Great British Menu 2023 chefs: Avinash Shashidhara, London and South East Heat

Avinash Shashidhara, Head Chef of Pahli Hill Bandra Bhai, is one of four chefs competing for London and South East region on Great British Menu 2023.

Series 18 of the competition starts on January 31 2023 on BBC Two at 8pm and will air for eight weeks.

Avinash is going head to head with chefs Ferdinand Montoya, Brian Danclair, Robbie Lorraine in a bid to represent London and the South East in the regional finals, and ultimately cook a dish at the final banquet.

This is Avinash's first time competing in Great British Menu.

Biography

Born and raised in Bangalore, India, Avinash is transforming traditional homestyle Indian cooking into a masterful display at his restaurant Pahli Hill Bandra Bhai in London’s Fitzrovia.

Avinash’s hospitality career started off after he pursued a degree in hotel management before moving to the UK in 2005, starting his journey at Claude Bosi’s two Michelin-starred Hibiscus in Ludlow.

Eager to develop his career further, the young chef left the restaurant to take up work at John Hoskins’ The Old Bridge Hotel. It was long until Avinash undertook a stage at Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray’s Michelin-starred River Café in Hammersmith, quickly making a big impression to the restaurant’s owners.

“Rose Gray offered me a job at the end of the stage and I did take up on her offer, a year on! It was one of the best career choices I made – and I worked there 10 years,” he said. 

Describing his time at River Café and the impact it had on him as a young chef, Avinash explained: “It was absolutely amazing. It was an ingredients-led kitchen with a daily changing menu and simple cooking techniques. I got to learn so much about seasonality and classical Italian cooking."

PAHLI HILL BANDRA BHAI

Opening in 2020, Pahli Hill Bandra Bhai has quickly established itself as one of London’s best Indian restaurants, perfectly encapsulating Avinash’s desire to share the meals and food culture of his home, with diners visiting the restaurant.

Open for just over two years, Pahli Hill Bandra Bhai has already amassed critical acclaim from some of Britain’s most respected food guides and critics, with restaurant receiving a Bib Gourmand from the Michelin Guide.

"The food at Pahli Hill is very homestyle and seasonal, we're trying to take it back to what I or some of my chefs would eat at home growing up in India" explained Avinash.

He added: "I get my chefs to cook from their memories of comfort food rather than from what they learned to cook at other restaurants. Food they grew up eating, food their families had cherished memories about. That, to me is so much more meaningful than cooking from some cookbook or recreating recipes tried at another restaurant."

Built on the site of the iconic Indian - Gaylord restaurant, Pahli Hill Bandra Bhai is comprised of a restaurant on the ground floor, and a cosy bar downstairs.

The restaurant upstairs caters for 60 covers, with the bar providing 35 seats to guests, with both spaces featuring eye-catching art deco interiors running throughout.