Discover the Cooking of shilpa dandekar
Experience a vibrant fusion of traditional Indian flavours and contemporary culinary techniques.
Our Story
Pure Indian Cooking prides itself in being a Modern Indian restaurant and one with impeccable credentials.
Owned by the husband and wife team of Faheem Vanoo and Shilpa Dandekar, both of whom started their careers with the famed Taj group in India, Pure Indian Cooking opened in 2015.
Since then, with Faheem leading the front of house team and Shilpa, who has worked with inspiring chefs including Raymond Blanc and Sriram Aylur of the Michelin starred Quilon, running the kitchen, the restaurant has garnered a fantastic reputation.
Customers often call it a “West End restaurant in Fulham!”
A Q & A with shilpa
How did your career begin?
I started cooking professionally in India when I joined the Taj Group as a hotel management student and found my niche in hotel kitchens. It was the perfect way to learn how professional kitchens worked and I learned a lot about classical Indian cookery. And, because Taj hotels also offered international cuisine, I was exposed to a huge variety of cooking techniques. It was a very regimented approach but as I developed as a cook I wanted to improvise and be more creative and coming to the UK gave me the opportunity to do that.
When you came to the UK did you start out cooking in Indian kitchens?
Actually no, I was young and looking for experience and I cooked everywhere from Tootsie’s to pub kitchens, and I loved it. I learned a lot about how small restaurants worked and I worked with some great people. I have really fond memories of working in the kitchen of a pub in Richmond run by a wonderful Irish couple.
And then you moved to Quilon, one of the first Indian restaurants in the UK to earn a Michelin star. How did that come about?
Well, my husband Faheem was working there in front of house and encouraged me to come in for an interview. The restaurant was run by the Taj Group where I’d started out so I was totally familiar with their way of working. It gave me a huge insight into the discipline required to achieve and maintain a Michelin star rating.
Your next move was to work with Raymond Blanc at Brasserie Blanc, why did you swap Indian cooking for classical French cuisine?
I wanted to move up the kitchen hierarchy and eventually get a head chef role. Brasserie Blanc gave me the opportunity to do just that. I had to step down from being a sous chef to a chef de partie initially because I didn’t have French experience. However, I found myself falling in love with French cookery and learning from Raymond Blanc and his right hand man Clive Fretwell about how to use classical techniques such as making beautiful stocks to bring intensity and purity of flavour to simple dishes. I love to learn and to try new things and I think my enthusiasm together with just pure hard work led to me being promoted to head chef at the second branch of Brasserie Blanc to open at Bank in the City.
What led you to open your own restaurant?
I’d cooked in lots of great kitchens and learned from some amazing chefs but I had always wanted to cook my own food. Faheem my husband knew this and was also keen to go into business for himself, and so Pure Indian Cooking was born. Our roles mesh together brilliantly, Faheem handles the business side and runs the front of house in the restaurant, leaving me to run the kitchen. It’s given me so much freedom to perfect dishes and to experiment and offer something that I hope is true to my Indian culinary roots but also a synthesis of all my cooking experience.
Have the stages of your career influenced how you cook?
First of all, the biggest influence is the food I grew up with. Indian cuisine is so rich and so varied and I’m lucky to come from Mumbai which is a melting pot of cooking styles from across India. There’s also an interesting fusion of Indian and Chinese cooking style that’s very common in Mumbai, where you can find restaurants that are sometimes called Chindian which layer Indian spicing on top of classic Chinese dishes.
Spicing is the core of what I do at Pure Indian Cooking. There is such a fantastic palette of spices to work with and the magic of good Indian cooking is the subtle layering of flavours.
However, added to a skill with spicing are the skills I’ve picked up working in European kitchens and I think there’s been a lovely cross pollination of the two disciplines.
From my time working with Raymond Blanc I learned to cook both meat and fish precisely and meticulously and there are some things I do with my dishes that aren’t typically Indian. I use stocks and slow cooking very often in my meat dishes, and that comes from Raymond. There are also other flavour combinations that I have loved when I’ve cooked food that’s been very far from my comfort zone. When I worked in the Irish pub I cooked a lot of potato dishes like champ and colcannon. One of the most popular potato dishes I serve in colder wintery months is inspired by my happy times making Irish mashed potato!
How important are ingredients to you?
If you want to cook exceptionally good food great ingredients are essential. We’re lucky enough to be able to source fantastic spices and other fresh Indian produce from the same company that supplies many of London’s Michelin starred Indian restaurants. We also work with some brilliant fish and meat suppliers.
Great ingredients also inspire great dishes, it’s as simple as that. When you are working with something as special as lobster you want to find ingredients that perfectly enhance its sweetness and delicacy so on my tasting menu you will find it accompanied by both Indian and Chinese elements from pickled ginger to a curry leaf sauce. It’s very refined and very Pure Indian Cooking.
SIGNATURE DISHES
KHADE MASALA TANDOORI DUCK
Barbary duck breast in blend of mixed whole spices, sweet potato mouselline and duck and orange sauce.
orange & tamarind chicken tikka
Chicken thigh marinated in orange and tamarind sauce, sprout salad and curried yoghurt.
pan seared scallops
Pan seared scallops, coconut and matcha tea sauce, balsamic strawberries and roasted hazelnuts.
Bhure Pyaaz ka Gosht
Lamb on the bone slow cooked in brown onion paste, peppercorn, kashmiri chilli.
Smoked Paprika Sesame Chicken
Smoked paprika honey sesame chicken.
Panco breadcrumb chicken strips with paprika, honey and sesame.
HALIBUT FISH CURRY
Pan seared scallops, coconut and matcha tea sauce, balsamic strawberries and roasted hazelnuts.
What the critics say
“They say that looks can be deceiving and the same is true of Pure Indian Cooking, which looks from the outside to be a run-of-the-mill curry house. Step through the door though and you will find a kitchen that turns out some first-rate Indian cooking, courtesy of chef-patron Shilpa Dandekar, who is an alum of Michelin-starred Quilon” – Square Meal.
“This is a place people seek out and settle into for the whole evening because this low-key restaurant is serving the best Indian food in Fulham. ” – The Infatuation.
“There’s “always something new and original to tempt you” at this understated and “very good value” contemporary Indian on Fulham High Street near Putney Bridge. Chef-owner Shilpa Dandekar “proves you can give a nod to tradition while being a little more modern, and not have to pay Mayfair prices to get it”. Top Menu Tip – “the best black dhal”.” – Hardens.
OUR SISTER RESTAURANT
Opened to acclaim in 2024 our sister restaurant Pravaas is situated in South Kensington’s Museum Quarter and not too far from Stamford Bridge. It’s a beautifully decorated elegant space and the perfect place to enjoy Shilpa’s peerless dishes closer to the centre of London.
