- - EST
225 Liberty Street, Fl 3. New York, NY 10281
- - EST
225 Liberty Street, Fl 3. New York, NY 10281
The Institute Presents: Chintan Pandya
Join Chef Chintan Pandya for an inside look at the story behind Unapologetic Foods, the award-winning restaurant group redefining Indian cuisine in America. During this conversation, Chef Chintan will share insights from his journey, lessons learned and what it takes to build a successful restaurant group in today’s competitive culinary landscape.
More about Chef Chintan Pandya:
James Beard award winning Chef Chintan Pandya was born in Mumbai and became interested in the culinary world at a young age. Eventually Chintan left India for bigger opportunities. His culinary career took him to an extremely diverse set of locales including Singapore, Cleveland, Atlanta, and finally New York. It was in New York that Chintan joined the popular New York Indian restaurant Junoon for a brief stint before he met restaurateur Roni Mazumdar in 2017 and became the chef at the modern and upscale Rahi, followed by Adda Indian Canteen for which Chintan was the winner of the 2019 StarChefs New York Rising Star Chef. Within a year Adda was named in Food & Wine Magazine’s "Top Ten Best New Restaurants 2019", Eater National's Best New Restaurants 2019” and Bon Appetit's "Top 50 Best New Restaurants of 2019". In 2021 he and Mazumdar opened Dhamaka, a restaurant serving food from “the forgotten side of India.” Dhamaka was met with worldwide acclaim for its unapologetic approach to Indian cuisine that offers diners a glimpse into the home kitchens of people from the villages of India.
Furthermore, in 2022 Chintan and Roni opened the fast casual Rowdy Rooster serving Indian Fried Chicken, touting India’s history of frying the bird Americans love. This resulted in another rave review from The New York Times, and Food & Wine Magazine named the pair as one of 16 people and companies changing the way we eat and drink in 2022, and Masalawala & Sons located in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Masalawala & Sons is a homage to the foods of Kolkata, and dishes encountered by Roni’s father Satyen Mazumdar as he traveled through India. They also opened Kebabwala celebrating India’s long tradition of fresh, and flavorful kebabs. In 2023 the pair veered from Indian cuisine to open Naks, an unapologetic Filipino restaurant with, and for their longtime employee Eric Valdez. This success was followed up with Sanwits, a sandwich shop putting Filipino homestyle dishes between bread.
2025 brought a reimagined Adda to Manhattan’s East Village where Chef Chintan designed an interactive dining experience to bring diners the energy and excitement of India’s food markets. His “butter chicken experience” reclaimed this as India’s national dish and went “viral” bringing the group more worldwide acclaim.
Chintan has also taken cuisine to the next level by partnering with artist Mattia Casalegno in Aerobanquets RMX, a virtual reality experience combining food and fantasy, which took place at the James Beard House, and continues to tour the globe.
In addition to numerous interviews, Eater named Roni and Chintan as part of their New Guards of New York Dining, which explored the state of power and influence in the New York City dining scene, Bloomberg BusinessWeek named them as one of the People that Defined Global Business in 2021 and recognized in the top ten on Observer’s annual Dining and Nightlife Power List. A semi-regular on Beat Bobby Flay, Chintan has also been seen on NBC Today, Good Morning America, CBS Thia Morning, and Good Day New York among other television appearances, and recently led a lecture at Harvard University on textures and the elasticity of Indian food.
Chef Pandya’s mission is to push the boundaries of what Indian food means in America. He continues to break new ground on an under-appreciated but phenomenal cuisine.
