India, July 25 -- Punjabi food is having a moment. It has travelled from Pandara Road and the Moti Mahal-type restaurants to find new fame in the world's capitals. In London, Ambassadors Clubhouse, which serves Punjabi food, is packing them in and its new New York outpost is so successful that the New York Times headlined its review last week by noting that "It's one of the hardest reservations in New York." Ligaya Mishan, its reviewer (who really knows her Indian food), said about the cuisine that "If Ambassadors Clubhouse is not quite a revelation, it's in part because of this bounty, but also because Punjabi food was the gateway to Indian cuisine for many New Yorkers." The gateway thing may be the problem for north-Indian food everywhere. Because nearly everyone is familiar with say, Tandoori Chicken and Black Dal, it is hard to surprise people with Punjabi restaurant food. The JKS group, run by the three Sethi siblings (Punjabis who grew up in England) serve traditional Indian food, but do it better. Their flagship restaurant, Gymkhana, in London won two Michelin stars. And Ambassadors Clubhouse (one Michelin star) is determinedly Punjabi. It's the same approach that Vikas Khanna, who proudly advertises his Punjabiness, took with Bungalow, his New York restaurant, which won three stars from the New York Times. But around a decade ago, people were so tired of eating the same Punjabi food at every place that most north-Indian restaurants came to be seen as Punjabi-owned operations, in which the entire menu was based around three basic curries. But Punjabi food is making a comeback. This time it's real Punjabi food, not the three-curry formula that's finding favour. Two decades ago, the late great Jiggs Kalra opened Punjab Grill, serving authentic Punjabi food made to traditional recipes he had gathered. Jiggs partnered with Lite Bite Foods, but his son Zorawar sold his shares to Lite Bite and went off to start an empire of his own: Masala Library, Farzi Cafe etc. But now, there are around 60 Punjab Grills around the country, all still using Jiggs's original recipes. Rohit Aggarwal, who founded Lite Bite with Amit Burman, recently retired from the group. Looking back, he attributes Punjab Grill's success to its ability to fill a gap in the market. People always liked Punjabi food, he says, they were just fed up of what many restaurants were doing to it. Rajan Sethi tells a similar story. He wanted to go back to the food of his parents who were born in undivided Punjab. His successful Ikk Panjab restaurants try and recreate the food his parents would have eaten: Kotkapura Aata Chicken, Amritsari Aloo Vadiyan and Tarn-Taran Di Jalebi Rabdi. Sethi has four Ikk Punjab restaurants in Delhi, but the real test came when he opened a 120-seat restaurant in Chandigarh recently. To his relief, it has been a huge success. What all of these restaurants have in common is one principle: Stop treating Punjabi food as a generic north-Indian cuisine and accord it the respect we would give to a great regional cuisine. Nobody does that better than Amninder Sandhu. I first ate her Punjabi food at Masala Bay at the Taj Lands End, at Arth in Mumbai, where every dish was cooked on an open fire, and then at Bawri also in Mumbai. She was already on her way to becoming one of India's top chefs when she opened Kikli in Delhi's Connaught Place. I went there with my Punjabi wife, who normally refuses to eat at Punjabi restaurants ("No discerning Punjabi eats this stuff") and much to my surprise, she loved it. What makes Kikli so good? Well, it's partly what you would expect: The food is authentic. But mostly it is because Sandhu is such a good chef. She comes from a Sikh family that has lived in Assam for three generations. For her family, food and the recipes that were handed down from mother to daughter became a way of asserting their Punjabiness in faraway Assam and staying in touch with their roots. Perhaps the success of places like Ambassadors Clubhouse abroad, the global popularity of Vikas Khanna and the willingness of newer Indian restaurants and chefs to make real Punjabi food will change the way we look at the state and its cuisine. Tandoori Chicken is a great invention. But it's an invention nevertheless. May be it's time for us to eat what Punjabis have eaten at home for generations....