WATCHES AND WONDERS 2024 Super-slim
arlier this week, Bulgari unveiled the thinnest watch on the planet. Attendees at Watches and Wonders Geneva, which ends on April 15, who have tried on the new Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC, highlight its robust quality despite its 1.7 mm thickness. One popular reviewer likens it to a strand of spaghetti and others have been pulling out coins or credit cards for comparison. It underlines what JeanChristophe Babin, 65, CEO of the Roman jeweller and watchmaker, has often repeated: “Innovation never ends at Bulgari.”
Last month, when we met at the launch of the flagship Bulgari store in Mumbai’s new luxury mall, Jio World Plaza, Babin was upbeat about the strides taken during his 11 years at the helm of the luxury group.
Look up his Instagram or LinkedIn accounts and you will find him in Seoul presenting Bulgari Studio, a new platform to encourage creative collaboration among artists on one day, and showcasing high jewellery with global ambassador Priyanka Chopra Jonas at a Holi party at Mukesh Ambani’s residence in Mumbai the next.
While 2023 was “the best year for Bulgari” in India, he seems to have every intention of making 2024, Bulgari’s 140th anniversary year, unforgettable.
Excerpts from our interview:
EQuestion: Thinness is highly regarded hef Manish Mehrotra has barely had time to catch his breath ever since he came to Mumbai a week ago. In spite of that, the culinary director of Indian Accent restaurants has managed to indulge in the flavours of the city. From the famous Ashok vada pav of Dadar to Jai Hind’s neer dosa, prawn curry and fried surmai, the Delhibased chef has been ordering all his favourites for lunch every day of the week. As for the patrons of Indian Accent Mumbai, they are getting to relish the new sevencourse tasting menu which Mehrotra has crafted along with head chef Rijul Gulati.
Ever since he opened the Mumbai outpost of the famed and awardwinning Indian Accent last year, Mehrotra visits the city for a couple of days every month. To the donetodeath ‘Which one is better — Mumbai or Delhi?’ question, he responds with a smile, “My culinary journey started in Mumbai from Dadar Catering College and then at Thai Pavilion where I worked for five years. Delhi is home; it’s where my family is, and that has its own charm. And now, I have Indian Accent in both cities. Dono ki apni jagah hai.”
Counted among one of the most exciting modern Indian chefs in the world today, Mehrotra opened Indian Accent Delhi in 2009, at a time when it would have been considered blasphemous to have an Indian restaurant which did not have butter chicken on its menu! “Customers would walk in, take a look at the menu and say samajh nahi aaya and walk out. We had to convince them to at least try out the food and not pay if they didn’t like it. Slowly, but surely, they started understanding what we are trying to achieve,” recalls the chef.
Their unique flavour combinations and dishes such as daulat ki chaat, blue cheese naan and dhoda barfi treacle tart started making sense to Indians who were developing a palate for more
Cby collectors and watchmakers. Have you reached the zenith with these records?
Answer: You are pushing the limits and it is always stimulating internally because it can take you to new fields with other applications. Without Finissimo we could not have got to the Piccolissimo (the tiny watch movement seen in the Serpenti Misteriosi high jewellery watches). Instead of making it ultra thin, we made the diameter ultra small. The primary motivation is always to advance watchmaking technologies. If we go thinner or have a smaller diameter, it must be commercial and functional. We don’t want to just do a concept watch for the media that everyone calls experimental food. “The idea is that these combinations should not be vague; they should not be without a reason or story,” he says, elaborating further as he talks about their signature meetha achaar pork ribs. “Whether they are Texasstyle BBQ or Southeast AsianChinese style, pork ribs always have a sweet, sticky extraordinary. That is not a watch but a technological showcase! We make 30 Ultras a year and it takes thousands of hours.
Q: In an age when there are heated debates about retiring outdated gender norms, Bulgari has distinct watches for men and women. sauce element. We make ours using aam chunda, pickling spices such as chillies, nigella seeds and fennel seeds which impart a sweet and spicy mango pickle flavour and texture to the pork,” he says.
Fifteen years later, the restaurant known for its inventive Indian cuisine is considered among one of
A: As a jeweller, we are primarily a feminine brand with a legacy of women’s watches. If it were left to the classical Swiss watchmakers, you would have mostly masculine watches in small sizes for ladies. They will start with a men’s watch and then shrink it, add diamonds. But our Serpenti, Lucea and Diva’s Dream watches were born for women. The Octo Finissimo, meanwhile, doesn’t exist for
ladies. Not yet.
Q: You have addressed the ceremonial value of jewellery in India, having launched the ₹12 lakh Bulgari Kada for men earlier this year, following the Mangalsutra in 2021.
A: The mistake many Western luxury companies make, because many Indians speak fluent English or have studied abroad, is thinking they are fully westernised. But the best in India, consecutively appearing on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list for 10 years in a row. It has also been recognised by TIME magazine among the World’s Greatest 100 Places in 2018.
Year after year, how does he manage to do it, you wonder aloud. Mehrotra puts it down to “constantly innovating, being on his toes and training the team”. His own training under celebrated Chef Ananda Solomon at Thai Pavilion of the Taj Hotels comes in handy too.
“He taught us the basics of cooking — how to fry, grill, and boil properly. From him, I learnt to understand the psyche of the customers we are serving,” he states. Recalling the days when he was learning panAsian cuisine under Chef Solomon, Mehrotra remembers standing near the washing area and observing the leftover food that came back on each plate. “Solomon taught us that the plate that comes back after the diner has eaten their meal is just as important as the one which had gone out to him. If there is leftover food, either they have disliked it or have had
Indian culture and traditions are deeprooted. We pay attention to what Indians like that respect tradition and we bring in our expertise with jewellery. The store also has a unisex counter. Soon we will have a full collection for men but we need this unisex ‘step’. We need to be agile and focus on the local clientele.
Q: You have said that 2023 was the best year for Bulgari in India. How is this different from China?
A: While we are present only in Delhi and Mumbai for now, there are many possibilities. We also have a lot of Indian clients in Dubai, London, Paris and Rome. The Chinese are still interested in luxury but they are cautious now and take longer to make up their mind. They tend to travel short distances, perhaps to Japan or Korea, where hospitality is much cheaper than Europe or North America. Therefore, it is no longer a global their fill. He’d encourage us to go out there and ask them if they disliked it, if we can send something else, etc. These are things no catering college would ever teach you,” he observes.
With finedining having come a long way in these 15 years and many players in the field, does Mehrotra think they had the firstmover’s advantage? “Maybe, but it was also a big risk at that time. Nobody was doing tasting menus back in 2009. I had come after working in London where I had seen it happening, and I wanted to replicate it here, with the idea that people should get to try as many dishes as possible. If I recall luxury market but a luxury market with different speeds.
Q: Geneva Watch Days, the alternative watch fair you launched in 2020, will have 50 brands this August. How do you stay ahead of it all as a CEO? Do you ever sleep?
A: It is a huge privilege for me to have the chance to jump from a new Bulgari hotel project to Watches and Wonders to the opening of a new flagship in India to launching a new fragrance. I’m in five companies, all in one day! But, I take holidays, and most of my weekends I am with my family. One of the reasons is that I am surrounded by the right people that are talented, determined and committed and accountable. I sleep the usual six hours ( laughs). I am told the older you get, the less you sleep. You know why? Because you know you are going to die. I’m not being morbid but optimistic. You know you have to get the most out of your time. correctly, our first tasting menu consisted of around five or six courses and cost ₹ 9501,000,” he says. Since then, the chef shares that he has become more knowledgeable about the food he is serving and people’s palate.
Speaking of tasting menus, the chef seems to be pretty satisfied with his latest offerings and recommends we try the Kanyakumari crabs in XO sauce and the crisp sea bass in coconutmustard curry. The former consists of chunky pieces of succulent crab dunked in balchao masala prepared in XO sauce, giving it an elevated seafood flavour. We mop up the decadence with a mirchi pav and move on to the fresh sea bass. Paired with the coconutmustard curry with its influences from Bengali kasundi, it is delicate and flavourful on the palate. As part of the seven course, we also try the duck khurchan moonglet, a bizarre combination that packs shreds of smoked duck into moong dal chillas. Surprisingly, the dish holds together — the gamey meat dominating every bite.
The next course is a Kashmiri morel and chicken pulao enhanced with toasted pine nuts and fragrant truffles, then reimagined into versions of the familiar pav bhaji, dhokla and smoked papad. In the chef’s hands, the classic aamraspuri turns into a rich and smooth mango purée paired with lime cheesecake.
“Each time I plan a new tasting menu, I think to myself that I have done everything now; there is nothing left to offer and within a few months, I am back to planning a new one,” he says. The numerous innovations, accolades, and awards later, one wonders what else is left for the chef to do at Indian
Accent. He chuckles, “A new tasting menu after two months; the cycle never stops!”
The Chef’s Tasting Menu at Indian Accent Mumbai, NMACC, Bandra Kurla Complex is priced at ₹4,900 plus taxes for veg; ₹5,500 plus taxes for nonveg.