Wine & Dine
Text and Photography by Mallika Chandra.
Kunal Makhija, 27
Arabisque
Location: Mahim
Speciality: Middle Eastern
Kunal, tell me a little about your journey as a chef.
I developed an interest in cooking around 2007 thanks to my father’s restaurant in Dubai and after schooling there, I was pretty sure that this was what I wanted to pursue. I completed the culinary speciality programme at the Institute of Hotel Management in Aurangabad and then interned at Taj West End, Bengaluru for a year. I was lucky enough to also intern at Gaggan in Bangkok (now shut) for two months, following which I worked at Indigo Deli in Colaba for a year.
A batchmate, who had also been my roommate from college, called me one day and asked, “Do you want to come to Dubai?” I had been looking for a change at that point. So, I worked at a few places in Dubai, including a Lebanese…