Chet Sharma, Chef Patron, BiBi: 'Indian food isn't limited to naans and curries'

As Chef Patron Chet Sharma is keen to express, BiBi in London’s Mayfair is not a traditional Indian restaurant, but instead a modern take on the cuisine, with the aid of some nostalgic childhood memories.

BiBi is this month celebrating the three-year anniversary since opening its doors. Having acquired the lease to the venue in the summer of 2019, the Covid-19 shutdown pushed back the opening, but Chet believes the delay worked out well for both him and the business.

“In some ways, the pandemic was probably the best thing that ever happened to this restaurant, because it let us take a step back,” Chet explains.

“It was the first time in 15 years that I hadn't worked in a restaurant for a couple of months at least.

“It gave me a chance to really think about what I love about restaurants and what I think people missed about restaurants during that period. And so we flipped everything on its head. We still have the same sort of serious approach to our food, but definitely a less serious approach to ourselves.”

STAR-STUDDED BACKGROUND

Chet has worked with some of the finest chefs across a variety of Michelin-starred restaurants, honing his craft before opening BiBi.

Having, by his own admission, overlooked what Indian ingredients could offer, Chet had a spell at Mugaritz in the Basque region of Spain, which was ended when Simon Rogan brought him back to the UK to play a key role in the launch of Claridge’s.

Chet then worked at L'Enclume, which holds 3 Michelin stars and a Michelin green star, as well as 3 Michelin-starred The Ledbury and Moor Hall, which holds 2 Michelin stars and a green star, recognising its commitment to sustainability.

Discussing the story since then, Chet explains: “I'm coming up to now half of my life I've been working in kitchens – a long, long time!

“I started quite naively by knocking on the kitchens of Michelin-starred restaurants, just because I wanted to learn more about food. Before I knew it, I was peeling green beans and potatoes in some of the best restaurants in the country.

“My first sort of culinary mentor was probably Giorgio Locatelli at Locanda Locatelli. He really gave me an insight into treasuring ingredients in a way that I hadn't really seen much of in my more classical French training.

“After that, I dotted about different parts of the world, working at places like Mugaritz and then L’Enclume, The Ledbury and Moor Hall. A pretty great line-up of chefs and restaurants and to work in, taking little elements from each place before opening BiBi.”

A NOD TO THE PAST

While Chet is eager to produce a modern take on Indian cuisine, there are notes from the past scattered around the venue on North Audley Street.

More than a third of the 31 total seats come in the form of what Chet describes as “chef’s counter”, allowing diners to interact directly with the chefs.

Some of the chairs, wall patterns, lighting and blinds come directly from Kolkata, as well as his family’s homes. Above the counter are a series of mirrors, Chet having taken the design from a visit to a stately home in Rajasthan, during his eye-opening travels through India. But all of that comes with a modern twist, Chet opting for some abstract art, as well as R&B and hip-hop music playing as you walk through the doors.

“BiBi is a modern Indian restaurant,” Chet says. 

“I'm really trying to hone in on my nostalgia from my memories of Indian cuisine, growing up in the UK but travelling to India a lot. 

“Bibi is what we call our grandmothers in the north of India. So when I thought of warm, hospitality, generosity, looking after people, my Bibi’s dining table was the first place that came to mind.

“The key message we’d want anybody who eats at BiBi to take away with them is that Indian food isn't limited to naans and curries. It can be a much wider thing. We are hopefully giving them some sense of that satisfaction with the meal here, but also giving them an experience that's unlike anything else.”

He added: “My family's background was in what is now Pakistan, previously northern India, but my travels have taken me all across the country. 

“If you think of India from tip to toe, from Kashmir to Kerala, it is the same size as London to Istanbul. It's a pretty big area to cover. Our inspiration comes from all over.”

A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

BiBi, open for lunch and dinner from Tuesday to Saturday, has already won some awards, including the 2022 GQ restaurant of the year.

There is not a huge team, but Chet wanted it that way, to give everybody a richer experience.

“By design, BiBi is actually quite a small restaurant,” he says. “We really like to try and make the experience quite personal. We have eight people in the front of house team and then 12 in the kitchen.

“Part of the reason behind that is to make sure that everyone has a little bit more balance – no-one is working four or five doubles straight like the olden days.”

In terms of the menu itself, Chet incorporates the European cooking methods he has perfected, combining those with fine Indian produce.

“People are doing amazing things with ingredients in India and really sort of recapturing the history of our cuisine,” explains Chet. 

“We do our best to make sure that we can take all of the best fresh produce here in the UK and then dried spices and ingredients from India and put them together to hopefully tell a story here at BiBi.”

He added: “BiBi is coming up to its third year of operation, so we've become less about revolutionary change and it is instead evolution of dishes that are on the menu.

“There are small tweaks pretty much every week. When we get told by our suppliers there's this amazing product that's available, we'll take it and make it work on the menu and make it shine.”

And it is both the old and the new which inspire Chet most as a chef.

“I think with BiBi it's become quite obvious that my real source of inspiration is nostalgia,” he says. 

“It's flavours and experiences that I had locked away for the last 30 years somewhere that I'm sort of recapturing over time.

“Then the other thing that inspires me, it sounds a bit cliche, but it's ingredients. That's what really drives me to change the menu and change what we're doing here at the restaurant.”

Asked how he has dealt with the struggles within the hospitality industry, Chet replied: “I think any generation of chefs will tell you their time was the most difficult. We feel sorry for ourselves, thinking post-Brexit, post-pandemic, cost of living, staffing crisis and everything else. 

“I think this industry is never a particularly easy one to operate in, let alone turn a profit in. That said, I can’t imagine doing anything other than working in hospitality and many of my team will say the same thing.

“There's a long way for BiBi to go. We’re very early in our own journey. 

“The grand ambition of the restaurant is to continue being full, to continue feeding people and making sure that they want to come back, to continue to tell our story of Indian cuisine and our little corner in Mayfair.”