This week, Jamavar, the Mount Street restaurant specialising in the regional dishes of India, is celebrating the Chelsea Flower Show with a lavish menu, laden with flowers and inspired by the season’s best edible blooms. Jamavar’s resident florist, McQueens of London, have been commissioned to create a special installation which will welcome guests into the restaurant throughout the week of the Show, and Jamavar’s bar will also be on hand with a host of signature cocktails and Gin and Tonics, made with herbs and spices from their own Botanical Garden.
Created by Executive Head Chef Rohit Ghai, dishes will include Aloo tikki, Soft shell crab, topped with coriander flower and wild garlic flower, a Trio of kulfis, the traditional Indian ice-cream, of rabri, rose petal and chocolate pink peppercorn, punctuated with colourful buds of viola flowers, and Pistachio burfi Badam Halwa with viola. These will be accompanied by signature dishes from Jamavar’s menu, from small plates of Lobster idli sambhar and Bharwan Mirchi made with paneer, purple potatoes and stuffed sweet peppers, to plates from the Tandoor of Adraki lamb chops and Gurkha Machhali; whole john dory with samphire pakora.
A dedicated menu of Gin and Tonics infused with botanicals from Jamavar’s garden, will feature the Flying Scott with Hendrick’s, fresh cucumber, rose petals and burlesque bitters and the Madari made using Monkey 47, pink grapefruit zest, fresh kaffir leaf and house made saffron infused bitters. Indulgent cocktails, perfectly formed to raise a glass to the English garden made with ingredients from the East, will comprise of the Tree of Life; gin, almond and ginger falernum, stirred with pimento bitter and sprayed with a touch of absinthe, and the Burman; Indian spiced Opihr, apple juice and Champagne, finished with blue lady flowers.
Founded by Dinesh Nair as part of The Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts, a group of luxury hotels with properties throughout India, Jamavar was born from a love of the regional dishes of the Northern and Southern states, as well as recipes passed down from the matriarch of the Nair family and namesake of the hotel chain; Leela Nair. Jamavar London is the first outpost outside of India, and is headed jointly by Dinesh and his daughter Samyutka, who has brought the essence of the palaces to Mayfair with an effusive design, rooted in intricate detail, offset with colonial flourishes and patterns of Jamavar shawls, hand cut marquetry and accents of brass and mother of pearl throughout the dining room and bar.