Inside Elder, Chef Sujan Sarkar's new British-Indian chophouse in New York

There are three places inside Chef Sujan Sarkar's new British Indian chophouse, Elder, in New York. There is India, where he grew up and learnt the instincts of a cook before he had the language to describe them. There is London, where he spent years working in professional kitchens and absorbed the rhythms of British cooking, including the old chophouses where chops, fish, puddings and vegetables have always had as much right to the table as a handsome piece of meat. And then there is America, where Sujan has spent the last nine years cooking, opening restaurants and watching Indian food move, slowly and sometimes awkwardly, from the category of the unfamiliar into something Americans are increasingly willing to claim as their own.

Elder, New York | Photo Credit: Neil John Burger

"I have travelled and worked in different places, from London to India and America. I know the people and the culture, and that is how it started. This is a very personal project," adds Sujan, who has spent much of his career moving between culinary languages. Located at Henry Hall, upstairs is Indienne, Sujan's New York outpost of the Chicago restaurant that earned him a Michelin star. Elder is perhaps his most literal attempt at putting those languages on the same table.

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The chophouse, before the Indian accent

"A chophouse is primarily a British concept. You develop chops, and the cuts are made in a particular way. It is part of a British dining culture," he explains, adding, "The American steakhouse tends to begin with the steak and build outward. A chophouse has a wider appetite. There are prime cuts, certainly, but also fish, lamb, chicken, duck, vegetables, potatoes, puddings. The meat does not have to dominate at the table.''

Bone in rib chops | Photo Credit: Neil John Burger

"At Elder, there are enough options for vegans and vegetarians. Some people like seafood, some like poultry, some like lamb, and some like pork. It is a concept for everyone, not only for steak lovers," he adds.

Sujan is not taking British food and laying Indian flavours over it like a second coat of paint. He is interested in the places where the two cuisines have already been in conversation for years, sometimes without either side quite acknowledging it. A Scotch egg can sit beside a samosa without either becoming a novelty act. English peas can enter a samosa. A British chicken cutlet can carry an Indian reference. Mushrooms, poached eggs and potatoes can take on pepper and masala. The spices are present, but they do not walk into the room before the food does.

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"We are using spices that make sense in the dishes, and that makes the food exciting. The influences are subtle and not overpowering," he points out

A spread at Elder | Photo Credit: Neil John Burger

The English pea and fava samosa comes with endive chutney; a chicken liver choux bun is sharpened with spiced cherry chutney; quail scotch egg arrives with mustard aioli and pickled shallot; jackfruit cutlet is paired with piccalilli purée, shallot and capers; mushroom pepperfry comes with a poached egg and potato mousse; tomato and plum salad with rasam sorbet and basil oil; and buffalo milk paneer comes with Swiss chard saag and crisp garlic.

Tomato and plum | Photo Credit: Neil John Burger

Dover sole comes with curry beurre blanc. Cornish turbot is served with clam mulligatawny and sea herbs. Tandoori hake kedgeree comes with trout roe and green peas.

Berkshire pork becomes a vindaloo masala rib chop. Lamb chops are rubbed with burrah spice. The pathar kebab hanger steak borrows from the stone-ground kebab. Tellicherry peppercorn-crusted filet mignon sits beside sauces that move between culinary worlds almost casually: Varuval pepper sauce, red pepper makhani, horseradish raita and bone marrow nihari gravy.

Sourcing the meats

The sourcing is similarly divided between places. The beef is American and prime, the lamb comes from Wales, the pork comes from Berkshire and chicken is sourced locally. Some of the meat is aged in house, with Sujan allowing time to alter the flavour before it reaches the dining room. "It helps develop a nice, luminous sweetness and a different kind of flavour," he says.

What is compelling about Sujan's cooking here is that the Indian reference does not sit on top of the dish. It is often buried a little deeper, inside the way an ingredient is treated, a sauce is made or a familiar dish is nudged off its expected path.

Food cultures rarely meet in a clean room. They arrive through migration, trade, empire, restaurants, homes and corner shops. They are borrowed, altered, made familiar and eventually absorbed into the everyday. A dish can cross a border so many times that it becomes difficult to say where one cuisine ends and another begins.

Sujan's chicken tikka masala is a product of that history. He takes an entire chicken, prepares it as a kebab, slices it and serves it with tikka masala sauce. A steak gets pepper sauce, but coconut cream replaces the conventional cream.

Tandoori chicken roulade and brioche rolls | Photo Credit: Neil John Burger

The puddings carry the conversation into sweeter territory. Banana rum baba comes with banoffee chantilly and jaggery caramel. Strawberry Eton mess is paired with elderflower and oat crumble. Chocolate and peanut chikki delice comes with cherry sorbet. A rasmalai trifle dome arrives with pistachio ice cream and jalebi crisp.

Banana rum baba | Photo Credit: Neil John Burger

"These small changes can elevate the dining experience. Every dish has a reference to India or Britain, but the food is not aggressively Indian. It is not a curry house," Sujan says.

Chocolate and peanut chikki delice | Photo Credit: Neil John Burger

He remembers growing up without knowing what pasta was. That seems almost impossible now, when children in cities such as New York can grow up eating food from half a dozen countries without considering any of it particularly foreign. Britain arrived at this familiarity when curry houses became part of the country's everyday eating. In America, Sujan believes that shift is happening now. "I am happy to see how people are responding because we are trying to create something different but simple. We use quality products, focus on what is in season and change the menu accordingly," says the chef.

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A London drink, with India hiding inside

Sujan wanted the cocktails to begin in London rather than India. The references are classic: a punch, a martini, a Negroni. The Indian ingredients come in almost under the radar.

The Elder Gibson uses London dry gin, sirka brine, dry vermouth, pearl onion and gooseberry. The London Fog combines Earl Grey-infused gin, coconut, vanilla and lemon. The Spice Exchange brings botanical gin, Batavia arrack, Campari, vermouth, fenugreek, coriander and cumin together. The Tea Merchant mixes Jamaican rum and Spanish brandy with Darjeeling tea, peach, honey and lemon.

Martini | Photo Credit: Neil John Burger

"The word 'punch' itself came from India. We are taking classic cocktails from London and giving them a slight twist. Nothing is over the top," Sujan says.

Negroni | Photo Credit: Neil John Burger

The point of the drinks menu, Sujan says, is to let the history between India and Britain show up in the glass.

A room that remembers London

Downstairs at Henry Hall, Elder has its own visual language. Designed by interior designer Mapa Mueller, the 3,300-square-foot restaurant seats about 100 across its rounded bar, dining room and outdoor patio. English country-style pendant lights hang over brass detailing. Intimate alcoves break up the dining room. There are coffered ceilings with cane panelling, hardwood floors, English walnut wainscoting and Carrara marble.

The hunter green walls carry the weight of an old London club. Botanical wallpaper nods to the restaurant's namesake. Velvet upholstery and tasselled drapery bring in softer references to Indian textiles. Photography by London-based duo Ulas and Merve and fashion photographer Liz Von Hoene keeps the room from becoming too faithful to either place.

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In the restaurant's first days, he says, he noticed people from different parts of the world were sitting at the same table, eating quite different things. "It has been amazing. One person may be eating chicken, another may be eating fish, and another may be vegetarian, and everyone is happy. That is a wonderful experience."

Sujan does not quite call Elder a steakhouse in the traditional sense. He believes, "Elder has a softer culture."

There is more to come. Apas, an Indian cocktail bar, is planned for Henry Hall later this year. Sujan is opening in Abu Dhabi at the end of 2026. India remains on the horizon, though he says he is waiting for the right place and the right time after an earlier restaurant there was cut short by COVID-19.

"I want to put good, flavourful and honest food on the plate. That is what we do," smiles Sujan At Elder, a Londoner may come for the old London chophouse but the vindaloo on his chop might remind him that food has always crossed the empire more freely than people.

Elder is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m Eastern Standard Time (EST)