Four generations of family history, one legendary Old Delhi address, and a candid disclosure of financial interest — Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra has used a visit to Chor Bizarre in Old Delhi to pen a sweeping tribute to restaurateur Rohit Khattar and, in the same breath, reveal he has been backing Khattar's culinary empire with his own money.

Where a family dining room became a Delhi landmark

The story starts, as Mahindra tells it, at Hotel Broadway — a family-owned property in Old Delhi whose unremarkable dining room Khattar transformed into Chor Bizarre, a restaurant themed after Mumbai's flea-market district Chor Bazaar. The concept was more than a design trick: it gave Delhi diners a genuinely quirky, immersive setting and, crucially, a kitchen serious about Kashmiri cuisine at a time when regional Indian food was rarely celebrated in a fine-dining frame.

Mahindra writes that Chef Shivali served the party not just a memorable meal but 'the fascinating folklore behind Kashmiri food' — an experience that underlines how Chor Bizarre has kept its original promise intact even as Khattar has built an entire restaurant group around it.

From Old Delhi to London, New York — and India's Top 50

It was Chor Bizarre's success that first drew Mahindra's investment into Khattar's ventures. Since then he has followed the restaurateur across London, New York, and back through India. The flagship Indian Accent — which Mahindra calls 'the jewel in his crown' — has become one of the most discussed fine-dining addresses on the subcontinent, routinely cited in India's premium restaurant rankings.

Beyond Indian Accent, Mahindra names Comorin, Hosa, Fireback, and All American Diner as further proof of what he describes as Khattar's 'seemingly inexhaustible ability to dream up new dining experiences.' Three of those brands, he notes, already feature in India's Top 50 restaurant rankings — a striking benchmark for an independent group whose founder started with a single heritage-themed room.

A four-generation bond and a frank financial disclosure

What makes the post unusual is Mahindra's deliberate transparency. 'Now that I've made full disclosure of my financial interest in Rohit's company,' he writes before issuing his recommendation — a rare, self-aware acknowledgement from a prominent industrialist that his praise is not disinterested. The Mahindra and Khattar families, he adds, go back four generations, weaving the investment into a much longer narrative of personal trust.

The broader pattern is telling. India's independent restaurant sector has professionalised sharply since the 1990s, and the support of well-networked angel investors has been part of that story. Khattar's group represents what that arc can produce at its best: a single heritage outlet, backed over decades, that has grown into a multi-brand, multi-city, internationally recognised operation — without losing the original.

Mahindra's closing line is as direct as it gets: 'Go back to where it all began. Sample the extraordinary cuisine, character and ambience of the original. The OG. Chor Bizarre.' The industrialist's recommendation comes with a caveat — and, clearly, a personal stake. But Delhi's dining room walls have heard far less honest endorsements.