Read Who’s Behind the New Kati+Frankie Rolls

(Gerry Furth-Sides) A Kati, a Frankie in wrap form or bowl, which can now be ordered at Kati Roll Company (#katirollco) brings authentic, fun Indian Street food to LA in full force. To order food online, please see: //katirollco.com.

The concept is being brought to LA by Chef Avinash (Avi) Kapoor and Sridhar (Sri) Sambangi. Second generation chef-owner, Avinash Kapoor, owns and operates two of the most popular Indian restaurants in Los Angeles and follows a long line of family industry leaders. Sri carries his passion for food and cooking, and experience and expertise he finely honed in Clorder, a company he created to build branding and marketing platforms for restaurants, and in co-creating menus and operational functions for VR concepts.

Low-key, congenial, Avinash Kapoor has over 25 years of experience working in the restaurant industry and is chef and co-owner of the Akbar restaurants in Southern California and Kapoor in DTLA, site of the new Kati + Frankie Roll.

Kapoor grew up apprenticing alongside well-respected veteran Indian restaurateurs, Kapal Dev Kapoor, and Uncle, Jagdish Kapoor, both in India, and the U.S. Known for its elegance and traditional Mughlai cuisine, Akbar was one of the first Indian restaurants to introduce and serve Indian cuisine in Southern California, establishing industry standards when it opened in 1976.

Akbar restaurant, was named after the Indian Mughal Emperor, Akbar (1542-1605), renowned for his taste in gourmet cuisine. From the first Akbar restaurant opened by the Kapoor family in 1976, the Los Angeles restaurants have done the name proud, earning award after award for originating and keeping the tradition of serving traditional Indian Muglai cuisine in Southern California.

Avi originally intended a career in management but decided instead to carry on his father’s ability to share the culinary romance of Indian food, including the dazzling, vibrant array of flavors, colors and aromas of fresh ingredients and authentic Indian cuisine.

At the same time he grew up in Los Angeles and so his more contemporary menu reflects the local ingredients and a more pared down version of the rich Muglai cuisine dishes. Seasonings and spices are another matter. “People can be afraid of spices,” chuckles Chef Kapoor, “But not all spices are hot. Spices add that extra “umph “of aroma, color, flavor and mystery to a dish. And many spices are healthy for the body,” he adds.

So 1994, Kapoor opened the Akbar Grill in Encino, he paring down down the heavy Muglai food and using local ingredients, along with subtly blended combination of fresh herbs and spices into contrasting flavors like sweet and sour, and hot and tangy. Kapoor earned accolades for his creativity both for his work as chef and for his restaurants.

Kapoor’s lean Indian food with an open kitchen concept was in full force when he opened Akbar restaurant in Marina Del Rey in Marina del Rey. Today, Kapoor is also also owner of Kapoor in Downtown Los Angeles.

Clorder/Virtual restaurant founder-partner, Sambangi. has always had a passion for cooking Indian cuisine.  He grew up on a farm in rural southern India, learning to cook using fresh farm ingredients.  He continued to learn using fresh ingredients in Los Angeles throughout his almost quarter century career as a technology executive and entrepreneur with extensive experience in enterprise cloud applications. 

The idea for Clorder came to Sri when he was involved in an IPO journey from one early stage startup phase to IPO at Cornerstone On Demand, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSOD).   The team he managed remembered his  catered dinners for in-house every Friday, sourcing the highest quality items.  They were so instantly popular and applying that everyone on the team looked forward the sessions even though work ended at midnight.   

For details, please see: //akbarcuisineofindia.com

The Katirollco kitchen preparing the fresh Kati + Frankie dishes is inside Kapoor’s Akbar Indian Restaurant on the north side of Cesar Chavez Boulevard just outside of DTLA.