Indian food curries favor with Americans

NEW YORK — Indian food in America is having its "Slumdog Millionaire" moment.

Supermarket shelves are lined with chutneys, pickles and sauces and all manner of boxed heat-and-serve Indian meals. The quality and number of Indian restaurants has soared, offering an alternative to cheap all-you-can-eat buffets. And a flurry of new cookbooks is introducing home cooks to subtle regional differences in Indian cuisine shaped by climate, geography, religion and caste.

In Chicago, Indian businessman Vijay Puniani is betting Indian food will be the next big thing. After studying the success of Chipotle, Puniani opened the first in what he says will be a chain of "fast-casual" Indian restaurants modeled after the popular Mexican eatery.

Chutney Joe's, which opened in downtown Chicago in February 2009, features the sleek, minimalist decor of Chipotle — warmed up with orange walls — and a similarly simple menu. For $5.99, diners choose one of four meat or four vegetarian entrees accompanied by rice or the thin flatbread naan. Condiments to spice up or cool down the dishes are free.

Puniani says the Indian-Pakistani population of Chicago comprises just 15 percent to 20 percent of the store's customers.

"We look at Main Street, America, as our customer base," he says, adding that menu items were adapted after focus groups revealed that many people in the U.S. consider Indian food too spicy and heavy. For instance, the popular dumplings known as samosas are baked instead of deep-fried, and cream and butter, two staples of Indian cooking, have been banished from the menu.

The growing awareness of Indian culture and cuisine is due to the big influx of immigrants from South Asia since 1965, when national origin quotas favoring Europeans were abolished.

Since then, the United States has witnessed a remarkable flowering of Indian talent, energy and drive as well as a seemingly insatiable appetite for all things Indian, including bhangra music, Bollywood films and yoga. Perhaps nothing expresses America's fascination with that giant emerging economy more than the runaway success of the British film "Slumdog Millionaire," a rags-to-riches tale based in the Mumbai slums that won eight Academy Awards in 2009.

The growing Indian presence also comes at a time when the popularity of cooking shows — including Bravo's "Top Chef," hosted by Indian actress and model Padma Lakshmi — and an increase in foreign travel have made Americans more adventurous eaters.