One common misconception is that it should be cheap, fast and delivered in a Styrofoam container.

But there's a rich tradition of high end Indian restaurants in New York City that challenge that expectation and deliver.

Michelin starred food worthy of a celebratory splurge.

Today I'm hitting Junoon with someone who definitely deserves to celebrate.

Awesome.

Mom is a hilarious comedian, actor and Daily Show.

Bet who's killing it with his one man show subpoenas restaurant.

We're gonna see what fancy Curry is all about.

Thank you for joining me on this lovely evening.

I think you're actually joining me.

Okay.

I'm joining you.

Yeah, I was just here and then you just came and sat down with this whole crew.

It is what happened, and I've never been here.

And you've been here, so I'm here all the time.

You were born in Mumbai, and then you move to the UK.

How do you see curry change within those cultures?

The UK has a very long history with India, colonialism and all that.

So when the British were in India.

They took our spices and they went back to England and they created this dish called chicken tikka masala.

And then they brought it back to India, and then they convinced the Indians it was their food.

And I'm telling you right now is not on food.

And then in the U.

S.

It's a different take on Curry.

I mean, when I first got to America and that was like in the eighties, nobody, many people have never even tried Indian, I think.

Still, today there are Americans that have never tried.

Think it's still considered a kind of a johnnic.

Other food, you know.

So before we have our first meal, we're gonna toss it to the kitchen and see what we're about to eat.

My name is actually Bhardwaj.

I'm the Executive Chef Genuine Restaurant, which is an upscale modern Indian fine dining restaurant.

We try to go with a modern twist on traditional dishes so that when a guest comes that they don't feel like they're necessarily an Indian restaurant.

There, at an upscale restaurant that serves Indian food for just lean and Asif, I've prepared three dishes the Ghost Chili Mork Tika, the shoddy lamb shank as well as the lobster Morley.

So for the ghost Chili Mork Tika.

But we prepared it by making a marination with fung yogurt, ginger, garlic paste, fenugreek powder, black salt, gara, masala powder.

And then we finish it off with a ghost pepper paste.

It's not going to completely destroy a guest palate, but it's still spicy enough where you appreciate the ghost pepper itself way.

Go now.

I'm a little nervous about the ghost pepper.

Afraid of no ghost.

I'm afraid of a ghost.

Pepper.

Alright, here we go.

Ready?

Oh, fuck.

Okay, that's good.

Who?

How do you like it?

Just cause I'm Indian.

Holy Like right, Right this way.

Got you all that?

Oh, that fucking hot.

Bring that in.

Oh, my God.

Somebody just dropped us a mango lassi.

My ears were like sweating.

Holy shit, That is good.

But that counters the ghost pepper in a very delicious way.

I love you.

Don't lose price, but you have, like, this won't show about Indian food.

Yeah, so I don't know Spice, which is like a huge misconception on Indian people.

People think we can handle, like, chili pepper, act of chili pepper, chili pepper.

I think.

Look, it's like anybody else that some people have a higher tolerance for spice.

Something low towers.

I don't have a huge high tolerance for spice.

My father can eat like just chili peppers raw.

Not always is spice correlated with like the burning knocking my throat background.

I got you, but it gets to the flavors.

How important is spice in Indian food?

That's what Indian cooking is.

Shafts in India will just sort of intuit what the spices are, what the spices need to be in a sort of.

It's almost like jazz.

You know, Indian cooking is like jazz.

Yeah, no, it reminds me when my mom I was cooking and trying to teach me and I was like, No, let me know the exact president legs, no Roman stuff in.

And then I was like, How much?

Like however much you feel what you feel.

It's all about throwing a limit of this world.

But that and it's all an intuitive understanding of how these flavors all move together and we've together.

It's like they're creating this tapestry of flavor boy town.

You know, I love adding boy to the NGO boiler Happy happy went when she spicy should fuck you with my head.

Next up, we have to Nunes shoddy lamb shank.

The lamb shank is made with black human yogurt curry and gotta Masella and paired with potatoes solid.

Let's do it.

So you just rip it.

Just go in.

Just go right in big.

Yeah, smiled.

I'm not surprised, you know is not always easy.

At some point, Americans decided that foods like Indian or Mexican or considered cheap seats, but they're willing to spend $2030 on a bowl of pasta.

I mean, you know, I think that's changing, and I think it has changed.

Now.

A lot of the Indian food that people are exposed to was much more kind of, you know, low end.

I think now you're seeing a lot more innovation, a lot more interesting flavors.

And a lot of these high end places like Genuine are doing really interesting things like we saw with the ghost Pepper chicken.

I think Indian food has now become a totally legitimate high end food with riel artistry and the kind of sense of a chef bringing their personality to it.

So we got one more dish coming?

Yeah.

Are you ready?

I am for the lobster.

Wow.

Last but not least, we have unions.

Lobster, My oily dishes made with lobster, coconut milk, fenugreek, tumeric and heirloom tomato.

I've never had lobster in an Indian restaurant before.

It's good, very coconut e.

I feel like lobster in a high end restaurant is a very common piece that shows you it indicates that way out here, ball in More than any one particular sort of like dish, I think it's more the innovation, the presentation of different flavors, the different influences, the cross pollination.

I think that's where status symbol sort of is around Indian food.

Not so much in life, whether it's lobster dock or, you know.

I mean, I feel like I've had a prawn curry.

So for me, this isn't like so it's similar to that, right?

But I think you are right.

The more creative they get, the more high end, it seems, because they're throwing it together in an unusual way that actually works.

So you have ah, one man show coming out in October.

It's actually a return Aquinas restaurant, and it focuses on the immigrant coming here and finding a place in the culinary world.

Why is food a powerful connection to cultural identity?

As a person who wanted to tell stories about immigrants who wanted to tell stories about identity, food became a great access point.

It became an entry point into that world and into that culture.

We said it in a restaurant, and we use food as a metaphor for integration.

You integrate two aspects of yourself together.

That's what food could do.

You know, you take a spice from here, you take a flavor.

From there, you put it together.

You create something new, and that's what you and I actually are.

You're Canadian, but you're many things.

I'm American Indian, like British.

And so we're kind of this masala, and that is the metaphor of Indian food.

And that is the metaphor into this sort of muddled up identity that, you know, we all way.

We carry around with us.

Well, thank you very much for joining me on this journey through spice and food.

Thank you very much for inviting me on for paying for dinner.

You're paying for dinner?

Your your paper.

You got the check?

I got a place to be.

I don't think I have what I think.

I believe someone needs to call my agent because that was not part of the deal.