Wednesday, January 18, 7:00 pm
Members $100, guests $125

“For me, it was love at first bite,” wrote Ruth Reichl, then restaurant critic for the New York Times, in her adulatory three-star review of Tabla. “This is what I have been waiting for,” she continued. “This is American food, viewed through a kaleidoscope of Indian spices. The flavors are so powerful, original and unexpected that they evoke intense emotions.” The man responsible for such an impassioned response was Floyd Cardoz, executive chef and partner at Tabla, whose Bombay upbringing and classical training serve him well.

Cardoz trained in Bombay and Switzerland, receiving a culinary degree and a diploma in hotel management. After he finished school, he returned to India briefly, hoping to introduce new ideas to traditional Indian restaurants. The intense resistance he met spurred him to relocate to New York. He cooked in the city for a few years before finding a kindred culinary spirit in Gray Kunz, then the executive chef at Lespinasse. Cardoz spent five years at the venerable restaurant, where he began as a chef de partie and left as executive sous-chef. During his tenure, he proudly introduced 21 new Indian spices to the Lespinasse pantry. Then he convinced restaurateur Danny Meyer to take a chance on his sophisticated, Indian-influenced Western food and open Tabla.

It turned out to be a worthwhile gamble. In New York magazine, Hal Rubenstein raved, “This angelically shy yet enthusiastic young chef has forged a fascinating and often deliriously satisfying union of this country’s produce with the strong, heady spices and bewitchingly pungent condiments and marinades of his homeland.” The restaurant has earned myriad awards and honors, including a place on New York’s 100 favorite restaurants and Gourmet’s Guide to America’s Best Restaurants, a Wine Spectator award of excellence, and a Best Indian designation from both Zagat Survey and Time Out New York. “You don’t need another tired chicken tandoori or saag paneer,” asserted the latter, “You need something genuinely new. You need Tabla.”