The Chef Who Helped Pujol Land its Michelin Stars Is Headed to NYC
Plus, an across-the-pond view of how London's Indian food scene compares to New York's
Today we’ve got a surprise fall opening uptown, plus a new cookbook coming out next month that shines a light on one of London’s celebrated Indian restaurants. Also, there’s still time to get your tickets to the Eater Off Menu event to celebrate 20 years of our brand. Read on for more. — Melissa
Jesús Durón, former executive chef of Mexico City’s acclaimed Pujol, is opening a restaurant in the former Milling Room, at 446 Columbus Avenue, between West 81st and 82nd streets. The new spot, Ashi, and is on track to open later this fall, the New York Post reports.
Durón cooked at Pujol since 2021 before leaving last November. For the last 25 years, Pujol has shaped international perceptions of Mexican cuisine, with tasting menus highlighting regional ingredients, a taco omakase, and its famous mole madre. The restaurant has ranked among the World’s 50 Best and, in 2024, became one of the first in Mexico to receive Michelin stars, while Durón was running the kitchen.
With Ashi, Durón says he plans to bring dressed-up fare that is still approachable, according to the newspaper. I reached out for more information. His dishes will be showcased along with those of other restaurants from the neighborhood at a Taste of the Upper West Side event held at Ashi on October 23. Tickets are $150.
On Indian restaurants coming to New York from London, from one of the UK’s celebrated chefs
In 2021, chef Chetan Sharma opened BiBi in London’s Mayfair neighborhood, a 32-seat restaurant where bold, personal Indian cooking meets the polish of fine dining. Sharma, a former physicist, left academia for kitchens, working his way through nearly 20 internationally celebrated restaurants, developing a style of cooking that combines fine-tuned technique with a spotlight on memory and heritage.
At BiBi, British ingredients meet Indian flavors, with many dishes inspired by Sharma’s family, particularly his grandmother (aka Bibi).
BiBi: The Cookbook — Stories from My Bibi, on sale Monday, October 8, is part recipe collection and part memoir, with 60 recipes that range from dishes to foundational masalas, sauces, and stocks. Interwoven throughout are essays tracing Sharma’s journey, reflections on family and culture, and contributions from friends of the restaurant, from chef Tom Kerridge to comedian Trevor Noah.
With several London Indian restaurants on track to open in New York — including Ambassadors Clubhouse and Kricket among them — Eater reached out to Chet for context on the London scene, his restaurant, and this book.
Melissa: How does BiBi fit into London’s Indian restaurant scene?
Chetan: London has such a long history with Indian food. My parents came here in 1966. That generation often opened restaurants as a way to reconnect with their roots and also to bring vibrancy and excitement to what had been a very traditional British food scene. That’s really where the whole Friday night curry house culture came from.
Over the past 20 to 25 years, there’s been a dramatic shift. Indian food has moved away from that model and toward something much more regional and refined.
Chefs like Atul Kochhar were pivotal in the ’90s, introducing the idea of tasting menus and really pushing the boundaries of what Indian food could look like in a fine-dining setting. Later, places like Dishoom and Gymkhana came along, offering more authentic, nuanced interpretations of Indian cuisine. All of that created the foundation for a restaurant like BiBi.
If I had opened BiBi in New York five years ago, I think it would have been a real struggle, because there wasn’t the same understanding or context for what we were trying to do. Now, things are changing very quickly. Overall, about half of our diners [have lately] come from the U.S., and many of them are New Yorkers because it’s such an easy trip. There’s clearly a growing appetite for this style of Indian food, and it’s exciting to see that happening.
Melissa: What’s a dish from the book that guests love most?
Chetan: Our Sharmaji’s Lahori chicken, without a doubt. Guests beg us never to take it off the menu.
The chickens come from two small farms here in the U.K., and the quality of the product is incredible. We use every part of it — the marinating liquid becomes the sauce, and the stock finds its way into different dishes across the menu.
The restaurant itself is named after my grandmother, but my grandfather didn’t get left out entirely — the chicken dish is named for him.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length
Join me to celebrate Eater!
Timed to our 20th anniversary, Eater’s Off Menu event will feature an Eater-curated lineup of dishes from culinary icons focused on standout trends of the last 20 years, from maximalism to mashup desserts and everything in between, from restaurants like Tatiana, Pizzeria Mozza, Momofuku, Carbone, Bar Contra, Hani’s, Via Carota, and more. Tickets are $175: All proceeds go to World Central Kitchen. Hope to see you there.
