Akhtar Nawab is an American chef and restaurateur. After graduating from culinary school, Nawab moved to New York in 1998 and worked under chef Tom Colicchio at Gramercy Tavern for several years. He was part of the opening staff of Colicchio's restaurant Craft, and in 2002 helped open Craftbar, later serving as executive chef. His first restaurant, Elettaria, closed in 2009 during the global financial crisis. Since then he has made a shift to working mainly in Mexican cuisine and has opened several restaurants.
Akhtar Nawab | |
|---|---|
| Born | Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Education | California Culinary Academy |
| Website | akhtarnawab |
Early life
editBorn to Indian parents in Wisconsin, Nawab's mother was a nurse and hailed from Lucknow, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, while his father worked as a cardiovascular surgeon.[1][2] In addition to his father, his brother, aunt, uncles, and grandfather worked in medical professions.[3] His parents and brother were born in India, but Nawab was born in Wisconsin, where his father was completing a fellowship program prior to moving to Louisville, Kentucky.[2] Nawab spent time cooking with his mother growing up,[1] and they made foods such as roti (a flatbread), korma (a curry) and chana dal (a chickpea-based dish).[2] He experienced difficulties being raised in a family that was more strict and conservative relative to those around them, and they only knew one other Indian family in the city.[2] He graduated from the St. Francis School in 1990.[4]
Career
edit1990–1998: Early culinary ventures and training
editNawab attended Bradley University in Illinois for one year, after which he returned to Louisville to pursue work in the restaurant business. He worked at a family restaurant for four years.[2][4] The decision displeased his parents, and he recalled: "My mom was terrified for me to do this. My dad was angry."[3] He entered the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco in 1994, where, in the course of three years, he would cook for chefs Loretta Keller (of Bizou) and Roland Passot (of La Folie).[3][1]
1998–2009: Move to New York, work with Tom Colicchio, and Elettaria
editNawab moved to New York in 1998, and worked as a cook at the Gramercy Tavern for a couple years, mentored by chef Tom Colicchio.[3][1] After a couple years at Gramercy, Colicchio chose Nawab as part of the opening staff for his restaurant Craft. There, Nawab would meet and serve as a mentor to future restaurateur David Chang, who was working as a cook. In 2002, he opened Craftbar under chef Marco Canora, and later moved into the executive chef role with Canora's departure.[1]
Nawab worked at the restaurant European Union (E.U.) before he opened his own restaurant, Elettaria, in 2008.[1][2] It was reviewed in The New Yorker and New York magazine.[5][6] He appeared on Food Network's Iron Chef America the following year.[7] The restaurant was forced to close later in 2009, not two years before its opening, due to struggles it faced amid the 2007–2008 financial crisis and bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the latter of which occurred 3 months after the restaurant's opening. Nawab was out of work in the following 7 months and faced difficulties in his personal life, such as the breakdown of his marriage.[1][2]
2009–present: Shift to Mexican cuisine and other ventures
editNawab was a consultant on the opening of a Mexican restaurant Zengo under chef Richard Sandoval. He was then culinary director of the Mexican restaurant La Esquina for four years. After that point, he worked as a consultant for a Washington, D.C.-based restaurant owned by a friend, worked to expand the Choza Taqueria restaurant chain, and opened the fast casual Indian restaurant Indie Fresh in New York.[1] He was briefly chef at La Cenita, another Mexican restaurant, around this time before he left in 2014.[8][9] From 2015 to 2017, he was executive chef at Table, in Washington D.C.[10][11]
In 2017, Nawab opened Alta Calidad, a full-service restaurant in New York serving Mexican food,[1][12] and Fero, a restaurant serving Italian cuisine in a Birmingham, Alabama food hall.[13] Alta Calidad was soon after given the Bib Gourmand by the Michelin Guide, which is awarded quality restaurants offering affordable prices.[3] His next project, Prather's on the Alley, opened in the Mount Vernon Triangle of Washington, D.C. in late 2018. He was its executive chef through early 2019.[14] He opened Otra Vez, a Mexican restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2019.[2]
Nawab is the founding CEO of Hospitality HQ, which opened a food hall in Omaha, Nebraska in 2019, and one in Chicago, Illinois, in 2020, among other projects.[15][16][17]
His first cookbook, Good for You, was published by Chronicle Books in 2020.[2]
Restaurants
edit- Elettaria (open from 2008 to 2009) in New York.[12][1]
- Indie Fresh (opened in 2015), a soup stall pop-up within Choza Taqueria in New York.[18]
- Alta Calidad (opened in 2017), a full-service restaurant in New York serving Mexican cuisine.[12]
- Fero (opened in 2017), a restaurant serving Italian cuisine in a Birmingham, Alabama food hall.[13]
- Prather's on the Alley (opened in 2018), in Washington, D.C.[14]
- Otra Vez (opened in 2019), a Mexican restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana.[2]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Strong, Andrea (September 7, 2017). "Meet the NYC Restaurateur Who Should be on Everyone's Radar". Eater NY. Retrieved September 17, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Price, Todd A. (March 10, 2020). "How an Indian-American from Kentucky became a Mexican chef". The Tennessean. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e Tan, Emily (November 28, 2017). "How an Indian-American chef from Kentucky found peace cooking Mexican food". NBC News. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
- ^ a b "Alumni Profile: Akhtar Nawab G'86, '90". Francis Parker School of Louisville. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
- ^ Platt, Adam (April 17, 2008). "Persephone and Elettaria". New York. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
- ^ Peed, Mike (May 19, 2008). "Elettaria". The New Yorker. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
- ^ McNulty, Ian (April 9, 2019). "New Mexican restaurant Otra Vez brings a Michelin-recognized chef to New Orleans". NOLA.com. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
- ^ Kaminer, Michael (October 30, 2013). "Restaurant review: La Cenita misses with tapas portions that will leave you starving". New York Daily News. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
- ^ Morabito, Greg (April 2, 2014). "La Cenita Is Now a Steakhouse; Akhtar Nawab OUT". Eater NY. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
- ^ Sidman, Jessica (June 9, 2015). "New York Chef Akhtar Nawab Will Replace Patrick Robinson at Table". Washington City Paper. Retrieved November 25, 2024.
- ^ Rojas, Warren (February 13, 2017). "Table Shutting Down Tuesday". Eater DC. Retrieved November 25, 2024.
- ^ a b c McCart, Melissa (March 1, 2017). "Akhtar Nawab's First NYC Full-Service Spot in Eight Years is Now Open". Eater NY. Retrieved September 18, 2024.
- ^ a b Carlton, Bob (July 7, 2017). "Italian restaurant opening in Birmingham's Pizitz Food Hall". AL.com. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
- ^ a b Hiatt, Gabe (November 20, 2019). "Chef Tim Ma Juggles Restaurants Again With a New Job at Prather's on the Alley". Eater DC. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
- ^ Vettel, Phil (July 24, 2020). "Food hall in Cook County Hospital development to open with roster of minority-owned vendors". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
- ^ "Food halls: Redesigning the dining experience". CBS News Sunday Morning. November 24, 2019. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
- ^ Babur, Oset (October 2, 2019). "Omaha's First Food Hall Opens in a Former Race Track". Food & Wine. Archived from the original on October 6, 2019. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
- ^ Ferst, Devra (January 21, 2015). "Gotham West Is Getting Indie Fresh, a Broth Stall from Choza Taqueria". Eater NY. Retrieved November 25, 2024.