Sid Sahrawat remembers trying to subvert the panipuri.<\/p>\n
At his restaurant Cassia, he filled the crisp, puffed shell with smoked yoghurt and tomato consomme and waited. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was like \u2018it\u2019s going to change people\u2019s lives\u2019. It did not. It had to come off the menu pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Kitchens are
\n an exercise in trial and error. But what if you\u2019re an Indian-born chef who has opened an Indian restaurant \u2013 and you\u2019ve never really cooked Indian food?\n <\/p>\n
Sid\u2019s comfort zone was European fine dining. In Auckland, he\u2019d made a name for himself at The Grove and, in 2009, opened the eponymous Sidart in Ponsonby. (Wife Chand remembers he\u2019d bring home the confit duck and add it to her makhani sauce.)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way it works in India, is that because my dad was in the army, and my mum was a working mum, we always had cooks,\u201d says Sid. \u201cThey would cook everything and it was all delicious. I got to travel a lot within India, with dad\u2019s different postings and I loved the food, but it was not my forte.\u201d<\/p>\n
This may come as a surprise to anybody who has ever eaten a Cassia lamb chop. <\/p>\n
Auckland\u2019s first contemporary Indian restaurant opened in 2014 in a Fort Lane basement. It changed diners\u2019 perceptions of Indian cuisine and paved the way for the likes of 1947, GOAT, VT Station and, most recently, Aarth \u2013 but it nearly didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI freaked out,\u201d Sid says. \u201cI just got cold feet, big time. When you have one baby and you spend all your time with that baby, you don\u2019t want to share that love . . .\u201d<\/p>\n
At Sidart, his name was on the door and its sterling reputation had been hard-won. The business grew slowly. Diners were reeling from the Global Financial Crisis; Sid remembers making sure he was at the restaurant before 8am to make sure he didn\u2019t miss a single phone booking.<\/p>\n
Chand: \u201cWe did menu drops around Ponsonby. We used to judge people\u2019s houses because, you know, the menu cost money. This house, maybe skip it? That house looks fancy, put it in the letterbox.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sid: \u201cThe restaurant was in such a dingy location. Upstairs at the back of a mall. People were like, \u2018what\u2019s wrong with these guys … there\u2019s not even a toilet in the restaurant\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sidart is long sold (and since closed) and the Sahrawats are now an Auckland hospitality institution. They\u2019ve been and gone from Ponsonby\u2019s Kol, but still own The French Cafe and, on September 2, will reopen Cassia in its most ambitious iteration yet.<\/p>\n
Chand Sahrawat and her chef husband Sid on the upper level of their new Albert St iteration of Cassia restaurant. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
The couple meet Viva on the ground floor of Voco hotel, on the corner of Wyndham St and Albert St. Through the wall, power tools are going full tilt. Builders are finishing what Chand is fondly referring to as \u201cCassia 3.0\u201d following previous incarnations in Fort Lane, SkyCity, and the recent, short (\u201c2.5\u201d) pop-up at Grey Lynn\u2019s Ozone.<\/p>\n
The new Cassia features floor-to-ceiling windows across two levels. The main dining room holds up to 80, and there\u2019s upstairs seating and private spaces for another 45 upstairs. The design, by Mille\u2019s Gerrick Numan, includes a brick tile reference to the restaurant\u2019s subterranean past, and an open kitchen (\u201cstraight away, you smell the food,\u201d Chand says). The couple have also kept their original signage.<\/p>\n
Today, on the cusp of Cassia\u2019s teenage years, they\u2019re reflecting on its growing pains.<\/p>\n
\u201cCassia was born in our heads even before Sidart,\u201d Chand says. \u201cBut the market wasn\u2019t ready and Sid was more known for fine dining. It was a considered decision to not do Indian … The definition of \u2018Indian\u2019 back then was four pieces of chicken in a sweet orange sauce with naan \u2013 $12.99 for the lunch special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then they watched the likes of Blue Breeze Inn, with its \u201cmodern Chinese\u201d descriptor, take off in Ponsonby Central.<\/p>\n
Vada Pav reimagined for the menu at Cassia, Sid and Chand Sahrawat’s modern Indian restaurant, reopening on Auckland’s Albert St. Photo \/ Sahil Patel<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople thought Asian food should be cheap dumplings on Dominion Rd. Here was a group elevating that. Believing in that. You\u2019re like \u2018okay, someone\u2019s paved the way \u2013 now we can do this with Indian food. People\u2019s mindsets are getting used to seeing cheaper cuisines being elevated\u2019,\u201d Chand says.<\/p>\n
When Fort Lane\u2019s Mandarin Dumpling closed, the Sahrawats jumped at the moody basement space. A fortnight from opening, Sid experienced chest pains. A GP ordered blood tests \u2013 and then ordered the chef to hospital in an ambulance.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, he was diagnosed with myopericarditis, caused by influenza. Cassia\u2019s first menu was devised in a hospital room; doctors only allowed his discharge when he agreed not to lift a pot for three to six months.<\/p>\n
Chand: \u201cI had to go and hire a tandoor chef in Papatoetoe. How had my life become this? I\u2019m sitting with my dad at 10pm in a takeaway place going, \u2018I\u2019m going to hire you, because somebody recommended you . . .\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Sid: \u201cIt sounds so easy. \u2018Let\u2019s just go open a modern Indian restaurant\u2019 . . . no one\u2019s worked together and there\u2019s so much pressure. We had just won Restaurant of the Year for Sidart, so there were a lot of eyes on us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Day two: \u201cWe were putting this coconut oil on this lamb rump, South Indian-style. We had a food critic come in and say \u2018that tastes revolting\u2019. And I was like, \u2018oh, does it?\u2019 I tried it. Yeah, actually, it was not very pleasant. We learned a lot of things quite quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cassia’s first incarnation in a Fort Lane basement. The restaurant’s new home is across two levels and features floor-to-ceiling windows. Photo \/ Chris Gorman<\/p>\n
Cassia\u2019s Mughlai lamb chops are now part of Auckland\u2019s dining DNA. Sid would still be serving them in that beloved brick basement space if it hadn\u2019t rained. And rained. And rained.<\/p>\n
The first flood resulted in a five-week shutdown in March 2022. Eight months later, the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods hit. <\/p>\n
Sid had planned to work at the French Cafe that day. At the last minute, coming off the harbour bridge from his North Shore home, he swung a left. Cassia had around 150 bookings, lunch service was going to be busy. The first thing he noticed was that the \u201cA\u201d had fallen off the restaurant sign.<\/p>\n
It was a very wet Friday. A few leaks had sprung and Chand was dispatched to find a water vacuum; she set out only to discover bad weather had already closed multiple hardware stores. Around 5.30pm, Sid remembers water was building up on downtown streets \u2013 but diners kept coming.<\/p>\n
At least 40 customers were eating when water started gushing \u201cat very, very high speed\u201d into the downstairs prep kitchen, with the walk-in fridge-freezer and electricity switchboard.<\/p>\n
Diners didn\u2019t want to leave and the main kitchen was mid-cook \u2013 but there were now fears the floodwater could be carrying an electric current. They evacuated the restaurant, even as one customer arrived at the door, struggling with his umbrella, ready for his dinner booking.<\/p>\n
It was five days before they could get back inside. It smelled, says Chand, \u201clike somebody died\u201d. Cassia as they knew it was over.<\/p>\n
The Sahrawats were exhausted. They know not every customer enjoyed Cassia\u2019s tenure as part of SkyCity\u2019s Federal St offering, but Chand describes the shift as \u201cparking the car in a safe, undercover garage\u201d.<\/p>\n
Now? \u201cNow\u2019s the time to pull the car out of the garage. And maybe upgrade the car. Time for a Ferrari now.\u201d<\/p>\n
A selection of dishes from the menu at Cassia, including burrata (rear) and xacuti (right). The modern Indian restaurant is reopening on Albert St, Auckland. Photo \/ Sahil Patel<\/p>\n
The new restaurant is a 400sq m vote of confidence in the central city. Matthew Aitchison, who helped open the original Cassia and just picked up New Zealand\u2019s inaugural Michelin Guide sommelier award, is on board as manager. The menu will feature old classics and new dishes honed at the recent suburban pop-up \u2013 a lamb sausage roll, and maybe a play on vada pav with a tart shell instead of bread, from head chef, Ketan Joshi. (Chand says it\u2019s too spicy for her; Sid says he loves it).<\/p>\n
Chand says when the couple opened Sidart they had no children and \u201cwe were so young we didn\u2019t know there was a recession. None of us read the news back then!\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, their daughter is 15 and their son is 10. Once again, the economic climate is tough. Once again, the Sahrawats hope to prevail.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have to be brave and put their money where their mouth is,\u201d says Chand. \u201cWe\u2019re doing it, we hope customers do it . . . It\u2019s time for the tide to turn. We believe in this city.\u201d<\/p>\n
More food & drink<\/p>\n
A diner\u2019s guide to good Auckland eating<\/p>\n
Kim Knight joined the New Zealand Herald in 2016. She is a senior reporter on the New Zealand Herald\u2019s lifestyle desk and has a Masters in Gastronomy from AUT. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sid Sahrawat remembers trying to subvert the panipuri. At his restaurant Cassia, he filled the crisp, puffed shell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3589,51,165145,31426,156,78,5501,117,111,139,69,285870,40547,2539,6443,168163,285868,168161,392,285869,28355],"class_list":["post-580228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-3589","tag-auckland","tag-cassia","tag-cbd","tag-entertainment","tag-in","tag-indian","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-panipuri","tag-remembers","tag-restaurant","tag-returns","tag-sahrawat","tag-sahrawats","tag-sid","tag-space","tag-subvert","tag-trying"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}