1 Michelin Star Chefs: Sameer Taneja, executive chef, Benares

Sameer Taneja is the executive chef at one Michelin-starred Benares in Mayfair, London.

Sameer has had many great mentors in the hospitality industry, having trained with the likes of 
Pierre Koffmann, Joel Antunes, Alain Roux and Atul Kochhar.

biography

Originally from Dehli in India, Sameer obtained a degree in hotel management at Mangalore University in Karnataka before taking on his first role as a kitchen commis at 5-star Jaipur hotel, The Oberoi Rajvilas.

Three years later, he moved to the UK and secured a job at One O One Restaurant, the seafood restaurant then located inside The Park Tower Hotel in Knightsbrige. After almost six years, Sameer had climbed the ranks to the position of acting head chef under chef Pascal Proyart. 

Next, the chef moved to three Michelin-starred Bray restaurant, The Waterside Inn, where he held the position of saucier for eleven months under chef Alain Roux.

Then, the chef was offered a sous-chef job at Brasserie Joël, Park Plaza Westminster Bridge in London, and a year later he was offered the same role at Koffmann's at The Berkeley. He stayed there for a year before moving to Benares, where he led the team and retained the restaurant's star for almost four years.

In 2016, Sameer helped launch a new Indian restaurant on Shaftesbury Avenue in Soho called Talli Joe, where he stayed for two years. Despite opening to critical acclaim, Talli Joe closed in 2019. 

Sameer took this opportunity to become a consultant at Gourmand Hospitality, and returned to work at Benares in 2019.

He took over from chef Brinder Narula, who himself took the reins after chef patron Atul Kochhar parted ways with the restaurant in 2018 after posting a series of Tweets deemed to be anti-islamic. The restaurant, which had held a Michelin star since 2007, lost it when Atul Kochhar left, and earned it once more in the 2021 Michelin Guide for Great Britain and Ireland.

Benares

Located on London's Berkeley Street in the West End and named after the city of two thousand temples on the Ganges river in Uttar Pradesh, Benares has been a spearhead for Indian fine-dining since Atul Kochhar opened it in 2003. 

The interior scheme is minimal in colour in both the restaurant and lounge bar, with aptly-placed wall-mounted mood lighting.

Dishes are created by Sameer and his team using past experiences, travel and spices. By all accounts, the results are both innovative and respectful of tradition.  

Michelin says the food at Benares "shows confidence, freshness and vitality," noting that "the star ingredient of each dish is of exemplary quality." 

The guide singles out the three following dishes as the chef's specialities: hand-dived Scottish scallop, coconut curry and Malabar paratha; Garam masala spiced fillet of muntjac, plantain chips and buttered pao; bhapa doi, raspberry and passion fruit.

Guests can choose between à la carte, a tasting menu for just under £100 a head, or a two or three course set menu for £29-£35, all with optional wine flights.

Described in a review by Andy Hayler last year as "up there with the very best Indian food in the capital," Sameer's food is said to show "considerable kitchen skills in some unusual and really successful dishes."