Semma restaurant in New York, NY. Courtesy: Steven HallExecutive Chef Vikas Khanna has plated hundreds of thousands of dinners over the past 20 years — and he’s seen firsthand just how much Indian cuisine has evolved in the U.S.Khanna, a world-renowned Indian restaurateur, created Junoon, his high-end Indian restaurant in New York City, more than a decade ago to wade deeper into sophisticated Indian dining, ultimately earning a Michelin star for the restaurant — one of the first Indian restaurants to earn the distinction.As an immigrant in a post-9/11 America, Khanna said his bosses early in his career had been hesitant to branch out and experiment deeper with the broad canvas of Indian cuisine. Instead, he stuck to what he knew worked for the American palette: stereotypical menus and flavors like butter chicken and tikka masala.But when American chef Anthony Bourdain visited Junoon for the first time, Khanna said he got the wakeup call of his career.”He said, ‘I don’t understand why you guys want to camouflage your food to please the Western world,'” Khanna told CNBC. “He was saying, ‘You need to patronize the cuisine.’ And that became the foundation of Bungalow in many ways.”Bungalow, Khanna’s next and highly popular venture in New York, is one of a growing number of Indian upscale and fine-dining restaurants popping up in the U.S. What was once takeout menus and buffets, Khanna said, has transformed into a business segment aiming to rival that of Italian and French cuisine and is garnering growing interest by the day.According to Jimmy Rizvi, Khanna’s business partner at Bungalow, reservations for the restaurant sell out within 30 to 90 seconds of going live, with nightly waitlists averaging more than 1,000 people. The restaurant opened less than two years ago but consistently serves 300 to 400 dinners each night, becoming a top 10 restaurant in New York City on reservations platform Resy, Rizvi said.”I definitely think that there’s a knowledge base that’s increa …
