a passion for cooking leads anita jaisinghani on a journey to the successful indika
by janice schindeler
photography by sylvester garza
As she sits in her newly relocated restaurant, Indika, Anita Jaisinghani radiates composure. “I’ve just returned from a trip to India,” she explains. “It’s the most therapeutic thing I do. Filled with time spent with family, friends and food, I come back raring to go.”
Her calm demeanor hides a woman of drive, fortitude and self-doubt. Recalling when she opened her first Indika in the Memorial area in July 2001, Jaisinghani says, “I cried my way through the opening. There was my menu — out there for everyone to see. It was like being naked on a highway.”
She needn’t have worried. The press and the dining public loved her unique take on Indian food. Gourmet magazine put Indika, with its contemporary twist on Indian food, on its list of the best 100 restaurants in the world.
“It was tough that first year. I opened two months before 9/11. Initially, business was good and the press reviews were fantastic, but then the bottom fell.” Operating on a shoestring budget, Jaisinghani persevered and followed her heart. “I knew that if I took every plate and put on it what I want in food, it would come back to me. I take what I know and love and incorporate it into what people here find appealing. The food is authentic Indian, but not served traditionally,” explains Jaisinghani.
She is picky about her ingredients, but not showy. The Indian bread naan is made in-house with organic unbleached flour, and Jaisinghani
uses free-range chickens and only the freshest vegetables.
“I did not set out to be the best Indian restaurant in town. I don’t want to be thrown into the ethnic category. I want to be considered with mainstream restaurants,” states Jaisinghani. It is a goal she obviously has obtained, being one of two Houston restaurants listed in Texas Monthly awarded two stars (the other two-star gem, Café Annie, is where Jaisinghani got her culinary start).
As a young woman in the Kashmir-Punjab region of India, Jaisinghani ached to study at a culinary school. Considering the culinary arts not worthy of his daughter, her father objected and she studied microbiology, married, immigrated to Canada where she earned a master’s degree in her field and
for years worked in a microbiology lab. She had two children and found herself in Houston, still haunted by her passion for food.
“I don’t know where I got the nerve, but one day I walked into Café Annie and asked for a job. They turned me down,” she says. “Then I offered to work for free, telling them they could pay me when they thought I was worthy.”
In a month’s time, Jaisinghani was on the payroll. In less than two years time, and with the blessing of the Café Annie’s managing partners (the Del Grande-Schiller organization), she opened her own restaurant in the Memorial area.
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INDIKA
516 WESTHEIMER RD.
713.524.2170
www.indikausa.com
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