From a Roadside Café in New Delhi to Dishes of India: Chef Ramanand Bhatt’s Journey

Chef Ramanand Bhatt’s story did not begin in a restaurant of his own. It began when he was 16, learning to cook at a roadside café in New Delhi. At that age, he already knew what he wanted. He hoped to one day open his own place. The dream was clear, but getting there would take many years.

At 25, Chef Bhatt left India for Spain, where he worked for five years at a respected Indian restaurant. It was a new country and a new kitchen, but he was still doing what he had started as a teenager: learning, working, and becoming better at his craft. He later returned to India and joined Air India’s flight kitchens as an assistant chef. He spent the next 15 years there. The work was very different from the roadside café where his career had started, but those years added to the experience he was gathering along the way.

In 1981, Chef Bhatt moved to the United States. The restaurant he had imagined was still not a reality, so he kept going. He worked, improved his skills, made plans, and saved money. Opening a restaurant was something he wanted badly enough to keep working towards, even when it took much longer than expected.

Finally, on June 17, 1997, Dishes of India opened. For Chef Bhatt, it was more than opening a business. It was the result of a dream he had carried since he was a teenager. By then, his career had taken him from a roadside café in New Delhi to Spain, back to India, and eventually to the United States. Each place had become part of the journey. What makes this story special is how long the dream lasted. Years passed. Countries changed. Jobs changed. But the goal stayed the same.

Today, guests visiting Dishes of India may simply see a restaurant and sit down to enjoy a meal. What they may not see is the long road behind it, a young chef starting at 16, years spent learning in different kitchens, and decades of patience before the doors to his own restaurant finally opened. Dishes of India did not appear overnight. It came from experience built over a lifetime and one dream that Chef Ramanand Bhatt never stopped working towards.

One Dream, Many Stops Along the Way

Chef Bhatt’s journey is a reminder that success does not always follow a straight line. Sometimes the path takes longer than expected. Sometimes the dream has to wait while experience, resources, and opportunities catch up. But a long journey does not mean the destination has been forgotten. From a roadside café in New Delhi to the opening of Dishes of India, Chef Ramanand Bhatt spent decades building the experience and determination behind his dream. The restaurant opened in 1997. The story behind it began much earlier.