Anahita Dhondy

Some Lesser Known Facts About Anahita Dhondy

• Anahita Dhondy is an Indian chef who formerly worked at SodaBottleOpenerWala and Bombay Irani Café. She was listed among the Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 list of 2019. Dhondy is popularly known for promoting Parsi cuisine.

• While growing up in a Parsi family, she tasted different Parsi dishes that helped her in developing an interest in Parsi cuisine at a large scale.

• When Anahita was studying in school, she used to help her mother in the kitchen, cooking dishes and icing cakes. By the time, she was 10 years old, she had decided that she would become a chef.

  

• After Anahita completed the Cordon Bleu Grand Diplome in London, she came back to India and collaborated with the Indian restaurateur A.D. Singh in launching SodaBottleOpenerWala in 2013.

• Anahita was only 23 years old when she began working as a chef manager at SodaBottleOpenerWala in Gurgaon. ^[1]Forbes Later, she was promoted to chef-partner. According to Anahita, her experience of setting up restaurants in India so early in her career allowed her to learn the ropes of setting up the business as opposed to just creating menus.
  in the kitchen.

• She handled seven outlets of Bombay Irani Café across three cities.

• In 2009, she worked as a kitchen intern for Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces.

• In 2010, she interned at Marriott International for three months.

• From May 2011 to May 2012, she worked as a kitchen management trainee at Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces.

• During the 2020 lockdown in India, Anahita and her mother started a Parsi kitchen service in their home through which they delivered home-cooked Parsi food in Gurugram. The food was highly appreciated which led them to expand their delivery services in Delhi NCR later.

• In 2022, Anahita Dhondy and entrepreneur Vishal Anand partnered with Moonshine Food Ventures LLP in establishing a 150-seat restaurant by the name of Glasshouse at Worldmark in Gurugram. Anahita was then appointed as its head chef. ^[2]LinkedIn – Anahita Dhondy Bhandari ^[3]The Economic Times 

• Anahita’s first book titled Parsi Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family Book came out on 25 June 2021. The book is based on her recipes, which she collected during her travels from a Parsi restaurant in Hong Kong to Bombay duck in Gujarat.

  

• In an interview, while talking about her book ‘Parsi Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family Book,’ Anahita said that it took her five years to complete the book and also said,
  

  Parsi Kitchen is a book that, I would say, is not just filled with recipes but has lovely and interesting stories in it. The stories are equally important because they give context to the recipes. The book has a beautiful collection of not only recipes but food pictures, stories, and contributions from all my family members. It is my journey of stepping into my own cuisine. Through this book, I really want to make Parsi cuisine so famous that every week, one dish should be cooked in your home.”

• On 13 November 2016, she appeared on the competitive cooking reality show MasterChef India on StarPlus alongside Vikas Khanna, Zorawar Kalra, and Kunal Kapur. In 2023, she appeared as a guest chef on MasterChef India- season 7 and challenged the participants for ‘The Pressure Test.’

  

• In 2017, she appeared as a judge in an all-women cooking TV show ‘Femme Foodies,’ which aired on Living Foodz.

  

•  In 2018, Anahita was one of the speakers at the United Nations in New York alongside the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). ^[4]Facebook – Anahita Dhondy

• In 2018, Anahita represented India and SodaBottleOpenerWala at the EAT Stockholm Food Forum.

• According to Anahita, her real cooking teachers are her mother, grandmother, and aunts.

• In an interview, while talking about popularizing Parsi flavours globally, Anahita considered
  

  Well, now it is my mission to make Parsi cuisine very popular not only in India but around the globe. I want people to cook Parsi dishes at least once or twice at their homes. They can make Parsi dishes as a part of their celebratory menu with dishes like Mava Cake, Dhansaak, and simple kadhi chawal. That is why I have got a complete book on the same. Additionally, I make a lot of videos on social media on Parsi recipes so that maximum information can be disseminated and recipes don’t die out. I am doing small pop-ups, and classes so that one day everyone will enjoy cooking Parsi food and one day it will become the most popular cuisine.”

• Anahita Dhondy consumes alcoholic beverages on various occasions.