You have probably heard of Semma, the only Indian restaurant in New York to win a Michelin star. And of Gymkhana, the only Indian restaurant with two Michelin stars in London. Of Jamavar, the only Indian restaurant in the world to have won Michelin stars in three different avatars in three different cities: London, Doha and Dubai.

What, you may well ask, do these restaurants have in common?

There are two answers to this question. The first is the obvious one: they are all Indian restaurants run by chefs who have worked or trained in India. Vijaya Kumar of Semma is very proud of cooking the authentic cuisine of Tamil Nadu’s not-so-elevated castes and makes it hot and spicy. (He started out at the Taj Connemara in Chennai.) His boss, and one of the founders of Unapologetic Foods, which owns Semma, Chef Chintan Pandya, says that the group gets its name from its determination to refuse to apologise for the flavours and oil that characterise Indian food.........

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