Go Global with Chef Akhtar Nawab

Like many chefs, Akhtar Nawab credits his mother with giving him his first taste of cooking. It’s a story you may have heard before: boy helps mom get dinner on the table and it’s love at first sauteé. What’s unique about this first food story is that Nawab was cooking Indian Roti in the heartland of America’s South, Louisville, Kentucky.

“Yeah, most of my friends in Kentucky were not Indian," Nawab said. "They were typical kids from the neighborhood. From Kentucky. We just kind of understood that I had a different heritage. But food wise, I grew up with what I think was the best food.“

Describing what most kids were eating as, “kind of bland,” food was always important in Nawab's house. “My mother is an amazing cook. She is from the Lucknow region of India. It's an important food city of India. Just like New York City is to the US or Lyon to France. “

And Nawab's mom made sure he helped out.

“There was a heavy amount of discipline in my house,” Nawab said. “I couldn’t just watch TV and be done with it. There was always stuff to do. One thing I look forward to was helping my mom cook. It always smelled wonderful in my house. There were three homemade breads we made for dinner and tall flat breads. The science behind it was very peasant oriented. Oil, water, ghee, four, salt all rolled it together. Much like making a tortilla. It’s the same mechanics.”

Looking at Nawab’s impressive resume, some might call it ironic that the Indian traditions his mother was passing down to him would eventually be techniques he would apply later in life as a chef focusing on a Mexican cuisine at some of New York’s hottest restaurants.

But for Nawab, it has been a natural progression. After studying at the University of Louisville, he got his first restaurant job at Ditto’s Bar & Grill. Then he studied at the California Culinary Academy and followed that up by working with Loretta Keller, chef and owner of Bizou, in San Francisco, and then Tom Colicchio in New York City in 1998.

It was under Colicchio’s guidance that Nawab rocked the NY food scene. He started at Gramercy Tavern and joined the opening team at Craft in 2001. One year later, he became the Chef de Cuisine at Crafbar and was then promoted. It was as the Exectuive Chef at Craftbar that Nawab took New American cuisine to a whole new level. 

Next, Nawab owns the kitchen at Craftbar… [pagebreak]

“Craftbar was a very special place for me," Nawab said. "It was my first opportunity running a place by myself. After Marco (Canora) left to go open Hearth, it was my first chance and I couldn’t have been happier."

Nawab shared the Craftbar kitchen with two people at lunch, then another pair of cooks at dinner. That’s it. “We were very busy very often. It became a place that appealed to a lot of different people for different reasons.” Craftbar became the first “foodie” hotspot, a place where you could sit at the bar and depending on your mood, and funds, enjoy a snack and wine for either $20 or $80. During a time when food media was really gaining, Nawab became the subject of almost every food blog on the internet.

“A lot of what we did at Craftbar, like make homemade mozzarella and arrancini, those things we were doing back then, they were new," Nawab said. "No one was doing that. It was different. Everyone does it now. It has become common.”

When it was time to move on from the Coliccho/Craftbar connection in 2007, Nawab headed the kitchen at The EU and then eventually wound up in his own kitchen. He opened Elettaria in 2008 but it closed quickly in 2009.  “I took the beating of my life with that place, financially, physically, and emotionally.” 

After Elettaria, Nawab was looking for something that would challenge him. Mexican food was that challenge. He likens Mexican cuisine to Indian in that both are “tradition heavy” and the kind of cuisines you could spend the whole day cooking one dish for. He headed to La Esquina. 

“La Esquina was a very much a see-and-be-seen kind of place," Nawab said. "When I got there, I looked at it as a great opportunity to learn a whole new cuisine and experiment. There was an audience there no matter what. And if I can get them to leave there saying ‘that was spectacular’ then I succeeded.”

Next, what the future holds for Nawab… [pagebreak]

And that he did. The New York Times said his cochinita pibil, a slow-braised achiote-marinated pork, tasted  “as if he’s been cooking it all his life.”

Mexican food became the cuisine del día for the city. “Mexican food started blowing up after I got there. More and more places, smaller places, like Salvation Tacos, and refined Mexican, like Alex Stupak’s Empellon," said Nawab. "Places with a slightly different approach, started becoming popular. People were focusing more on ingredients. That is the way I understand Mexican food. It is always about how fresh the ingredients are and how little you manipulate them.”

When EMM Group wanted to add a Latin-focused eatery to their portfolio they called Nawab. He left La Esquina and together they opened La Cenita in the Meatpacking District. The experience, he says, put him in exactly the position he wanted to be. He's in charge, but not the only one in the kitchen. 

“I’d really like to take a summer vacation," Nawab said. "Do some stuff I haven’t had the chance to in a while.”

Now that La Cenita is closed, Nawab has moved on to Choza Taqueria, his new casual Mexican spot in the Gotham West Market. At Choza, Nawab turned to the food stands in northern Mexico for inspiration. The menu lets diners choose a preparation (tacos, tortas, salads, and burritos) and then customize their selection with additions like citrus-roasted pollo, chipotle-marinated carne asaada, camarones with chili lime cream, and a variety of vegetarian options like calabacin y hongos with zucchini, squash, and mushrooms with avocado salsa. 

Another location is planned for midtown New York City later this year. Nawab is excited about Choza “and more importantly,” he said, “the people I work with on it are people I like. I feel like I’ve gotten to a point where I want to work with people I want to work with. And I wont settle for less.”