Two Mumbai restaurants bring late Michelin star chef Floyd Cardoz’s legacy dishes to the city

#FloydsFood, a special menu, celebrates Floyd Cardoz and everything he loved and created.

The late chef Floyd Cardoz, the “Godfather of Modern Indian Cuisine”, as people who loved his food called him, or “Papaji”, as his crew and chefs addressed him, was a culinary genius who not only revitalised and introduced rarely served Indian recipes but also rethought them in magical new ways.

Six months ago, we lost him untimely to COVID-19. This month, to celebrate Cardoz’s birthday, his team at Bombay Canteen and O Pedro have crafted a special menu that not only introduces to the city some of his iconic dishes served at New York restaurants, the erstwhile Tabla and Paowalla in NYC but also how he approached food.

Chef Floyd Cardoz, who is credited with re-thinking Indian food and taking it overseas, died of Covid-19 in March .

As Hussain Shahzad, Executive Chef at O Pedro and the man who led the execution of this special menu, says, “We are celebrating his thought process and the passion he brought to food. There have been some milestone dishes, many from his restaurants in London, which some Mumbaikars may have never tasted.”

Also read: Chef Floyd Cardoz, who died of COVID-19 in New Jersey, redefined regional Indian cuisine for the modern world

Shahzad has worked with the famous Eleven Madison Park in New York and was also the personal chef to tennis superstar Roger Federer before he moved to India to join Bombay Canteen. Eventually, he went on to work as the executive chef at O Pedro, another of Floyd Cardoz’s classic.

#FloydsFood, then, is a three-week delivery-only menu, with dishes such as his famous Paowalla Chicken Tikka, Jackfruit “Mussalam” Carnitas, the Bandra Spare-Parts Grill, Choriz Kulcha and Barkha’s Seyal Gosht. This was the food that he loved to eat, cook and serve at his restaurants and home, with friends and family.

Bandra Spare-Parts Grill.

I have had the privilege of tasting Dal Burrata, which is on this menu, a take on the famous Dal Makhani but with the beautifully textured burrata cheese, which is mild and smooth on the palate. “In New York, Chef Cardoz used the red fava beans as a substitute, but here we have used the traditional dhuli hui urad dal.”

Then there is the prize-winning Wild Mushroom Upma from Top Chef Masters 2011 Finale, in which the traditional upma has been turned firmly on its head with a smorgasbord of a variety of mushrooms, most sourced from a farm in Maharashtra.

Roasted Lamb Uberoi-style Taco

At Paowalla, Cardoz indulged the love New Yorkers have for bread in his unique Indian way, adding a touch of Asian to it. From whole wheat rotis to puffy kulchas, Tibetan tingmos, tandoor-bruised naans, room-temperature fish pies, mini vada pao sandwiches, honey-lime croissants and pecan chai sticky buns, a lot was going on in his world of bread.

On the special menu in Mumbai, you can opt for a sweet caramelised-onion topped pizza or a stuffed kulcha. The menu features several India- inspired grills, Kulcha Pizzas and Growlers from Great State Ale Works.

The Jackfruit “Mussalam” Carnitas is inspired by an incident during a shoot in Lucknow with chef David Chang for his Netflix show, Ugly Delicious. Cardoz was fascinated by the way Murg Mussalam was cooked in Nawab Jamal Rasul Khan’s home. His vegetarian version, served with tortillas, corn salad, roasted green tomato salsa and avocado guacamole, had Chang in raptures.

Hussain Shahzad, once personal chef of Roger Federer, has led the execution of #FloydsFood.

Barkha’s Seyal Gosht—a speciality cooked by Cardoz’s wife—is an heirloom Sindhi mutton curry that would bring the chef back home from work for dinner. Other gems include Choriz Kulcha served with bacon fat and cured yolk dip, Chilli Cheddar Cheese Kulcha with Boodies ketchup and bitter greens. “Among the ones I find interesting is the Lotus Root Kakori, a vegetarian seekh kebab made with lotus root and kakori kebab spices,” says Shahzad.

Chai Biscuit.

Cardoz left his imprint not just on the food he cooked and served. Shahzad muses that everything he learnt in the past few years, which makes him one of the brightest young stars on the Indian culinary firmament, was from his mentor. “Our relationship was more of a father and son than one between two chefs or a mentor and mentee.”

Here, then, is a menu that pays rich tribute to the genius of one chef by another whom he groomed into a vibrant voice on the Indian culinary scene.

(Deepali Nandwani is a journalist who keeps a close watch on the world of luxury.)