Naeem takes Dilli Deeper into India

Manchester’s ‘Curry Mile’ needs to raise its game if it’s going to keep its place as a world-famous Asian restaurant area.

Because tastes are getting more sophisticated among English lovers of Indian food – says Altrincham chef Mohammed Naeem (pictured).

The old ‘invented’ dishes – such as the Madras curry and Chicken Rogan Josh which do not exist in India – just don’t wash any more among a new generation of more savvy customers.

That’s why Naeem’s Michelin-rated Dilli restaurant in Altrincham is launching a new menu that goes deeper into the Indian regions than ever before for “food you have never tasted … dishes you have probably never heard of,” he says.

It was six years ago that Dilli led a new wave of Indian restaurants that turned away from fake Asian dishes, served up the ‘real taste of India’ and raised the cuisine out of the curry houses and into award-winning fine dining.

“Many of our competitors have appeared and disappeared since then but Dilli is still pushing back the boundaries to give customers the real thing,” says Naeem. “And ‘Curry Mile’ is going to get left behind if it doesn’t recognise that people, these days, do know the difference between genuine Indian food and westernised versions.”

As the chef director Naeem is at the core of Dilli’s reputation. He comes from a family line of distinguished cooks whose Mughal banquets once fed royalty, heads of state and formal visitors to the ruling Maharajas and Nababs.

He began at Dilli by introducing dishes from his home area around Lucknow, the capital city of Uttapradesh. Since then he has expanded the range to less well known states like Chettinad, Mangalore and Pondicherry.

Now Naeem has added street food from places like Kolkata, Andhra, Konkan, Tamil Nadu, Nizam and Maharashtra area of Mumbai … styles of cooking like bhunao pot roasting and Parsi dishes … less familiar names like Prawn Tak-a-Tak, Kozi Chettinad, Kesari Elachi Gosht and Bagharey Mirch Baingan…

“Street food, in particular, is becoming very popular,” says Naeem. “In India these are usually tasty snacks cooked and served late at night to people going home or on the move elsewhere.”

He has also devised a special three-course, nine-dish tasting menu for groups of more than four people.

And the success of Dilli’s Sunday buffets means they have now been extended for Saturday shoppers as a weekend menu feature.

• Dilli – the original name for India’s capital city New Delhi - is open every day from 12 noon to 3pm, and 5.30pm to 11pm (10pm on Sunday) at 60 Stamford New Road, Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 1EE. Telephone 0161 929 7484. Website: www.dilli.co.uk

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Posted: Tuesday 10th August 2010
ID: 2395 - 515