Twenty years after Michael Hutchence ate his last meal at Flavour of India in Sydney’s eastern suburbs the restaurant still receives an inquiry most weeks about booking his favourite table.
What most diners do not know is the man who cooked for Hutchence the night before he died still runs the kitchen and is happy to oblige recreating the rock star’s final order.
Hayat Mahamud, head chef at Flavour of India then and now, cooked for Hutchence on November 21, 1997 and remembers much of that evening’s detail including all the food he prepared.
Michael Hutchence, pictured in 1990, was among the world’s biggest rock stars when he died; the INXS lead singer had his last meal at Flavour of India in Sydney’s eastern suburbs
Flavour of India head chef Hayat Mahamud sits at the restaurant’s table seven, where Michael Hutchence ate his last meal on Friday, November 21, 1997, the night before he died
Table number seven at the Flavour of India restaurant in Sydney’s eastern suburbs where Michael Hutchence ate his last meal on November 21, 1997, pictured on Sunday night
Flavour of India has become an institution in Sydney’s eastern suburbs since opening its doors in late 1990; it was here that Michael Hutchence at his last meal the night before he died
‘It was a Friday night,’ Mr Mahamud tells Daily Mail Australia. ‘That night was very busy night. Full restaurant. It was crowded.
‘He was sitting at this table. We call that table number seven.’
About 13 hours after leaving the Edgecliff restaurant on New South Head Road, Hutchence was found dead in his room at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel at Double Bay. He had committed suicide.
‘Next day when I heard the news I said, “No, is not possible”,’ Mr Mahamud says.
Mr Mahamud has been at Flavour of India since it opened in late 1990. Michael Hutchence began frequenting the eatery the next year.
For the next six years the INXS frontman dined at the restaurant every couple of months.
‘He told me all the time he liked this restaurant,’ Mr Mahamud says.
Michael Hutchence began dining at Flavour of India in Sydney’s eastern suburbs the year after it opened and continued patronising the restaurant for the next six years until his death
Table number seven at Flavour of India in Sydney’s eastern suburbs is set for three, as it was the night Michael Hutchence last dined here with his father and stepmother in 1997
Flavour of India’s head chef Hayat Mahamud clearly remembers the last time he cooked for rock god Michael Hutchence at his restaurant on November 21, 1997, the night before he died
Flavour of India, at Edgecliff, in Sydney’s affluent eastern suburbs, opened in late 1990 and has been trading from this New South Head Road site ever since
When on his own or with a small group Hutchence sat at table seven, which is down five steps from the upper floor. When he came with larger numbers of friends he took a longer table closer to the front door.
Mr Mahamud says Hutchence often chose the restaurant to celebrate special occasions with his family and friends including birthdays, anniversaries and Father’s Day.
In his last night alive Hutchence dined at table seven with his father Kel and stepmother Susan.
The table was lit with a candle and underneath a chandelier, as it still is.
The 37-year-old sat with his back to a bay window, with his father to his right and his stepmother opposite.
Michael Hutchence was days away from beginning the last leg of a world tour to support INXS’s latest album Elegantly Wasted when he was found dead in a Sydney hotel room
When INXS frontman Michael Hutchence dined with groups of more than three or four at Flavour of India he often chose this table, which is five steps up from his usual table seven
Michael Hutchence pictured with his father Kel, with whom he dined at Flavour of India in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, the night before he was found dead in a hotel room
Head chef Hayat Mahamud sits below a chandelier at table number seven in Flavour of India, where Michael Hutchence dined with his father and stepmother the night before he died
‘That night he was sitting down here,’ says Mr Mahamud, pointing to the wooden furniture that has been in the restaurant for all its 27 years.
Hutchence ordered drinks from the bar and chose spicy crab as an entree.
Like everything Hutchence ordered that evening the crab dish – meat in shredded ginger, chilli and onions, served inside potato skins – is still on the menu today.
‘He was very happy,’ Mr Mahamud says.
‘He was in a very happy mood. Very good, happy mood.’
The pair shook hands as usual. Hutchence called the chef Hayat. He called the rock god Michael.
‘He said, “Which one should you cook for me – which one is best tonight?”,’ Mr Mahamud says.
MIchael Hutchence was in a good mood the night he ate his last meal at Flavour of India in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, according to head chef Hayat Mahamud who still runs the kitchen
Head chef Hayat Mahamud with his staff at Flavour of India where he prepared Michael Hutchence’s last meal on Friday, November 21, 1997, the night before Hutchence died
The view from the bar at Flavour of India from the restaurant’s bar; Michael Hutchence regularly dined down the stairs under the chandelier and on the raised area to the right
Head chef Hayat Mahamud has fond memories of rock star Michael Hutchence for whom he regularly cooked at Flavour of India right up until the night before Hutchence died
Michael Hutchence’s last order: chicken tikka fillets (left), ‘best chicken butter masala’ (right) and mushroom saag aloo, pictured at Flavour of India in Sydney’s Edgecliff this week
‘I said, “Everything is best”. He said, “Butter chicken is heaven. I love your butter chicken.”‘
That dish – chicken from the tandoor served in a creamy red masala sauce – has always been the restaurant’s speciality. Hutchence ordered it.
He also ordered two more mains for his small group:
Mushroom saag aloo, ‘fresh spinach, mushroom and potatoes blended with ginger, whole cumin seeds, cardamon pods, kaffir lime and a touch of coconut.’
And chicken tikka fillets, ‘marinated in lemon, chilli, garlic, yoghurt, chat masala and ginger then roasted in the tandoor oven, served with fresh lemon and raita.’
Mr Mahamud spoke to Hutchence several times during the night.
‘He was very normal,’ the softly spoken father-of-two says. ‘Charming. Happy. Eating everything.
INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence pictured in 1989 with his then girlfriend, fellow Australian pop star Kylie Minogue, at the premiere of The Deliquents, a film in which she starred
Rock star Michael Hutchence’s favourite butter chicken, described on Flavour of India’s menue as ‘Our speciality, chicken from the tandoor served in our creamy red masala sauce’
Chicken tikka fillets from Flavour of India: ‘Marinated in lemon, chilli, garlic, yoghurt, chat masala and ginger then roasted in the tandoor oven, served with fresh lemon and raita.’
Flavour of India’s mushroom saag aloo: ‘Fresh spinach, mushroom and potatoes blended with ginger, whole cumin seeds, cardamon pods, kaffir lime and a touch of coconut’
‘I didn’t find anything different.’
But Kel Hutchence later told The Independent he had been worried about his son. ‘I held his hand across the table,’ Mr Hutchence said. ‘I said, “Mike, is everything OK? I know you’re very happy but you seem a little uptight.”
‘And he said, “No, Dad, I’m fine. Really. I’ve never felt better.”‘
At the time, Hutchence’s partner Paula Yates had been embroiled in a bitter British custody dispute with the father of her three daughters, Sir Bob Geldof.
Hutchence and Yates also had a daughter, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, who Michael desperately wanted to see.
Over his last meal, Hutchence asked Mr Mahmood about his life and family.
‘He asked, “How’s your business going?” He said, “People like your food.”
‘He say, “How is your family?” He asked, “How are your boys going?”
‘I said, “They love your songs.”‘
Michael Hutchence with his his partner Paula Yates and their daughter Tiger Lily; Yates was in a custody dispute with Sir Bob Geldof over her three daughters with him when Hutchence died
Michael Hutchence dined with his father Kel and stepmother Susan at Flavour of India on New South Head Road, Edgecliff, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on November 21, 1997
The chandelier under which rock star Michael Hutchence dined at Flavour of India in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on November 21, 1997, the night before he was found dead at the Ritz-Carlton
Bystanders gather outside the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Sydney’s Double Bay on November 22, 1997, the day INXS frontman Michael Hutchence was found dead in Room 524
‘All the time when I’m coming to the table he was very happy. I loved to talk to him.’
It has previously been reported Hutchence jumped up from the table to plant a kiss on the lips of manager Ashley Notani during the evening and bared his belly when another staff member suggested he eat more.
When it came time for dessert Hutchence ordered what he always did: mango kulfi – traditional Indian ice cream with mango coulis.
‘He loved that one,’ Mr Mahamud says.
At the end of the night Mr Mahamud asked his most famous regular customer if he had enjoyed the meal.
‘I said, “How was your food?” He said everything was heaven.’
‘Him giving me compliments, I am very pleased.’
When the dinner finished, Kel Hutchence drove his son back to the Ritz-Carlton about 10.30pm.
The next afternoon Flavour of India’s original owner Lola Crossingham called her chef to tell him Hutchence was dead. Mr Mahamud than turned on the TV.
INXS frontman Michael Hutchence pictured at Maidstone Court in Britain in 1995, two years before he was found dead after committing suicide in Sydney’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel
The corridor leading to Room 524 of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Sydney’s Double Bay where INXS frontman Michael Hutchence was found dead from hanging on November 22, 1997
Customers still ask to book table seven (pictured) at Flavour of India where Michael Hutchence ate his last meal with his father and stepmother on Friday, November 21, 1997
‘I was shocked,’ Mr Mahamud remembers. ‘I said, “No, it is not possible.”‘
When Mr Mahamud arrived for work that Saturday flowers left by fans were piling up outside the restaurant.
‘Our door was blocked with the flowers,’ he says.
Staff brought the floral tributes inside and put them on table seven.
Mr Mahamud’s memory of Hutchence’s last meal at his restaurant is so clear because he has been asked so often about the evening.
And because the famous rocker had made such an impression on him over the years.
‘I have good memory of him,’ Mr Mahamud says. ‘I respect him so much.
‘I liked him. Everyone liked him. Always friendly. He was naturally like this.
MIchael Hutchence (pictured) was a friendly, humble, honourable man, according to chef Hayat Mahamud who served him regularly at Flavour of India in Sydney’s eastern suburbs
Head chef Hayat Mahamud sitting at table seven of Flavour of India in Edgecliff, where Michael Hutchence ate his last meal before he was found dead at the nearby Ritz-Carlton Hotel
Flavour of India still takes regular inquiries from diners wanting to sit at the table where Michael Hutchence last ate and to eat his last meal including butter chicken
‘He was a very honourable person. He was very friendly. He was humble. A very simple person.
‘You would not realise he was such a big star. He was a very top level singer.
‘I’m proud I can talk about him. I’m very proud I served his food.’
Mr Mahamud now runs the restaurant, which has capacity for 105 customers, with partner Mohammad Siddik.
Twenty years after Hutchence’s last meal, Flavour of India still gets regular inquiries from diners who know about that night.
‘Still almost every week I get on customer, two customers, asking which table did Michael sit at,’ Mr Mahamud says. ‘And which food was he having.’
Most such callers are female, Australian and usually 40 or older.
‘I’m surprised after 20 years there are still people asking about him,’ Mr Mahamud says.
A coroner found Hutchence killed himself while depressed and under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
For confidential support call Lifeline 24-hour crisis support on 13 11 14.
A Flavour of India menu; the dishes Michael Hutchence ordered at the restaurant for his last meal on November 21, 1997, are all still available, including the butter chicken