Modern, Indian, refit

Where do you go from the top? Manish Mehrotra goes chasing new highs, with inventive Indian food at Delhi's hot new restaurant, Nisaba

- VIR SANGHVI

Put yourself in Manish Mehrotra’s shoes.

You are, by common consent, India’s greatest chef. At a time when modern Indian food was mostly about the Frenchified presentation preferred by chefs at expensive Indian restaurants abroad, you (along with one other chef, Gaggan Anand, in Bangkok) changed the paradigm and transformed the way chefs think. A genuinely different but still authentic Indian cuisine finally emerged.

But now, after so many years at the top and many other successful restaurants (Comorin, for example) you think you have reached a crossroads in your life. Indian Accent is still the best restaurant in the country. Your fame has spread globally even though you have refused to play the influencer] paid PR game. You are very well paid. Younger, more hustling, publicity-conscious chefs with huge marketing budgets have emerged, but not one of them has half your talent. (Except perhaps for Himanshu Saini, but he is part of your family.)

So why are you at a crossroads?

Why do you feel that you need to do something different? The reasons are not entirely clear, even to you. But the feeling is too strong to resist. So one fine day, you chuck up your job. You walk away. You have nothing waiting for you. You have accepted no other job. At some level, you are insecure. You wonder if you are throwing it all away unnecessarily. Will you ever recapture that success? Is it too late at 50 to start all over again?