Chef Partner, Toast & Tonic, The Fatty Bao & Monkey Bar; & Executive Chef, Olive Beach

Manu Chandra, Chef Partner Toast & Tonic (Bangalore), Monkey Bar (Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai), The Fatty Bao (Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai), and Executive Chef Olive Beach, Bangalore. His passion for food surfaced at a young age, wielding the ladle since the age of 12. Later at St. Stephen’s College, he wrote, designed and helped photograph a book on fusion cuisine. Manu then enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) Hyde Park, New York, where he apprenticed with some of the City’s most celebrated kitchens. Armed with top honours from CIA and a prestigious Sea Food Masters Award for the National Recipe Competition 2002, he traveled to Norway to work with the Michelin starred Chef Eyvind Hellstrom at Bagatelle.

Late 2004 saw Manu returning to India, where he joined Olive Beach Bangalore as Chef de Cuisine. Within the short entrepreneurial stint that Manu has enjoyed in partnership with longtime colleague Chetan Rampal and serial restaurateur AD Singh, at the new company – Olive Cafes South Private Limited, he has met with a joyous response from customers and media alike.

Manu received accolades and appreciation from around the world as one of the most promising and talented young chefs in India, namely in the New York Times and Time Magazine. He was selected by Fortune India magazine’s ‘40 under 40, Class of 2016’ and recently Manu was awarded Chef of the Year at the Times Food and Nightlife Awards, Bangalore for 2017.