Atul Bhola of Masala Art It happens to rock bands all the time: They start rolling in dough and having to push through a barricade of groupies on the way from the green room, and suddenly their music turns to crap. It can happen to restaurants, too. But while there are signs that Masala Art, [...]

Atul Bhola spent the past 10 years as a manager at Heritage India, dutifully fulfilling his front-of-the-house duties while others, notably head chef Surinder Kumar, produced the curries that earned this small, two-restaurant chain all the praise. Bhola still walks the floor at his new restaurant, Masala Art in Tenleytown, but the man formally trained [...]

Chef Sanjay Thumma is delightfully unself-conscious. His shtick is equal parts hucksterism, infomercial (late-night cable variety), and home cooking show, the sloppy mise en place notwithstanding. (Seriously, chef, you need to measure out those half-teaspoons a little more carefully.) Still, despite Thumma's used-car salesman persona, he seems to be on the mark about the origins [...]

It'd be perfectly reasonable to assume that the preponderance of lamb has to do with the cow's sacred place among Hindus in India, an argument that stands up until you realize that most of the lamb production occurs in other countries. Check out this quote from an FAO report about livestock production in Asia: Mutton and [...]

Masala Art owner Atul Bhola had told me he would offer some unusual dishes at his new Tenleytown restaurant, and I have to admit the gaulati kebab plate ($12.95) sitting before me is so different, I'm not even sure how to eat it. The plate arrives with three lamb patties in the middle, surrounded by [...]

Y&H had been trading phone calls with the mysterious Atul, owner of the previously mentioned Masala Art in Tenleytown, before we finally connected this afternoon. Atul, it turns out, is Atul Bhola, a man with just a little bit of experience in Indian cuisine. He was manager at Heritage India for ten years. "It was [...]