Chef Manu's passion for food surfaced at a young age, thanks to his family's deep culinary traditions. At St. Stephen's College, he wrote, designed and helped photograph a book on fusion cuisine. Manu then enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), Hyde Park, New York, where he apprenticed with some of the city's most celebrated kitchens, including Restaurant Daniel, Le Bernardin, Gramercy Tavern, Cafe Centro, Jean Georges and Town and also opened the now legendary Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Manhattan.
A lover of slow cooking, he leans towards painstakingly controlled and cooked things, a process that enables one to extract flavours and textures. On the flip side, he's fond of incredibly fast cooking also which keeps the integrity of ingredients and freshness intact.
Late 2004 saw Manu returning to India, where he joined Olive Beach Bangalore as Chef de Cuisine. Under Chef Chandra, Olive Beach, Bengaluru, has won several accolades including Outlook magazine's Top 10 Restaurants, featured in renowned food critic Marryam Reshi's book "100 iconic Restaurants in India" and more. He was recently featured in AmarOne, a book featuring 10 Chefs from around the world, released by Italian wine maker Allegrini to celebrate 60 years of their famed wine.