From Jaipur to Bengaluru: Chef Karan Upmanyu's culinary journey

The start of a food journey

Born in Jaipur, food was a way of life from childhood, and Upmanyu and his large, multi-regional family take it seriously. They have nuanced deliberations so much so that “my family can spot how the hing (asafoetida) in the dal is not from Rajasthan, but from Lucknow!"

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Upmanyu fondly recalls Tuesday outings with his grandfather to Gudia Books in Jaipur where they would sit together reading weekly magazines like India Today and Chacha Chaudhry, and then head to the shop next door for softies in the nineties. There was also a stop for boondi laddoos at the temple before heading home. “My grandfather was a stickler for where he got his food and had specific vendors for pineapple burfi, another for pav bhaji and so on".

Moving to Jodhpur for school, Upmanyu vividly recalls the joy of sitting around the table when his parents entertained and the immediate response of seeing guests react to their food. This, he says, was etched in his mind. Soon the thought of getting into the kitchen professionally struck and like many have been, Upmanyu too was advised to consider other professions. In a trajectory of discovery, he studied science, economics, Sanskrit, and German, and even answered a few law entrance examinations, eventually settling on a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts at St. Stephen’s in Delhi from 2008-2011.

“Delhi was a culture shock, but the campus and the people made up for it. I stayed at the residences, where we would do a lot of jugaad cooking like boiling eggs in a kettle, go out for late-night parathas, and even do barbecues and make cocktails. We would add vodka to the coconut or mango lassis that we got in the mess or mix some questionable-tasting whisky or gin into a can of juice with some lemon. But I could balance flavours and the drinks would be finished," he says.

Food explorations

Upmanyu went on to do a Master’s Programme in Hospitality at Le Cordon Bleu in Adelaide, Australia. “The course had nothing to do with cooking, but I landed my first part-time job at Cha-Chi’s Mexican Cantina within a week of arriving. This opened my eyes to how things are done in a professional set-up versus at home. The importance of prep and mise-en-place being perfect when you open for service, taught me the dynamics and nuances of the profession," he says.

He picked up a second job – a breakfast shift at Lakeside Café – Oakden in 2013 and recalls it being intense work with remembering how to make the sandwiches, salads etc. “It helped me understand that it is not just the love of cooking that will get one through, but being precise and organised is important too." Two years later Upmanyu decided to return to India to do something in his country, a pattern that would repeat.

In 2011, with a desire to work at the best restaurant, he knocked on the doors of Indian Accent in New Delhi and joined them as a management trainee in the bakery section. His only job? To make the restaurant’s famous palate cleanser – the Anardana Churan Kulfi. “It was monotonous work, but I kept at it without complaint and it paid off. In 2014 when talks for the New York outpost began, I was chosen to be part of the opening team," Upmanyu says.

It was gruelling work and when not at the restaurant, Upmanyu spent most of his paycheck exploring the food of New York. From ramen shops in basements to house parties where people pulled out aged beef from cabinets to fishing trips around Staten Island, to tiny places in Brooklyn that served only oysters and Absinthe, he found it all eye-opening. A year later, the desire to return home kicked in, and this time he landed in Bengaluru to work at Toast & Tonic.

“This was another career shift for me because I saw a lot of Indian ingredients being used – some I had never heard of! We were milling our flours from a variety of millets and working with a lot of indigenous ingredients from Karnataka. Plus, the city impressed me food-wise. In many ways the cultural and food aspects were like New York, with several regional and international communities comprising the city," he says.

All through Upmanyu harboured a dream of going to Spain and exploring its tapas culture. Taking a sabbatical from Toast & Tonic, he did just that, landing in Barcelona. “I took up a short course of a few months on progressive kitchen techniques. He then landed jobs at the Michelin-starred Tapas restaurant Tickets (now closed) by Albert Adria in Barcelona, followed by the innovative Mediterranean dining spot Restaurant Bo.Tic in Girona before returning to India where he held the position of Head Chef at Toast & Tonic until 2022.

“What impressed me in Barcelona was the way they approached their ingredients. As part of the prep team at Tickets, we would receive ingredients and sort them out. Prawns would be weighed and boxed so that cooking times would be adjusted accordingly. Later in the day, the whole team of 20 chefs would stand around a large table to tackle all the smaller tasks. This way a tedious job like cleaning 5-kilogram bags of green almonds was not monotonous for any one person and would get done faster," he recalls.

Once back at Toast & Tonic, the pandemic hit and it was during the second lockdown that Upmanyu started his range of hot sauces called Wood Street Sauce Co. “It was a great learning and a segue to understanding that it was not daunting to do something on my own, whether running a restaurant or something simpler," he says.

At the end of 2022, Upmanyu ventured out on his own. He had the canvas of Wood Street Sauces to work on. Additionally, The Courtyard and subsequently The Conservatory – popular venues for culinary events of various hues came up. From catering to movie nights to creating menus for small dinners to thematic meals such as Tapas para Todos, Cena Mexicana, Fruits and Vegetables, Tamil Tapas and The Bear Menu, Upmanyu did it all.

Today, he has a kitchen base in Domlur from where he runs his consultancy, works out private catering, and has done pop-ups in Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai. He worked on the savoury menu of Sapa Bakery in Mysuru, the food menu of Bengaluru’s Bar Spirit Forward and more recently, revamped the menu of Bengaluru’s first micro-brewery Biere Club, and now ParTTwo.

As many of Upamanyu’s menus show, his approach to food is a culmination of his growing-up food memories his time in Adelaide, New York and Spain and his various work stints. “I was adamant to see what the best chefs in the world were doing, but at the same time, always wanted to come back to my country. The culinary world continues to feel exciting and new to me," he says.

Ruth DSouza Prabhu is a features journalist based in Bengaluru.

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