HYDERABAD: The charm of tasting some new dish or cuisine every time one goes out is growing amongst the Hyderabadis and to woo their taste buds, restaurants are introducing new menus. Voila, the restaurant at Jubilee Hills, too, has come up with yet another menu curated by Chef Sombir Choudhary. We get in touch with the chef about his love for experimenting with food, his gastronomical journey and more.
Speaking about the menu and the new dishes he introduced at Voila, the chef says, “We don’t keep around 120 dishes, the menu is limited. We have about 60 to 75 dishes, where every quarter we change our menu. This is our first quarter and we are majorly into regional cuisines like Chettinad dishes and donne pulao which is from Karnataka. We also have done a few dishes from Telangana. All these dishes on our new menu have a regional touch.”
Sharing his perspective about fusion food in the City of Pearls, Chef Sombir shares, “I have seen this city growing. People here are well travelled and understand the food and flavours. The only thing that hasn’t changed is their spice tolerance and portions. Otherwise, people know what they are eating. Earlier, when we opened up a couple of restaurants, we couldn’t find a few ingredients, but that has changed today. When I talk about fusion food, it is not just combining two flavours together. How I develop my menu is we take a recipe and use its inspiration and present our own version of it. So our fusion food is taking up a Paneer Chettinad and put it in a taco!”
Talking about his journey and the many challenges that come in the way of curating a decent menu, he says, “I started my career in food industry in Bengaluru. Later, I started working for Farzi Cafe. A while after that, I started my own company where we help with consulting for restaurants and Voila is one of them. We are exclusive for this place in Hyderabad and soon we will be opening up a property in Kondapur which will be Asia’s biggest night club and also a convention centre and a brewery — all together at one place.
The only challenge is to find the right people. The team members are a challenge in Hyderabad, but here we work with very limited local staff and the rest of the staff are from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.”Asked what and when the next change in their menu will be, he says, “Every fourth month we will be revamping the menu. So, next, we will be working on a winter menu and soon, an international cuisine too.”