An Acquired Taste

Rishim Sachdeva, Olive Bar & Kitchen’s former chef, made the hard decision to leave Mumbai where he had reached starry heights. Joanna Lobo gets the lowdown on his life and relationship with food between learning to prepare a dish of perfectly seared fish and quizzing him about the future…

The call came at 1 a.m. Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s (SRK) New Year resolution was to learn how to cook, and he had one man in mind — Rishim Sachdeva, until recently the executive chef at Bandra’s Olive Bar & Kitchen in Mumbai. The next day, the ‘chosen one’ visited the star’s home armed with equipment and ingredients. The men made four dishes that session, including pasta from scratch. Nine months later, Sachdeva still gets sporadic messages or pictures of meals cooked at Mannat. They say it takes a star to recognise another....

After just four years at Olive, Sachdeva was being hailed as one of India’s top chefs. During his time there, he completely revolutionised the restaurant’s menu, bringing in new techniques, dishes and flavours. He became the champion of local produce and lowwaste cooking. His food was modern, inventive and tasty, and his legendary brie on toast and tuna jerky, favourites at Olive, had the same power as SRK does to make people swoon. It came as a surprise then to industry watchers and diners that Sachdeva has made the difficult decision to leave Mumbai and move to his other home in London.

Innovation on a plate

Sachdeva, to use millennial-speak, ‘slayed it’ at Olive. It was a chance meeting with restaurateur AD Singh in London that brought a talented and raring-to-go chef to Mumbai in November of 2015. Olive had already made its mark on the city’s dining scene, offering up trusted and comforting Mediterranean fare — the Sunday brunches and Thursday dinners were hugely popular — and a legacy of exceptional chefs. “I thought there was room to do more,” he said. He had Singh’s support and a clientele that was well-travelled and open to experimentation. He was ready.