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Uzair Siddiqui

@siddici

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Architect → Chef → Strategist
Design in service of flavour and form
Yield Projects @yieldtheway
↓ IKEA 2025 food installations

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August was a full month of the performing arts— Arnav Buwa at Upstairs with Us, Ronkini Gupta at Mansoori Baithak, and a Dastangoi weekend at IHC. Former inmates of the Tihar Drama Club gave a very moving performance at The Tihar Players book launch. Emily Eden’s diaries and paintings of Maharaja Ranjit Singh at DAG were a joy to look at.

The office is finally done and I’m really enjoying these deep shelves. Perfect for books and product placements of my own pantry acquisitions. The view outside has competition!

Family time included Zetu with everyone together. Moez turned 3 with the parents flying in from England. Amandine also threw a beautiful farewell party, at Zetu as well.

Less fun: spent half the month nauseated on pills thanks to a newly discovered autoimmune condition, and the other half enraged— but goddess Mary Choi reminds us that the wellness industrial complex wants us to be meek and weak, “… a little beta-cuck”. So we’re keeping grudges. taken in New Delhi, India by @siddici

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a month ago

The World of Zetu

Some projects begin with a brief. This one began at an @ilovepero show at fashion week, where I met Sarah @tiffi_tu — one of those rare people who genuinely keep in touch, without the crutch of social media. She later moved to Colombo, I unknowingly visited her hometown of Shropshire last summer, and when I travelled to Sri Lanka for Christmas, she shaped my entire trip with her recommendations. On our last night, over dinner at my hotel, she finally told me about the restaurant she was building.

Zetu is a play on the Sanskrit ‘setu’, bridge— for everything that has always moved between India and Sri Lanka.
The space is an ode to Geoffrey Bawa, in detail after detail: Bentota Hotel chairs and iron candelabras anchor the outdoor spaces, a tiled canopy, principles of light and shade, indoor and outdoor, with brick and terracotta underfoot, the fountain from Bevis Bawa’s Brief Garden, Kandyan temple pillars, and batik woven into the uniforms— all of it sitting beneath an imposing 500-year-old banyan tree. The art on the walls is by Sarah’s husband, Raki Nikahetiya @rakiography — some of his family’s recipes are on the menu too. The kitchen is led by Chef Dush Ratnayake @chef_dush, cooking his family’s recipes alongside his own interpretations.

If there’s one thing I hope this food undoes, it’s the idea— one we hold especially firmly as Indians— that Sri Lankan food is a monolith of spice and heat. It is that, and yet so much more. It’s nuanced, layered, deeply warming and shaped by centuries of cultural and colonial exchange between Europe and South East Asia. It is these stories that we look forward to sharing through Zetu.

I’m heading service architecture and guest experience at Zetu as a consultant. More on that soon.

📍@zetudelhi 1AQ, Mehrauli, New Delhi

Architecture : @anuragdania (who is also a cofounder)
Images 2,3 : @suryansaurabh
Images 1,4 : mine by @siddici

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4 months ago

For @zetudelhi — an evening hosted by the Sri Lankan High Commission in India, celebrating the cuisine and conversations that bridge our two countries. 🇱🇰🇮🇳

A month of previews draws to a close. More on Zetu soon.
 Wearing @divyammehta claret raw silk kurta with attached bandhani stole.
 PR : @diksha0195  📸 : @mariamsiddiqui by @siddici

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4 months ago

Another year around the sun and very glad to be in this Taurus abundance era 🐣🎂🥳🧿 by @siddici

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5 months ago

Eid in the family orchard, with mango and lychee blossoms, mulberries, jackfruits and doggos 🌿 by @siddici

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6 months ago

Sometimes it’s just a nice picture. by @siddici

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8 months ago

All my favourite bites across Sri Lanka 🇱🇰👇

Kalu Pol Chicken Curry & Rice
A highway pit stop with excellent curry and rice served with gotukola sambol, katta sambol, potatoes, eggplant moju and dhal.
📍 Silsia Hotel, Kalagedihena

Rice & Curry Buffet
All you can eat seasonal buffet ft. breadfruit curry, winged beans, okra curry, eggplant moju, loofa gourd, bitter gourd, sweet potato vada and lots more. Served on water lily leaves.
📍 Rasa Bojun Gedara, Polonnaruwa

Crab (and honestly everything)
The turmeric garlic fried rice was top tier too!
📍 Elita’s, Galle Fort

Sri Lankan breakfast
String hoppers, chicken curry, dhal, kiribath and pol sambol. The cooks at this rental villa were incredible.
📍 Ceilao Villas, Ahangama

Jaffna cuisine
Two incredible lunches here with dishes like chicken pal poriyal, vendaya kulamba, isso thel dala, with pol, seeni and ash plantain sambols— all scooped up with different kinds of hoppers. Finish with the jaggery hoppers and watalappam.
📍 Palmyrah, Colombo

Steak frites
Sri Lankan beef sirloin, French fries and grilled chicken breast with a red wine jus, and a side of Niçoise salad dressed in passionfruit vinaigrette.
📍 Heritance Kandalama, Dambulla

Chicken Kottu Roti & Hot Butter Cuttlefish
One of the best spots in town, and the kottu roti is very different from how the South Indians do a kotthu parotta.
📍 Culture Colombo, Colombo

Coffee
Strongest coffee from the trip, though oddly in an office lobby.
📍 Grind

Clean Eating
Global breakfast menu with great coffee in a lush garden.
📍 The Kip, Ahangama

Gelato
Just really good (and conveniently located) ice creams for a hot day.
📍 Pedlar’s Inn Gelato, Galle Fort taken in Sri Lanka by @siddici

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9 months ago

Ayubowan 🪷🇱🇰 taken in Sri Lanka by @siddici

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9 months ago

Sri Lanka is not like South India.
 Yes, there are overlaps in geography, ingredients, and history. But the cultural logic and the way daily life is organised feel different.

1️⃣ Tea 
Sri Lanka’s global association with tea is inseparable from colonialism and extraction. Vast plantations remain and the export economy thrives, but daily rhythms aren’t organised around constant tea breaks. Production and consumption live very different lives here.

2️⃣ Dairy 
Milk and yoghurt rarely feature in local diets. Coconut does the heavy lifting instead. Meals feel lighter and more grounding, built around vegetables, grains, and greens rather than fat-forward richness.

3️⃣ Spices 
The food was the biggest surprise. The spicing is restrained, layered, and warm– never aggressive. You taste the ingredient first. Structurally, the food may look familiar, but it is different from Tamil, Andhra, or Kerala cooking.

4️⃣ The Ramayana 
There’s an unmissable sensitivity around this subject. It’s not overtly discussed or publicly claimed, and that restraint feels deliberate.

5️⃣ Buddhism & social structures

Religion here feels embedded rather than announced. In public life, social interactions appear less visibly stratified and hierarchical. Differences exist, of course, but they aren’t constantly reinforced the way caste often is in India.

At the same time, Sri Lanka is very aware of India.
Proximity without sameness, recognition without assimilation.

Sri Lanka isn’t an extension of South India. taken in Sri Lanka by @siddici

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9 months ago

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9 months ago

Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 was such a curious mix of post-Soviet Central Asia and Turkey. Traditional crafts and Silk Road food culture thrown together with modernist architecture.

We saw Zaha Hadid’s incredible Heydar Aliyev Centre, and learnt about the progression of architecture in Downtown Baku from a political science graduate. We ventured 7000ft to the mountain village of Khinaliq just south of the Russian border in the Greater Caucuses. We also visited Savalan to learn about Azerbaijan’s wine culture, and onwards to Sheki with its large London plane trees and shabaka glasswork pavilions built without any nails.

It was freezing and raining on most days, which meant copious amount of çay and tisanes. Breakfasts were spreads of Azeri tandir bread with nigella seeds, and all the trimmings– dairy, honey, beautiful tomatoes, pickles and meats. It was also peak persimmon and citrus fruit season. Kumquats, oranges, and quinces dominated markets.

Thank you for a fun trip @chefbani @handapanda247 @rheesang @karantorani taken in Azerbaijan by @siddici

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9 months ago

All the good things lately—
Going cold turkey on food delivery and back to cooking without any strategy
Workouts with @waatcoconut
@uan89 in India after 9 years
Diwali with @chefbani @handapanda247 and @karantorani
Khan Market gang + a beautiful Afghan movie with @bshrayana
A reprise of Covid-era Sunday calls
Moez 🧸
@shroomery.in HQ finally taking shape
@miampatisserie shoots with the best crew
Reading for work and pleasure. Will Kiran Desai bring me back to fiction? by @siddici

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a year ago