Atul Kochhar - Restaurants and Expansion

Restaurants and Expansion

In 2008 Atul opened his first restaurant in Ireland, Ananda – meaning eternal joy –in the Dundrum Town Centre on the outskirts of Dublin. That year he also opened Vatika Restaurant located in Southampton situated on Wickham Vineyard. Just an hour from London, the team at Vatika focuses on serving cutting edge cuisine using locally sourced and freshly prepared ingredients which gives rise to modern British food with a unique Indian twist. In September 2011 Vatika closed and Atul is currently looking at locations to reopen Vatika in London.

Atul also has a restaurant on P&O’s Azura cruise ship called Sindhu. Sindhu is one of Azura’s three select dining restaurants and the name signifies the river Indus, and is sometimes taken to mean "meeting point" or "fusion" in Hindi. Atul said that launching a restaurant aboard a P&O ship was a "Dream come true. My restaurant on Azura will be called Sindhu, and that’s what my cuisine is, an amalgamation of British and Indian, so it’s just the right name. I’m a great believer that good food is often simple food, so that will be the best thing to give". The on-board restaurant celebrates Britain’s love of Indian food and P&O Cruises long-standing affiliation with India. Diners are able to sample a fusion of British and Indian cuisine whilst watching chefs in action in the theatre style galley. The venue will have two different areas – a bar for pre-dinner drinks and light meals in the main restaurant. Kochhar spends a minimum of 20 days a year aboard the ship and overseeing the restaurant.

Atul also holds regular master classes where groups between four and six are invited into the kitchen at Benares and guests can join him to prepare his favourite dishes.