![]() ![]() He found that the questions he faced at the start of his journey, including “Why don’t you serve naan? and “Where is the tikka masala?” had been replaced with another set of complaints.įor example, Walia describes Rasa as a neighborhood restaurant that had high chairs for toddlers until its closing day. And those were not Michelin’s expectations, those were people’s expectations of what Michelin should be,” Walia says. “What became challenging was managing peoples’ expectations. However, the pandemic also inspired Walia to reflect on his happiness and the unexpected troubles that had sprung up with the honorific of a Michelin star. Saffron San Carlos, which offered a number of dishes that traveled better in takeout containers, had much stronger sales during shelter-in-place orders. “We struggled because (dishes) we were so used to presenting, now we had to throw them in a box and put a lid on them,” Walia says when explaining how Rasa struggled to pivot to takeout. Pandemic pressures in the fine-dining world Indeed, Walia’s decision to shut down Rasa is partly inspired by challenges shared by many upscale restaurants during the pandemic. And even before the pandemic, the suicides of two French chefs were linked to the pressures of running fast-paced, fine-dining kitchens. Walia is not the only restaurateur to distance himself (willingly or not) from the world of fine dining after high-end restaurants struggled heavily during the pandemic: Baumé forfeited two Michelin stars in order to launch as the more relaxed Bistronomie by Baumé. ![]() But on June 7, Rasa’s downtown Burlingame space reopened as Saffron Burlingame, inheriting its predecessor’s focus on South Indian cuisine and even some of its dishes, but eschewing the meticulous standards associated with Michelin stars, which even assess how ingredients are sourced. ![]() It also provides a more casual experience compared to Rasa’s sleek black interior and chutney prawns neatly plated in a row alongside swirls of cucumbers topped with edible flowers. The original Saffron in San Carlos has been in operation for nearly 20 years and has always focused more heavily on North Indian cuisine, which includes some of the best-known Indian dishes here in the United States like buttery naan and the creamy lentils of dal makhani. So why did Walia close down Rasa to reopen it as a second location of his more casual restaurant, Saffron? Ajay Walia, owner and executive chef at Saffron, points to a number of pandemic-related reasons for closing his Michelin-starred restaurant Rasa and reopening the space as a second location of his more casual concept, Saffron in San Carlos. He wanted guests to forget images of steam-table buffets, and winning a Michelin star at his South Indian Burlingame restaurant Rasa in 2016 should have authoritatively proven his success. Twenty years ago, Ajay Walia left the lucrative worlds of finance and tech to open a restaurant and spread awareness of the diversity of Indian cuisine. ![]()
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