Betting on biryani

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: What would you call a man who left his job to pursue his greatest passion - biryani? Well, Vishwanath “Vishy” Shenoy is his name and he refers to himself as the Connoisseur-in-Residence at Biryani Merchant, Bangalore. Mr Shenoy is a corporate executive-turned-biryani-chronicler-and-entrepreneur. An XLRI graduate, he left his international marketing job as head of sales and marketing at the Colombo-based Maharaja Organisation to make his passion his profession. Recently, he started Biryani Merchant, a theme restaurant that serves only traditional biryani with accompaniments.

Step into this restaurant not only for a range of biryanis but also for the history of the mouth-watering fare. Also go through Mr Shenoy’s personal journal that traces his journey through the corporate world with biryani dreams. The first entry reads “February 1975 - tasted my first biryani: realised the real reason for living.”

The journal chronicles the development of his passion vividly, and records Mr Shenoy tasting his 200th biryani in 1985, contemplating a “Masters in Biryani Administration” in 1990, and coming across new avatars of biryanis like stringhopper biryani (idiyappam) in Sri Lanka and bone marrow biryani. The latest entry takes you to this year when biryani dreams beckoned and he gave in by setting up Biryani Merchant.

The most popular story of biryani (and there are many floating around) traces it to Birian brought from Persia to India by Taimur the Lame. This was later married to the Indian pulav to become today’s biryani. “A biryani belly” is what Biryani Merchant aims to create for those who visit this place. The restaurant takes you through a witty audio-visual which presents different types of bellies from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and ends with the mother of all bellies - Biryani Belly.

Biryani Merchant offers 38 biryanis from across the world that include the famous biryani of Kolkata’s Shiraz, Calicut, Hyderabadi, Sindhi, and Karachi biryanis. All original recipes have been chronicled by Mr Shenoy — soon to appear as a collector’s item in the form of a coffee table book.

However, all 38 are not available every day and there is no set menu. All the guest is asked as he/she enters is: “Are you a veg or a non-veg?” For kids, the eatery offers special doodh and fruit biryani.

Each biryani comes with its correct accompaniment. The Calicut biryani cooked in dum and coconut charcoal comes with pickles and papads and a Sulaimani chai (Calicut special tea with lemon and sugar), while the Hyderabadi biryani comes with delicacies like Mirchi ka Salan, Dalcha, Bagare Baingan etc. Starters and desserts also depend on the type of the biryani served.

Mr Shenoy’s biryani ambitions match his passion. Over the next three years, 12 more Biryani Merchants are planned, starting with Pune in September 2004, followed by Mumbai, Delhi and the US in 2005 and the Gulf and Europe later.