Stream the full conversation with Chef India Doris above.
India Doris’s New York City restaurant, Markette, is a blend of her identity and life experience. And she has lots to work with.
India’s grandmother emigrated to London from Jamaica, and she grew up eating gran’s cooking and working at restaurants throughout London. At 19, she moved to France because it was the only place to get a fine dining experience, or so she felt at the time. Later, she moved to Spain and then finally to New York, where she worked for the late James Kent at Saga and Crown Shy.
“I spent the last 18 years just working on everyone else’s food, and I think it’s a great tool. You have to learn how to work on someone else’s food in order to understand what your food is,” Doris told Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality in an interview.
But with Markette, “I want it to feel that it’s India’s restaurant,” she said.
She’s bringing her life into the menu, decor, and even her leadership style. “I think the way I cook it’s autobiographical. You know, it’s a journey of like the places I’ve been to and the things I’ve done.” A perfect example may be her popular peri-peri chicken, which is her take on the dish she grew up eating at Nando’s, the chicken chain beloved by many Brits.
The support she felt from Kent is also part of her story, and she brings that into her own kitchen. She recalled being recognized at a kitchen equipment store while working for James Kent, as he had highlighted her work on social media. Now she does the same for her team.
“It makes a difference, you know, to build this community and make you think that you’re part of something really special,” she said. “So, you know the way it made me feel, I wanted to make others feel that same way.”
