NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani dines at Chef Regi Mathew’s Kerala restaurant, Chatti, in New York

Chatti, Chennai-based Chef Regi Mathew’s restaurant in New York City, welcomed a special family for dinner on Sunday, treating them to a slice of Kerala’s culinary heritage in the heart of the city’s Garment District. 

Zohran Mamdani, Mayor of New York City, his wife, illustrator Rama Duwaji, and his parents, filmmaker Mira Nair, and Ugandan professor and political commentator, Mahmood Mamdani, enjoyed a curated meal at the restaurant. 

In a note to the restaurant after their meal, Mira Nair thanked Chef Regi and the team for transporting her family to Kerala, on the streets of New York. 

Filmmaker Mira Nair’s note to Chef Regi and the team at Chatti
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

“It was a pleasure to welcome Mayor Zohran Mamdani, his wife Rama, and his parents, Meera Nair and Professor Mamdani, to Chatti in New York. Sharing a meal is at the heart of what we do and it was lovely to host the family over a table of Kerala-inspired dishes,” says Chef Regi Mathew, founder-partner, Chatti, of their visit. “At Chatti, we hope every meal creates a sense of connection through food, and conversation and we are delighted they chose to spend part of their time with us and thank them for their visit.” 

Chef Regi Mathew
| Photo Credit:
alex staniloff

Back in Chennai, chef Regi is best known for his restaurant, Kappa Chakka Kandhari (with a branch in Bengaluru as well), for its traditional Kerala fare and seafood specialties such as deep fried mussels, clams roasted with coconut and spices, and kodampuli fish.

Named after the ubiquitous clay pot, a traditional fixture across homes and toddy shops in Kerala, Chatti, which opened in 2025, specialises in food from kallu or toddy shops where groups of men gather to drink freshly harvested toddy alongside local delicacies, also called ‘touchings’. 

Apart from seafood moilee soup, rasa vada, and a range of curries that include duck mappas, beef curry and raw mango curry,  to go with lacy string hoppers, steamed hoppers, tapioca mash, and ghee rice, the house speciality menu includes seafood cooked in banana leaf parcels, soft shell crab with coconut crumble, tawa grilled lamb chops and more. 

Chatti
| Photo Credit:
alex staniloff

The last few years have seen Indian restaurants specialising in regional culinary menus like Chatti, take the city’s food landscape by storm. Chef Vijay Kumar of Semma in New York, which serves up Tamil delicacies ranging from Dindigul biryani to snail pirattal won the prestigious James Beard award last year. At Manhattan’s Flatiron district, Kerala cuisine once again finds space in Kidilum, where chef Vinu Raveendran has prawn polichadhu, fish curry and toddy on the menu. INDN, another bar in Manhattan, has small plates that put a spin on chaat and tandoori specialities. 

Regional Indian cooking is clearly on the rise. And after this high-profile visit, even more diners in Manhattan may find themselves seeking out the flavours of Kerala — from meen pollichathu and kadachakka curry to flaky parottas.