous, but also so happy.
Have you seen an impact on avatāra since receiving the star?
It has had a very big change to the restaurant. We have seen the number of customer entries increase because people are travelling and now coming to avatāra just to try this vegetarian option of Indian cuisine. Usually, people have this impression that because its vegetarian food, they are going to miss the meat, but now after receiving the MICHELIN star, people are coming to avatāra to get the avatāra experience. Now, people have higher expectations from us; we are becoming more responsible now. People are travelling from around the world and they are dining at avatāra, so that is the biggest part for us.
