An Indian Restaurant’s Rise Mirrors Asheville’s
The winner of a coveted restaurant prize says a lot about America's changing tastes.
America’s “most outstanding” restaurant, Asheville’s Chai Pani.
Photo: Sarah Hoski
Imagine if the Michelin Guide were to declare that France’s best restaurant was a bistro in Grenoble that serves American hotdogs and pretzels. Yeah, that’s how I reacted to the James Beard Foundation’s announcement that Chai Pani, which serves Indian street food in Asheville, North Carolina, was America’s most outstanding restaurant.
Once I had retrieved my jaw from the floor, pride replaced my surprise. As an Indian-American, I have been gratified to see my gastronomic heritage go from the margins to the mainstream in the US. At the James Beard award ceremony in Chicago where Chai Pani’s chef-owner Meherwan Irani collected his prize, another trailblazing Indian, Dhamaka’s Chintan Pandya, was named New York’s best chef.