NEW YORK and food. They make a heady combination when Arjun Sajnani, the high priest of haute cuisine in Bangalore, talks about them. Manhattan, the Upper East Side, Peter Kemp�s Cooking School, restaurants like Lutece and La Cote Basque, and Broadway... Acting and cooking is in his blood.

He has performed on and off Broadway in his Manhattan years. With the same zesty fervour that he studied ethnic European cooking at New York�s restaurants. Food, he believes. is the natural bed-fellow to art and leisure. Perhaps, but neither the Big Apple�s cuisine nor its stage could hold Arjun�s interest when his heart cried out for a home-made curry and rice.

So he returned in 1992. And promptly took to Indian theatre with a string of successful productions like Amadeus, M Butterfly and The Kiss of the Spider Woman. But there was something missing. Food! Memories of the haute cuisines lingered on his palate. And he longed to reproduce those tastes here.

Real estate prices in Bombay almost put paid to this enthusiasm. Thankfully, Bangalore was more receptive. And that�s how Arjun opened Sunny�s Bistro with Vivek Ubhayakar, an old friend and accomplished patissier, in 1995.

It is a trendy little restaurant off the fashionable Lavelle Road. Cafetaria chic, built on three floors and with a roof top to party at. A metal staircase winds its way up past two air-conditioned levels, to where a cool breeze ruffles the bright orange, yellow and blue table cloths on the open-air. A more jolie and colourful restaurant serving eclectic and fusion cuisine the world has yet to see. Empty tables, too, have yet to be seen here, thanks to Arjun�s genius at the stove and Vivek�s at the oven.

They have staged some pretty outstanding and interesting parties at Sunny�s Bistro. So an invitation to lunch on Sunday with UpperCrust is snapped up now by Bangalore�s socialites and foodies when it comes from the twosome. And by noon, theatre people, dancers, industrialists, fashion designers, fashion boutique owners and politicians start rolling up in chauffeur-driven cars that are parked far down the leafy lane on which the restaurant stands as a landmark.

Arjun dashes about playing host and maitre d�hotel, taking down orders and popping wines and champagnes. While in the kitchen three storeys below, Vivek supervises the production of stir-fried calamari, crostini with roasted pepper, fusili salad and shrimp cocktail starters.

These are laid out ceremoniously for the 30-odd guests to help themselves to generously. The rest of the meal is a sit-down.

Hurrying the service, Arjun asks Ramakrishna Hegde, the numero uno politician of Bangalore and the man who would be prime minister, whether he will have penne primavera or shrimp diane as the entree. Hegde, despite the silk-khadi uniform, is as notable, charming and fashionable as the men reeking of style and class at the next tables. �I will have neither. Let me finish this starter

first,� he says between mouthfuls of baked brie cheese toasted with almonds and brown sugar. He looks roguishly at his companion, the famous and beautiful danseuse Pratibha Prahlad, who is busy getting outside a salad of onion, tomato and basil with balsamic vinaigrette. Meanwhile, the other guests, including industrialists Sanjeev Shanmugham and his wife Diya, Deepak Vakharia and wife Mandira, Shreepada Hanumanthiah and wife Renu, New York businessfolk Hiro and Shiela Kripalani, realtor Anisha George, dancers Daksha Sheth (with daughter Isha) and Nandini Alwa, media person Nirmala (the Voice) Mathan and husband Balu, are not actually banging their plates and impatiently calling for more entrees... but are close to that.

The starters, incidentally, have gone down well with them. Outstanding, is the general opinion. The brie baked was ripened just perfectly, and the brown sugar and roasted nut topping did something wonderful to the texture and taste. The calamari was as good as in any European restaurant, stir-fried in herbs and an oil dressing. And the fried parmesan ravioli was the veggies� favourite... though how anybody can be vegetarian in Sunny�s Bistro beats me.

Arjun good-naturedly fusses about how little people really understand food. �Honey, my food is decadence tempered with decency,� he now tells the ravishing Vani Ganapathy with pretended despair. But Vani, a passionate Bharat Natyam dancer, is a fairly versatile cook herself and knows better.

�I love food,� she says as she opts for Arjun�s farfelle with tomato, basil and garlic, �but I maintain a fine balance between eating to live and living to eat.� So does Prasad Bidappa, Bangalore�s fashion guru, sitting at the same table. A gourmand of considerable taste and poise, he is a notable cook of Coorgi food. Now he mentions that Arjun�s pastas would make any trattoria green with envy. The pestos to go with them have just that hint of this and that to bring out the flavours.

Sunny�s Bistro is the first restaurant in Bangalore to have a mini gourmet shop on its premises. Arjun, on his travels (Vivek stays firmly on the terre) to New York and Paris, shops for cooking accoutrements and food items like cheeses and foie gras, truffles, and the rillette. Yes, real rillette is served at Sunny�s Bistro. The cheeses include splendid choices of large wheels of brie, camembert, fontina, raclette, parmesan, fresh mozzarella, and the edams, goudas and cheddars. Along with the oils - olive, walnut and seeded oils for salad dressing and light cooking. The cold cuts are Oberoi�s varieties, the ones that move the fastest - hams, sausages, salamis.

The breads available here are a boulanger�s delight. There�s cinnamon, raisin, walnut and olive rosemary. All freshly-baked by Vivek. After the pastries and puffs are done, he likes to mess around the Bangalore Turf Club with his racehorse. Or putt around the golf course and maintain his handicap of two. But their favourite hobby (and business) is keeping tabs on the competition outside Sunny�s Bistro to see that their food always remains classic and superlative.

The roof-top is fast filling up and spilling over, I notice, as late entrant Sunil Alagh of Britannia laughs his way in. Sunil, who is warm and humourous, sets the tone for the remainder of the afternoon by cracking jokes and keeping the pace light. Another personality to wear the afternoon well is Norman Prouty of New York fame. His past is coloured with high banking history (Citibank).

But his present is of greater interest. He is partnering Rubert Murdoch in business in the sub-continent, and you may be hearing more and more about him through the news media soon. He declares that he dines at Lutece, La Gavroche, La Serre, and at Sunny�s Bistro. What bigger compliment can one bestow on a restaurant?

Arjun�s celebrated guests include Hindustan Lever Limited director K. P. Ponappa and his lovely wife Radhika. They keep their table occupied in meaningful conversation between morsels of food. They arrived in Bangalore from the UK, where life is so diversified and Calcutta to note