2023 recap: The Global Indian stories we loved this year

ed and joined the Institute of Hotel Management in Goa. It was at my internship at the Taj Holiday Village when I realised I enjoyed cooking. Till Class 12, I had never wanted to enter the kitchen or been curious about cooking.”

[caption id="attachment_56414" align="aligncenter" width="444"] Chef Siddharth during an invitation to cook at the prestigious James Beard House in New York City[/caption]

Chef Siddharth Krishna joined the ITC Maurya in Delhi after graduation. He recalls, “I worked at Dum Pukht, Bukhara and Peshawri, the three globally known restaurants of the brand. Bukhara was also featured in Patricia Schultz's book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. At Peshawri, known for its robust tandoor-cooked dishes, I refined my ability to prepare bold, flavourful meals that celebrated the culinary traditions of the Indian Northwest Frontier. Meanwhile, at Dum Pukht, famous for its luxurious Awadhi cuisine, I mastered slow-cooking techniques and the delicate use of spices, further broadening my culinary repertoire. These experiences laid the foundation for my later success, as I blended traditional techniques with modern innovation—a philosophy that would define my global culinary journey.”

Namastey London

While he was the Sous Chef at ITC Chola Sheraton in Chennai, in 2004, he got an opportunity to work with Camellia and Namita Punjabi, the sisters who have established Chutney Mary, one of the UK’s best-known restaurants serving Indian food. “I had participated in a cooking competition, and my dish was ranked the best. I met Camellia Punjabi because Jiggs Kalra, the legendary chef, had suggested she meet me and she asked me to join them. It was a no-brainer and I said yes given that it was one of the top ten restaurants in the world at that time.”

Chef Siddharth worked with Chutney Mary as Head Chef till 2012. His time there was a learning curve at several levels, he reveals. “We shared a great rapport, and through them, I learnt the know-how and tricks of the trade. Vision, strategy, flavour profiles, cooking techniques for all kinds of meat and more. Some of the processes we used there were unheard of at the Indian restaurants then. If we served three curries, none of them were anything like each other. I am still in touch with them!”

[caption id="attachment_56415" align="aligncenter" width="454"] Chef Siddharth Krishna at a fish farm and market[/caption]

During his tenure there, Chutney Mary became known for its ability to blend traditional Indian flavours with contemporary presentations. The restaurant received multiple awards and recognitions during this period, including being ranked No. 5 in Time Out’s Guide to London’s Top 50 Restaurants. Additionally, it frequently featured in top food guides, such as the Square Meal Guide, which awarded it the Best Modern Indian Restaurant title for two consecutive years.

More milestones 

Chef Siddharth Krishna left Chutney Mary to join Rosewood Abu Dhabi as the Chef de Cuisine and was part of the launch and subsequent success of Sambusek, (a lifestyle Lebanese cuisine restaurant), and instrumental in the launch of Dai Pai Dong (the Chinese restaurant at the Rosewood); and Aqua. Chef Siddharth says about his stint in the UAE, “One of my most significant achievements was my tenure at Spice Mela in Abu Dhabi, where I served as Chef de Cuisine. Under my leadership, Spice Mela became one of the premier destinations for contemporary Indian cuisine in the region, earning numerous prestigious awards.” 

Due to his impactful journey in Abu Dhabi, the Rosewood group offered him a plum position to lead the culinary operations in the Bahamas at their property the Rosewood Baha Mar. He was responsible for the launch of their F&B operations here as well. Says Chef Siddharth about working on the island that is the haunt of the rich and the famous, “Since May 2018, I have led the culinary operations here. As the Executive Chef and a member of the Baha Mar F&B advisory committee, I was instrumental in the successful opening of the resort’s food and beverage operations. This included the critically acclaimed Café Boulud by Daniel Boulud and Costa, a coastal Mexican cuisine concept. Under my direction, the resort served over 35000 a la carte covers per month.”   

[caption id="attachment_56418" align="aligncenter" width="450"] Chef Siddharth at work at Rosewood Baha Mar[/caption]

To further his knowledge, he went on a road trip to coastal Mexico to learn about their food as he didn’t want the cuisine to be limited to the ubiquitous Tex Mex variety. Some of his innovative approaches curating unique dining experiences included a ‘Dinner Under the Stars,’ featuring a menu inspired by Zodiac flavours, and collaborating with celebrity chefs Marcus Samuelsson, Daniel Boulud, and Margarita Carillo during the Baha Mar Culinary Festival. 

Another achievement in this long list includes the invitation he received to cook at the prestigious James Beard House in New York City. “Being invited to this esteemed institution is one of the highest honours for a chef, and the opportunity to highlight my culinary artistry was a testament to my standing in the culinary community. My menu at the James Beard House featured a collage of Indian spices with modern cooking techniques, reflecting my vision of contemporary gastronomy.”  

 Life in the UK

Chef Siddharth Krishna decided to move back to the UK again because he wanted his 13-year-old son to have more exposure than was available on the island. In January this year, he joined the Fairmont Windsor Park, a luxury property in Egham, an hour away from London. About his role here as Executive Head Chef he says, “We change the menu every season and it is a lovely property where we grow our own vegetables in the garden.”

[caption id="attachment_56417" align="aligncenter" width="425"] Chef Siddhartha Krishna at the Fairmont Windsor Park[/caption]

Chef Siddharth Krishna has a strong belief system which has perhaps played a key role in his success. He says, “I believe that whatever you do, you have to be true to yourself. There have been challenges where acquiring the knowledge and skill was important. Now it is about cooking with passion and authenticity.”

On the personal front, Chef Siddharth has a cookbook ready in the wings, complete with a foreword written too. He says it is one with an out-of-the-box concept but has not gotten around to sending it to publishers yet. If it is as colourful as his career trajectory, we are sure the book will be as successful when it hits the shelves. 

While travelling, Chef Siddharth likes to eat at:

• Black Pepper Crab at Long Beach UDMC, Singapore  
• Crispy pork belly at Mott 32, Hong Kong
• Lasagna at Don Angie, New York
• Tacos, gorditas, churros, al pastor on the streets of Mexico City 
• Prawn Al Ajillo at Casa Lucio, Madrid

Follow Chef Siddharth Krishna on Instagram 

research, working tirelessly to make a change. He even uses his talent for painting to create artistic renditions of mitochondria on canvas.

In October 2022, Dr. Singh and his team also received a grant from NASA, after a study showed that 57 astronauts suffered from mitochondrial anomalies after their stints at the International Space Station. The organisation has awarded Dr. Keshav a grant to do the animal studies - "We will take our mice and work at the NASA facility in Brookhaven, in a laboratory-created space environment," he told Global Indian.

[caption id="attachment_32114" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Dr Keshav Singh[/caption]

 A long journey

The accolades, although never the end goal, had been a long time coming. Some fifteen years had passed since he started the Society for Mitochondrial Research and Medicine, first in the USA and later on in India, as well as a scientific journal, Mitochondrion, in 2000. At the same time, Dr Singh, along with his young son and daughter, would work late into the night on a companion newsletter, MitoMatters. "My daughter was in charge of the newsletter. We were trying to create awareness." 

"Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell," is biology's most repeated line, and any Indian student who paid attention in high school can rattle it off without pause. Little is known even today about the complex set of mitochondrial diseases induced due to primary defects in mitochondria. And the information was even scarcer when Dr. Keshav chose it as an area of research. "Nobody cared much for it," he says. "But one of the godfathers of mitochondria biology happened to be at Johns Hopkins at that time. I was looking for a mentor - when you are an immigrant, moving around all the time, you have no mentor." Dr. Keshav’s ambitions were thwarted when he was told, "You're wasting your time. Mitochondria produce energy and there's nothing more to it." 

Bareilly to Boston

It wasn't great news, but by this time, well-honed by the education system in India and abroad, Dr. Keshav wasn't about to give up. He recalls the early days over a Zoom call early on a Saturday morning. "My father was in the railways and I was the youngest child in the family," he says. "At school, we didn't get a desk until sixth grade, we had to sit on the floor." The day the furniture arrived was one of great excitement. 

Dr. Keshav excelled in school and in the sixth grade received his first scholarship of Rs 16, a significant sum then. "The first big change came when I did my master's in GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology," he says. After having tried and failed to get a medical seat, Dr. Singh settled on microbiology, which was a top branch of science at the time, with only six seats available across India. 

"In college, I used cow dung to make methane, and at the same time, my brother was using methane to make biogas to power a village." His brother also went on to set up the Ministry of Non-Conventional Sources of Energy. 

Fuelled by one academic success after the next, he continued to receive scholarships, at the National Dairy Research Institute, at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, and IIT-Delhi, "I was offered scholarships, but the problem I faced was that I didn't speak English too well, so I  joined Central Drug Research Institute in Lucknow for a short while under a CSIR fellowship."  

To foreign shores

He had his degrees but wanted more than to "do mediocre science." That led him to the University of Wollongong in Australia, where he did a Ph.D. in marine biology and received a scholarship to Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratories. " At MBL, I isolated a bacterium from sewage sludge, which was a lot of fun. It turned out it had unique characteristics and hadn't been discovered before, so I named it after my Professor and me. It grows as a clump but is a single-cell organism." After a post-doc at Harvard, Dr. Keshav joined Johns Hopkins, where he would remain as a faculty member until 2003.

Mitochondria research

"I learned that hundreds of mitochondrial diseases have no cure or even a name or diagnosis," Dr Singh remarks. He recalls one case - that of a high-profile patient, the scion of a global hospitality company, who visited Johns Hopkins complaining of a problem in his eye - "he had no energy in the eyelid and a lot of other problems as well," Dr. Keshav explains. The patient had visited a nephrologist, eye specialist, and neurologist and made no headway with a diagnosis. Mitochondrial diseases are multisystem disorders, so patients end up consulting specialists in those areas without much luck.

Mitochondrial DNA is maternally inherited and passed on to the egg, which contains about five million mitochondria. Each mitochondrion contains 100 copies of the DNA. If even one percent of that DNA is mutated, "you don't know how it will be distributed in different organs and in which order. That is the dilemma," Dr. Keshav says. "You may be okay for a while, but if the mutant load increases, you develop symptoms quickly. And even today, there is little or no training in some parts of the world, particularly in India, for physicians to connect these dots and arrive at a diagnosis."

Work in India

Starting in 2006-07, Dr. Keshav began collaborating with Dr. K. Thangaraj at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad; Dr. Keshav set up the Society for mitochondrial  research and medicine in India. Physicians from America are brought to India to train the physicians here in recognizing symptoms and diagnoses. "There is no treatment, though," Dr. Keshav admits. For 15 years now, the society has been organising conferences, bringing scientists and physicians together in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Manipal University, Central Drug Research Institute in Lucknow, and JNU in Delhi. 

In the United States, they also involve the patients. Just like the HIV model that was followed in the 1970s and 80s, we bring patients at the end of the conference. The scientists train the physicians, who train the patients, who then go to the politicians and make their case." Mitochondrial diseases are supported by Democrats and Republicans alike. "There are around 400 diseases related to mitochondria. But, unfortunately, only a handful have been accepted," he says.

[caption id="attachment_32111" align="aligncenter" width="577"] At the first annual conference of the Society for Mitochondria Research and Medicine[/caption]

Energy for all

Spurred on by the success of the anti-ageing experiment, Dr. Keshav co-founded Yuva Biosciences with serial entrepreneur and fellow Harvard grad Greg Schmergel. Their mission is to "restore mitochondrial function to rejuvenate you, starting with your hair and skin that is provide youthfulness for life."

The experiment with the mice also received the attention of an MD clinical fellow, Jasmine Chiang, who saw the story in the news. She approached the team at the University of Alabama, asking to work on the ovaries of the mice. "I asked her why an MD and Ob/Gyn who deals with patients would want to do this." Dr. Chiang, however, was interested in working on the ageing of the ovaries, which takes place at a much faster rate than the rest of the body.

"Mice go through processes which are very similar to that of human beings. When women go through menopause or ovarian ageing, hormones are downregulated, putting them at high risk for cardiovascular, cancer, and neurological disorders. "The idea is to understand how mitochondria control ovarian functions and how we can delay menopause." Two women in a 100 (amounting to some 60 million women) suffer from premature ovarian aging, a condition for which there is no treatment other than egg donation. Notably, in some countries like Germany, egg donation is prohibited.

[caption id="attachment_32108" align="aligncenter" width="566"] Dr Keshav K Singh[/caption]

'Fem tech' and ancient Indian remedies

India, Dr. Keshav says, has much to offer in the area of rejuvenation. "We have concepts like kayakalpa, medicinal plants, and the knowledge of Ayurveda. People talk about regenerating through yoga. At a cellular level, there are technologies in existence that can be utilized and applied along with kayakalpa and yoga to develop ways to rejuvenate mitochondrial function and energy". Dr. Singh's goals is to find a way to prevent, restore and rejuvenate mitochondrial function to extend health span and provide energy to all to age well when you get old. He is leading the field to accomplish this goal.

• Follow Dr Keshav Singh on LinkedIn