It’s funny, but there’s only one Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in all of New York. And this has been true for the past three years. Compare this to London, where six Indian restaurants have a Michelin star each and one restaurant (Gymkhana) has two stars.
Is Indian food in New York that bad? Most foodies will say it isn’t and will tell you that New York’s Indian restaurants are discriminated against by Michelin. They are will tell you that there are at least three that easily deserve stars (Bungalow, Dhamaka, Indian Accent) and that Michelin finds reasons to overlook them.
But generalizations are not always accurate. It has been said for years that New York’s Michelin inspectors don’t understand chilies and spices, hence the prejudice against Indian food. Such an explanation is no longer suitable. Because of the very spicy food served at one restaurant that really has a star: Semma.
You may have heard of Semma. There was a new round of excitement when it was recently announced that he was retaining his star for a third year. And yet, nothing you hear will prepare you for your first experience at this restaurant. This is not a fancy establishment. It’s comfortable and fun, and doesn’t try to look like a Michelin-starred diner.
The first thing you notice is how much fun everyone is having.
The second is how Semma abandoned the whole idea of trendy modern Indian cuisine. One of his best sellers is the classic Masala Dosa. Other dishes may be unfamiliar to most of us. The signature dish of the restaurant is snail casserole with strong spices. A dish made from goat intestines is also popular.
The third thing you notice about Semma is that, unlike most Michelin-starred restaurants, where a lot depends on the chef, here you’ll be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Vijaya Kumar in the dining room. A shy person, he takes great pleasure in working in his kitchen, focusing on the food. He must be made to go out to meet the guests.
Shy or not, Vijaya is now satisfied, fulfilled. He was 40 when Semma first got his star, so he wasn’t particularly old. However, delving deeper into his career, it becomes clear that despite the appearance of instant success, it was a long and difficult road to this point.
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Vijaya was born into a poor family in a small town near Madurai, Tamil Nadu. His father was in a government job that didn’t pay enough for the family to survive, so his mother supplemented that income by helping out on her parents’ farm.
According to him, Vijaya’s earliest memories are related to this farm.
At school, he was talented and hardworking, he dreamed of becoming an engineer. “Like all South Indian boys,” he says, laughing. He did enroll in an engineering college, but as he feared, his parents could not afford the fees.
As a backup option, he applied to catering school.
It wasn’t what he wanted, he says, but it was cheaper. Some classmates made fun of him. “So you went first at school just to learn to be a cook?” – they said.
Vijay had no choice, so he persevered by finding a job at the Chennai Taj Connemara Cafe after graduation. It was a good training ground, but when the offer of a higher-paying cruise ship came along, he changed jobs. Although he was now earning more and could send money home, he remembers that working on a ship was boring and unpleasant.
His fortunes changed when a friend told him about a job at an Indian restaurant in America that came with a coveted work visa. He jumped at the offer and then found a better opportunity in San Francisco, cooking at Dosa, a South Indian restaurant, until he was snapped up by Rasa, one of the most famous Indian restaurants on the West Coast. Rasa even got a Michelin star, but Vijaya was not satisfied.
Which was surprising because he did very well. When he entered catering college, he didn’t speak a word of English, and yet here he is! Somehow, he says, this seemed not enough.
“What was I doing with Rasa?” – he adds. “I cooked modified Indian food for white people. It wasn’t my food; it wasn’t the food I’d been eating growing up.’
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It was at this point that he met Ronnie Mazumdar and Chintan Pandya of Unapologetic Foods. They were the toast of New York for Dhamaka (opening 2021), which offered authentic Indian food infused with authentic flavors and masalas. Vijaya had heard of Dhamaka. When he spoke to Mazumdar and Pandya, he says he realized he had found kindred spirits.
They couldn’t offer him a big job. They wanted to open a South Indian restaurant and Vijaya could be the chef if he wanted, they said. He would not go into a successful enterprise. He would have to try to set one up.
Vijaya says he didn’t hesitate. He quit his job at Rasa, packed his things in his car and drove across America from San Francisco to New York.
He was surprised when Mazumdar and Pandya, who is a chef himself, told him he was free to design the menu. He knew he was in the right place, he adds, when he discovered that Pandya, a Gujarati, was a fan of South Indian cinema. The name Semma (meaning “excellent” or “excellent” in Tamil) is derived from Pandya.
Vijaya’s menu was bold. He’s been cooking food long enough to try to cross two continents. Now he wanted to repeat his mother’s dishes.
Because his family had very little money, they scavenged for ingredients and ate parts of animals that others didn’t need. So, he included a goat intestine dish on the menu.
When Mazumdar and Pandya encouraged him to serve a childhood favorite, snail casserole, he realized he could create a meal at Semma that no other Indian restaurant in America had ever served.
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Semma has been a success since opening day. There was a queue for the first service. The guests came because of Pandya and Mazumdar but stayed for Vijay’s food.
Then the feedback started coming in. Eater, The New York Times and everyone else hailed Vijay’s menu. People he admired, from Padma Lakshmi to Vikas Khanna, praised his restaurant. He was completely overwhelmed, he says.
When he received the email that he had won the award from Bon Appetit magazine, he broke down in tears. At the end of Semma’s first year, a Michelin star arrived.
Why did Semma get a star when so many other good Indian restaurants in this city didn’t? Vijaya says he doesn’t know. He only cares about one thing: he wanted to show the world that the food eaten in the villages of Tamil Nadu is as great a cuisine as you can find anywhere. He won’t compromise on seasoning or presentation. And he thinks now that maybe he did.
Which of course he has. Like the snails he loves so much, he worked hard to reach his place. And like Semma herself, Vijaya is one of a kind.
