“We have an insatiable desire to scratch the surface of Indian street food and delve deeper into what makes Indian street food so darn addictive and each dish so unique to its place of origin and the cooks that make it. In between regular work life, sneaky research trips were planned, to cities where the street food culture became a playground for legendary cooks, to put on display their ‘karigari’ in perfecting their closely guarded family recipes. From Mathura and Benares to Kolkata and Allahabad, we wanted to bring our gastronomic travels to life with Bhawan.“
– Kainaz & Rahul

Kainaz Contractor and Rahul Dua both started their careers as restaurant managers with the Taj group of hotels in Mumbai. They both then left hotels to pursue two very different paths. Rahul became a sommelier at Verre by Gordon Ramsay at The Hilton, Dubai after which returned to Delhi in 2013 to open Cafe Lota, a regional-Indian focussed restaurant with a strong emphasis on seasonality and local ingredients.
Kainaz on the other hand, switched tracks to food writing as the Assistant Food Editor of BBC Good Food, the country’s first international food magazine. They joined forces in 2015 to open Rustom’s, their award-winning regional Parsi restaurant in New Delhi. They also run a catering company called Ink & Knives Catering under which banner they operate and manage the kitchens of Cafe Dori (A unit of Nappa Dori) in Chattarpur. Their previous restaurant consultancy and management contracts include brands such as Roseate Hotels, MG Road Paris, Hamoni Golf Cafe and Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters.