Little over a year has passed since Gymkhana truly cemented its place in London’s culinary history books.
In February 2024, it received a second Michelin star, becoming the first Indian restaurant to hold that honour within England’s capital city.
From Delhi to Mayfair: Sid Ahuja’s Culinary Journey
At the head of the culinary offering is Sid Ahuja, recently promoted up from executive chef to chef director at Gymkhana. JKS Restaurants' portfolio includes Trishna, Bao, Sabor and BiBi.
Delhi-born Sid started out in hotels in India, before a stint in Copenhagen and then moving across to Mayfair as head chef of Gymkhana in 2016.
Since, his culinary offering has caught the imagination, of both Michelin and celebrity diners such as Ed Sheeran, who describes it as his “favourite Indian restaurant”.
“Honestly, I was born to cook,” said Sid.
“I started cooking at the age of four. That was my first attempt. I literally had to get onto a stool to get to the gas. That was like my first step into actually cooking. My parents were paranoid because I was so close to the fire. They freaked out.
“But that's when they encouraged me.
“In my childhood, I played more with kitchen sets and lookalike toys that look like kitchen stuff, rather than balls and bats and footballs.
“I've always been very passionate about cooking. By the time I was in my sixth grade, I knew that I'm supposed to pursue a career in cooking, in chef culinary arts. By the time I was in my tenth grade, I decided the college that I wanted to go.”
Sid would go on to train and excel at some of India’s premier hotels, amongst the Taj Group and Oberoi Group, before linking up with JKS.
Why Gymkhana’s Butter Chicken and Lamb Chops Are Truly Iconic
So what makes Gymkhana so special?
“We follow a Pan-Indian approach to the menu,” explained Sid.
“We've got a lot of north Indian dishes, we've got some western Indian dishes, a few bits of south India. So it's a mix of some of the best of all the regions.
“Since I've travelled so much in India, I think I've picked up the real authentic taste of every dish.
“It's the most authentic experience that you would probably get in Delhi, and we recreated the same food here in London.
“The food is bold, spicy, just the way it should be as it is authentically served in India.”
Among the standout dishes at Gymkhana are their butter chicken masala and tandoori lamb chops.
“I am a Delhi boy. I was born and brought up in Delhi,” said Sid.
“If you go back and look into history, butter chicken was created in Delhi. So I have grown up eating butter chicken all my life.
“For me, I can have that butter chicken for breakfast, lunch or dinner, because it's just part of me.
“And the butter chicken that we do here is really special because we recreate the classic flavours that go into a butter chicken back home in Delhi.
“It's like a decadent mix of smoky chicken, combining with smooth, silky tomato
“A butter chicken can be made in multiple different ways. Every region, every household can do it the way they want to do it. But our butter chicken is really, really special because we take a lot of care in sourcing the ingredients, sourcing the chicken and then combining it together, plus recreating the spice palate that you would probably get it in Delhi.
“So that is one of our USPs I would say, we keep it really authentic as what you get in Delhi.
“It's the best butter chicken outside of Delhi, because we haven't played around with flavours, we haven't anglicised the flavours, we haven't customised it to the local British palate.
“We've kept it really authentic so that the people of London get the real taste.
“Honestly, that makes us special, compared to other restaurants, because of the fact that we haven't customised it. It's just so authentic and so pure.”
He added: “Lamb chops is one of the most signature, iconic dishes of Gymkhana. We are pretty much renowned for it.
“We have a very special supplier who gets us farm raised lamb chops, which is really exclusive. He does it only for us.
“We marinate the lamb chops for at least 24 hours, and then those lamb chops are then finally cooked in the tandoor.”
Discussing the importance of the tandoor, Sid said: “The tandoor is very important as part of Indian cuisine, but restaurant Indian cuisine. Homes don't really have a tandoor, as in we don't do tandoori breads at home.
“The Indian restaurants always have a tandoor because it's more like a bigger scope of work.
“So it's a charcoal oven, which everybody knows about it. And for us, it is a very important part of the menu because we do a lot of grilled meats, tandoor cooked meats and kebabs. The lamb chops, the prawns, the salmon, a whole section of menu has been dedicated to the tandoor.”
Gymkhana’s Cocktail Bar, Fine Foods, and Global Vision
Gymkhana’s popularity is showing no signs of slowing down, selling out around 300 covers every day, across lunch and dinner.
They shut just five days a year and have also recently launched cocktail bar 42, and offer home use products with their Gymkhana Fine Foods range.
“For a complete Gymkhana experience, we recommend guests to book 42 first,” said Sid.
“They arrive here for a pre-dinner drink, then go down to have the dinner and then if they still have some more room for more drinks and time, then they can again come up for some digestifs and post-dinner cocktails.”
Gymkhana opened in 2013, closing for a spell after a fire before reopening in 2020 following a redesign.
Asked what the future looks like for the much-renowned restaurant, Sid said: “So the future for Gymkhana is going to be that we go global.
“We'll share more details as and when things finalise!”
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