Vijay Bist : CEO & Chairman, Amber India Corporations
Vijay is a well-known restaurateur and entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. His noteworthy success, branded as Amber, represents Indian cuisine at it finest level and on par with other global standouts. The Amber group of award winning Restaurants in Northern California therefore represents a class of distinctive and innovative culinary offerings. In addition to the overseeing of the restaurants, Vijay devotes his time to continually study and engage in the innovations in the Indian cuisine, with the objective of articulation in North America and elsewhere.
Vijay received his early culinary education in India. This was followed by advanced education in Switzerland, Germany and France, and a MBA degree in the US.
Bist lives by what he loves, which in the simplest terms is cooking and food. While he continues to build on his restaurant. success, he helps improve the worlds perception of Indian cuisine prepared in the United States.
For Bist, preparing dishes to perfection is his long-standing goal. He says “Is a constant obsession to keep the dishes perfect all of the time”
He is a Charter Member of TiE and is affiliated with culinary and hospitality professional groups. He is engaged in mentoring of aspiring entrepreneurs and devotes considerable time and resources to social, charitable and political causes.
Vittal Shetty : Corporate Executive chef
Vittal Shetty has been with Amber Restaurants, since 2003, during his tenure he has pioneered critically acclaimed menu for the restaurants & caterings.
Vittal’s menu has been recognized as one of the best Indian restaurant menu in bay area, with innovative dishes first time featured in an Indian restaurant. He presents the menu with “think out side the box “approach, by marrying traditional & authentic cooking techniques with modern day trends & experimenting with new versions of contemporary styles.
His modern approach to the cuisine has earned reviews & praises from crtics and our guests, he says his goal is to establish Indian food as world-class cuisine.
A graduate degree holder in bachelors of hotel management from Bangalore University was selected for kitchen training programme of the Oberoi Center Of Learning And Development, rated as the best hotel schools in Asia, After which he spent his culinary days in various hotels of Oberoi group including, Oberoi Bangalore, Rajvilas, Oberoi Mumbai & Oberoi Maidens in various positions and kitchens
He Started his culinary career in The Oberoi New Delhi, during his tenure there he headed the French restaurant “la Rochelle” & Banquet section as sous chef, here his guest list included prime ministers of India & Sri Lanka, Chancellor of Germany, high profile media, political & corporate guests, He also headed the coffee shop & gardemanger kitchens.
In 2002 he moved to Tiffin room Indian restaurant in Raffles hotel Singapore, during his stay for a year Vittal got hands on training on the hundred year old restaurants recipes & south Asian cuisines
Vittal now is responsible for culinary operations in all units.
Sandeep Basrur : Executive Chef, Santana Row
A graduate of Institute of Hotel Management, Mumbai, Sandeep began his culinary career with Taj Hotel Group in Mumbai strong desire to gain international exposure led him to earn a Bachelors degree in culinary arts from the prestigious Johnson & Wales University, Rhode Island. He won many academic awards including Banfi’s Scholastics Wine & Gastronomy Award.
Sandeep Joined Amber Group in 2003, he has led the kitchens at all their units at San Jose, Mountain View & San Francisco. He has a great passion for pastry arts, he believes in modern Indian food with Californian touch to it
Shiv Singh, Chef
Shiv Singh is Chef at Amber Dhara, Palo Alto.
He specializes in regional Rajsthani, Awadhi & Maharastrian cuisines and has an culinary experience from working with well known masters of Indian cooking at some of the best five star hotels and restaurants all across Northern India. He is a graduate in Bachelors of hotel management from Delhi University.
He started his career in Conde Nast Traveler’s best resort hotel The Oberoi Vanyavilas; he later moved on to work in other Oberoi Hotels such as Oberoi Rajvilas & The Oberoi New Delhi. He also trained young chefs at B.C Institute inDelhi. After a 2 year stint at The Claridges Hotel in Delhi Shiv moved on to become sous chef at Taj Hotel Aurangabad.
Ajay Mishra, Chef
Ajay Mishra is the chef at Amber India San francisco. Ajay specializes in Regional Indian cuisine – Kashmiri, Gujarati, Rajasthani, Goan, Bengali and classic Inidan desserts.
Ajay started his career in hospitality in 2004 with Taj Bengal, Kolkata as a Commis chef at their Indian specialty restaurant. Prior to joining Renaissance Mumbai Convention Center Hotel, Chef Ajay was working with Grand Hyatt as the Sous Chef. In the past, he has worked in different capacities with the Taj and the Hyatt group.
He holds a bachelors degree in hotel management from the Institute of Hotel Management, Taratola, Kolkata. He has also completed Taj Management Training Program in 2008, with specialization in Indian and Continental cuisine. He is currently pursuing Post Graduation from Symbiosis Centre of Distance Learning (SCDL), Pune through correspondence.
Manish Tyagi, Chef
Manish is chef at Amber Dhara, Valencia street, San Francisco
A graduate from Hospitality management from Meerut , he started his career in 2002 with Oberoi The Trident Agra and then Oberoi Amarvilas. then joined Taj Rambagh palace as a sous chef.
Become Executive chef in 2007 of Holiday Inn Khajuraho, later worked with Taj Safaris as a Regional Executive Chef for 3 1/2 years, then transferred to Taj Nashik as an executive chef. He was also executive chef of Holiday Inn khajurao and Ramada Inn
He specialized in regional Indian food of India specially Mughali, Awadhi, Rajasthani, Madhya pradesh and south Indian food. He achieved Editor’s choice best chef of the year award among 42 countries from Gallivanter’s guide, United Kingdom.
