TIME OUT
Chef and restaurateur Jessi Singh brings a karaoke machine playing ’70s hits and his trademark ‘unauthentic Indian’ to his latest Sydney venture
With ‘unauthentic Indian’ restaurants popping up in Byron Bay, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney, it’s fair to say chef and restaurateur Jessi Singh has built a brand on, not necessarily ‘reinventing’, but ‘changing up’ the wheel. It's a clever move for the Punjabi-born chef – owning his inauthenticity shields him from the inevitable finger-waggers, while allowing himself the freedom to play with traditional flavours and techniques.
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BROADSHEET
Join our next Editors’ Preview night at top chef Jessi Singh’s new Sydney restaurant – the night before it opens to the public. Road-test vibrant modern takes on Indian dishes and hear from Singh and Broadsheet’s national editor during a Q&A.
Pinky-Ji is the follow-up to Singh’s colourful Surry Hills diner Don’t Tell Aunty and the cheeky sister venue to his Melbourne restaurant Daughter in Law, which also has outposts in Adelaide and Byron Bay. Step inside a neon-lit room draped in red velvet for fun and “unauthentic Indian” dishes, including a wok section with mud crab as the star of the show.
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GOOD FOOD
Those who know Singh's original Victorian restaurants – Babu Ji, Horn Please and Dhaba at the Mill, all of which he and wife Jennifer sold before heading to the United States in 2014 – won't be surprised by the vivid explosion of colour and noise here. The former calling cards – help-yourself craft beer fridges, huge coloured murals of Indian family figureheads and bright projections dancing across the walls – already shook up Melbourne, and Manhattan, back to 2011. Daughter in Law goes further.
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52 Best places to go in the world 2019
New York Times
The acclaimed Melbourne and Manhattan chef Jesse Singh oversees Bibi Ji, an edgy Indian restaurant — try the uni biryani — with a wine list curated by the noted sommelier Rajat Parr.
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A new kind of Indian restaurant paying respect to old traditions while creating new ones
Daughter In Law is the latest restaurant by Jessi Singh after setting up the Babu Ji empire in Australia, selling them off, opening to critical acclaim in New York and California, and returning, but not before opening Don’t Tell Aunty in Sydney.
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Daughter in Law Remixes Classic Indian Fare in a Lush Pink-and-Blue Space in Melbourne’s CBD
“Indians, we don’t eat out – it’s part of the culture,” Singh says. “There’s no such thing as authentic Indian food, because [Indian people] don’t have set recipes. Our food’s been influenced by the British, the Portuguese, the French … It’s totally different for you or me what Indian food is. Authentic food is what my mum made me all her life. No-one else can compare.”
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FORBES (BABU JI NYC)
At Babu Ji in New York the modern Indian food is only half the fun!!
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Melbourne’s perfect ‘Daughter In Law’
There may be no manuals to be a perfect daughter in law but Jesse Singh and his team come remarkably close with their newly launched Indian cuisine restaurant in the heart of Melbourne city.
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The founder of Horn Please is opening an “unauthentic Indian” restaurant in Melbourne
"Melbourne has always been my home," he says of the city where he launched Horn Please, Babu Ji St Kilda and Dhaba at the Mill (he's no longer involved with the restaurants). He says Daughter In Law will be his most "unauthentic Indian" restaurant yet.
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Jessi Singh opens his most 'unauthentic Indian' restaurant yet
After Babu Ji (meaning 'father') in St Kilda and New York and Bibi Ji (meaning 'grandmother'), in Santa Barbara; and Don't Tell Aunty (Sydney) - Jessi Singh has added a new member to the family: Daughter in Law.
"She's a strong and modern woman who wants to create something new. She doesn't mind bending traditions," says Singh of his new restaurant in Melbourne's CBD.
"She doesn't mind cooking steak, cooking pork. And most Indians I know, they do eat oysters now and eat steak and drink nice wine and cocktails."