Meet culinary maestro and Grand Executive Chef of The Taj Mahal Palace & Towers, Chef Hemant Oberoi.
Passionate about food, and its history, Chef Oberoi has spent the more than three decades of his career continually reinventing himself and his menus.
He has travelled the world, in search of its culinary secrets and has made it his mission to expose people to all the varied treasures the world has to offer. Even as he uses his creative genius to consistently surprise and innovate with new preparations and presentations, he is devoted to retaining traditional flavours and ingredients.
Chef Oberoi has had kings & queens and Hollywood royalty, heads-of-state and rockstars, shahs and society’s cream all eating out of his hands, over the decades. He has accompanied top dignitaries in the capacity of personal chef, and been part of many extremely high-profile international events and promotions.
His innovative and constantly curious spirit has led him to spearhead and create many pioneering culinary concepts. He reinvented Indian cuisine with the Masala series of restaurants, introduced the country to Szechwan cuisine and made Mumbai discover and fall in love with Japanese fare. He conceived the unique concept of lemon grass food for a coffee shop, invented Khud cuisine, where the fare is cooked and served in earthenware pots, created Ricetaurant, a delightful international rice-based cuisine and an innovative fusion cuisine Cal-Indian – a blend of Californian and Indian cuisine. He has recently introduced another never-before dining concept called the Chef’s Studio
His talents have been widely recognised and appreciated across the globe. He is the first Indian chef to be nominated to the World Gourmet Club, has been the recipient of the Taj Business Excellence Award for 4 years running, and the restaurants he heads for Taj have found pride of place in the likes of Conde Nast’s Gold List, Wine Spectator magazine’s Award of Excellence, the Times Food Guide Awards and Institutional Hotelier’s top 100.
