Under the tagline ‘fish and spice’, Fin will offer creative dishes inspired by Indian fish cookery and Taneja’s experience cooking fish in Western restaurants including Knightsbridge’s One-O-One, Koffmann’s at The Berkeley, and Brasserie Joel at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge.
Taneja, who has had full-control of the kitchen at Michelin-starred Mayfair Indian restaurant Benares for the past three years and won back its Michelin star last year, is looking at sites for the concept. Funding is not fully in place, but BigHospitality understands that the owner of Benares is onboard and is a possible backer.
“I’m from Delhi, which is very far away from the sea. I was uneducated about seafood until I worked with Pascal Proyart at One-O-One,” says Taneja, who has spent the majority of his career working in kitchens serving Western cuisine.
“Unless you’re on the coast, fish and shellfish in India is always frozen. And that’s nearly always the case in terms of Indian food in the UK, too. But fish has become an obsession for me,” he adds, saying that he also undertook some stages with Nathan Outlaw when he was at The Capital Hotel (also in Knightsbridge).”
Around 45% of dishes on the Benares tasting menu are fish or shellfish-based, and a la carte seafood is also popular at the restaurant.
The style of the food at Fin will be similar to that of Benares, with Taneja offering creative rather than traditional dishes that are inspired by Indian cookery.
“I want to use my ethos and my experience of cooking to create something special. It will happen,” he says.
“It’s been a goal of mine for quite a few years. I’ve done a lot of development work on it. We actually came close to launching Fin a few years ago but an investor pulled out at the last minute.”
The chef is hoping to work with a single, high-quality fish supplier to source mainly dayboat catch.
Fin will be located in a smaller site than the one that houses Benares - which has an 80-cover dining room, a bar area and four PDRs - and will be run by a much smaller team. Mayfair is the preferred location, but Taneja says he would willing to adapt the concept to suit a less high-end location if necessary.
A full interview with Sameer Taneja will be published next month.