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Andhra Chicken Curry Just Drew the Kind of Money Usually Reserved for Luxury Brands

Nandhana Foods, the Bengaluru Andhra group, is taking about $30 million from L Catterton, the consumer fund tied to LVMH.

India · Bengaluru · Chennai · Andhra Pradesh · Karnataka
  • nandhana
  • andhra
  • bengaluru
  • l-catterton
Andhra chicken curry in a steel bowl with mint and coriander, set on a banana leaf
Courtesy of Nandhana Palace: Nandhana Palace · Press / promotional use

In Bengaluru, Nandhana Palace sells Andhra chicken curry with chilli oil on the rim and rice on the side. On September 16, L Catterton agreed to put about $30 million, ₹288 crore, into Nandhana Foods, the group that cooks it, for a double-digit minority stake. L Catterton is a consumer investment firm tied to LVMH, the French luxury group behind Louis Vuitton.

Nandhana runs Nandhana Palace and RNR, a second Andhra and Karnataka brand, in Bengaluru and Chennai. The money is meant to add rooms in South India, then try other cities. The companies did not publish a deal size. People familiar with the terms put the check at that $30 million figure.

A fund that also backed Dishoom

L Catterton was formed when the American consumer fund Catterton joined LVMH’s investment arm. It has put money into about thirty restaurant businesses, including Dishoom, the London group known for Bombay café cooking, and Impresario, the Indian company behind Social and Smoke House Deli. Partner Vikram Kumaraswamy said the founding family grew the rooms without letting the food slip, and that there is space to open more in South India before going farther.

Mint reported in May that the round was expected at a valuation near ₹2,000 crore. The companies have not confirmed a close valuation. Founder and managing director Dr. R. Ravichandar framed the partnership as help on operations and consistency. He comes from Sholinghur, near Chittoor on the Andhra–Tamil Nadu border. Mint, citing the company’s site at announcement, put the chain at 27 restaurants. Nandhana’s own story page has used 25. Check the current locator before you treat either count as fixed.

The gravy that has to travel

Ravichandar dates the Nandhana Palace name to 2004, dedicated to his daughters Shwetha and Ramya, who now work in the business. He had already been in Bengaluru’s Andhra restaurant trade since the late 1980s, first around a Nandhini banner. Those rooms sell rice meals with pappu, the mashed toor dal, and gongura pachadi, a sour chutney from sorrel leaves. The chicken takes serious dried chilli. Gunpowder rice on the card is plain rice mixed with roasted chilli-lentil podi. Bamboo chicken, a low-oil cook, is a house version Shwetha has traced to the Maredumilli forest in East Godavari.

Diners can set the heat. The lunch still has to taste of tamarind and chilli after they do. That is the plate the new money wants in more cities. Once the chain leaves Telugu and Kannada neighborhoods, a milder gravy is the easy way to fill tables.

If you are in Bengaluru or Chennai, order the chicken curry and the gongura. Ask how hot they will actually make it. If the brand opens farther out, taste whether the sourness is still there. For why American menus still default the other way, read Why North Indian Food Still Owns Most American Menus.

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