Ballads to biryani

Two options are on offer — UnVeg (a term protected by the trademark law) and chicken biryani. Orders are to be booked online and a delivery service will bring the meal to patrons. The brainchild of Bandra based singer and songwriter Shayan Italia, formerly of Hyderabad and London, he chose to experiment and following a year’s research and development Biryani360 is ready for launch by November end 2014.
Claiming that this is a healthy, gourmet version of the age old Indian favorite, Italia told Mid Day (MD) on November 2, 2014 that his biryani is low on cholesterol, with a 300 gm serving of the vegetarian version containing 599 calories and the chicken one having 699. The former meets 18% of the recommended daily allowance of protein while the latter meets 50% of the same. Both biryanis provide over the 25% of a person’s daily calcium needs.

Clockwise from top left: Shayan Italia; Biryani360 website; biryani portions

All this does not detract from the taste. "Getting the biryani’s flavor right, of course, was paramount when I began researching and traveling across the country to sample the best our states had to offer,” Italia told MD. Using premium ingredients, including three types of rice (he does not use basmati), herbs are added to enhance the flavor as no garam masala is used.
When Biryani360 whose tag line is "Savour the flavour!” was reviewed on the website Gluttony, Italia informed foodie Sunjay N. Punjabi about his venture. "We’ve taken advice from the best nutritionists in the world to create something special. We’ve combined three unique grains of rice (the most expensive being Rs 600 a kg)… to reduce the carbs level, to make it lighter and more digestible… another difference is the oil quotient. We hardly use any oil. Little bit of ghee and it’s completely organic… Our biryani is spicy, but not fiery spicy… And that comes from our highly secret flagship ingredient, a herb incredibly rare to source and enormously expensive. We use real saffron strands imported from all over the world, and we use a combination of rare crushed flower petals to give our dish that intoxicating aroma.” Freshness is an assured factor, he said.
Naturally, using such ingredients would be reflected in the price. Mumbai Mirror on October 14, 2014, wrote that "everything is about to work in Italia’s favor, except the price.” Both the biryanis, served with a light raita, are priced at Rs 360 for 300 gm, "a portion that we think is sufficient for a single eater with a happy appetite.”
Details are available on the website www.biryani360.com