It’s been thirty years since Atul first moved to London in 1994 (he was headhunted while working at an Oberoi Hotel in New Delhi), and that early mindset has continued to blossom into a modern British-Indian style, which is often credited with helping to take our understanding of Indian cooking far beyond the curry house menus of the 1990s. The diversity in Atul’s own style – he was born in east India, raised in the north and studied in the south – certainly helped; he has always felt less confined to one approach. ‘I migrated from either being tandoori food or curry to being Indian cuisine, or Indian cuisines,’ he says. ‘I started taking influences from Kerala, Chennai, Mumbai and Calcutta; I would think of a classic dish and think ‘if I was eating Kerala fish curry, what else would I be eating with it?’ People started saying that it's a new wave of Indian food and I didn't know what to call it.’ It was during a trip to America that a chef introduced him to New York-Italian cooking. ‘I walked away smiling and thought ‘that’s what I’m doing’,’ he says. ‘I’m not doing Indian food; it’s British-Indian. So that’s how the term got coined.’

Atul's star was soon rising, but he didn't think it would ever reach the level of peers like Phil Howard and Marco, whose restaurants were nearby and who he'd often spot during breaks. ‘I used to look up to them like heroes – they were masters of their trade,’ he says. ‘I never thought Indian food could get a Michelin star.’ But In 2001, it did. At Tamarind, Atul became the first Indian chef to earn a Michelin star, news he found so surprising that when a journalist from the Evening Standard broke the news, he thought it was a prank and hung up. On the reporter’s second attempt, the penny dropped. ‘There was a massive smile on my face,’ Atul says. ‘I stood there for five minutes grinning. I called my dad to tell him and he said ‘I think you’re on the right path now. You will do okay’.’ At the end of 2002, Atul left Tamarind to open his own restaurant Benares; it was a turbulent opening which saw the restaurant half-finished for the first few years, a steep learning curve in the nuts and bolts of running a business. ‘We opened properly, the way I wanted to cook and be able to run my kitchen, in late 2005, early 2006,’ he says, ‘and at the end of 2006 it was announced we had the star. We never looked back after that.’

At Benares, Atul continued to refine his cooking, which took on even more inspiration from his classical training and British surroundings. ‘My food became more modern, so to speak,’ Atul agrees. ‘People would say ‘you’re more French-ified now’, and I would ask what that meant. I hadn’t stopped cooking with spices – if putting food on the plate in a beautiful way meant becoming more French, then that was fine. I didn't take any notice of it, but I got lots of criticism, especially at home. India at that time was quite traditional.’ In 2018, Atul and Benares parted ways after a controversial tweet which attracted headlines and also saw Atul leave his Dubai restaurant Rang Mahal. After a difficult 2018, the chef opened Kanishka in Mayfair the following year as a showcase of his Anglo-infused Indian dishes, with a particular focus on the north-east of the country. Since then, he has become equal parts entrepreneur and chef; he has six cookbooks and nine restaurants to his name, including spots in Tunbridge Wells, Marlow and Petts Wood – his debut neighbourhood restaurant Indian Essence opened in the latter in 2012. ‘It was the first time that I realised that suburban restaurants are such a joy,’ he says. ‘You meet people, you connect with them, you are part of their lives. I knew each and every guest, I knew the names of their kids, their dogs. I fell in love with that feeling.’ 

Today, our appreciation of Indian cooking has never been more nuanced, thanks to accessible travel, cooking shows and chefs' social media followings. ‘Our understanding of Indian cuisine is very advanced,’ Atul says. ‘One of the biggest reasons is people have been visiting India a lot, they are spending time in India. But India has also opened up and embraced the Western world in the last ten to fifteen years. That’s pushed Indian food into the centre stage. Now, we have specialised Indian cuisine; cuisines from Kerala, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Maharashtra, Punjab. It's not just one flag of Indian food; people have coined a new term, cuisines of India.’

Atul takes pride in the role he played in that change, and is keen to use his influence to help the next generation of chefs. ‘I’m passionate about people and I want to help more and more young people realise their dreams,’ he says. ‘I was fortunate to fall into the right places and work hard whether I had the support or not, but I know there were times where I needed support, I needed to talk to someone, and that’s not often easily available in our industry because everyone is busy.’ Atul’s father’s words of wisdom spurred him on as a young chef thirty years ago, but his advice remains just as important today; in particular, his reaction to Atul's first star sticks out. ‘He joked around saying it’s a tyre company, but then, before he put the phone down, he said ‘son, they have given you a Michelin star. It comes with great responsibility, because people will look up to you. You have to play your role very sensibly, because you will be inspiring generations from here on. Don’t let them down’.’