Manu Chandra's Big Comeback

From prodigal talent to Cannes catering superstar, Manu Chandra was at the forefront of several modern restaurants through his career, before going off the radar. With a new restaurant in his kitty, what's life looking like for this culinary maestro?

- Sharan Sanil

Prolific, enterprising, cutting-edge, independent - these are just a few words that have been used to describe Manu Chandra, profile after profile. I'd like to add another term relentless. And I dare say the man himself would agree.

"It was a giant leap of faith," admits Chandra, referring to his 2021 breakaway from Olive Group, where he served as a key creative and executive player at over fifteen award-winning restaurants for nearly two decades. "Out of sight, out of mind is a very relevant concept in this business, but I knew that I wanted to do something else."

The following years - smack-dab in the middle of the global pandemic - saw Chandra sharpen his knives as the founder of Single Thread, pushing through personal and professional hurdles to establish a defiant and bespoke catering company, famously having catered for the Cannes Film Festival 2022. While some may have had their plates full with such responsibilities, Chandra was hungry for more.

"[Running restaurants] is what I'm good at. It's what I understand intrinsically; it's what I'm known for giving it all up would have been stupid on my part," Chandra asserts. "The moment I stepped down, I knew that I would open another restaurant. It's just that opening a restaurant involves so many moving parts, you know? Building new teams, finding the right space, conceptualising, designing the interior, finding out which way the food would go... all of that takes a good year or so. There was no 'genesis' as such - it all began right from the word 'go.""