Mountain flavours: Local meets global at NAAR by Chef Prateek Sadhu

(October 27, 2024) On a balmy September afternoon, I made my way to the Le Cirque Signature Restaurant at The Leela Palace, Bengaluru to sample ‘Mountain Flavours’ as part of a four-city Himalayan cuisine tour that saw Prateek Sadhu’s first pop-up with his latest venture, NAAR, in collaboration with Conosh. Showcasing ingredients from Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, like the local ragi, foraged sea buckthorn, citrus fruits and timru, a local pepper, the seven-course meal was a nod to his culinary acumen.

A chef who is following his heart to showcase the stunning array of Indian cuisine to the world, Prateek Sadhu has many aces up his very able sleeve. Although he says his decision to be a chef was “very unplanned,” Chef Prateek Sadhu has had a stellar run. After four years at Taj properties in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru, he went onto graduate with double gold medals from The Culinary Institute of America. Chef Prateek has worked at top restaurants around the world, before returning to start Masque in Mumbai, and NAAR, his ode to Indian mountain food, in Himachal Pradesh.

Chef Prateek Sadhu, founder, NAAR

Rewinding to the Past

I caught up with him recently over a phone call where he told Global Indian that he never really planned to be a Chef. Instead was always hoping to be a pilot – yes, you read that right. Born in Baramulla, he spent his formative years in Kashmir, but had to move to Delhi in the 1990s because of the political disturbances at that time. After doing some part of his schooling, his family moved back to Jammu where he did his high schooling. “I always wanted to be a pilot, but I guess life always has different plans for you, and hence I landed in a hotel school. This was very unplanned. I never thought of or ever intended to be a chef and it never crossed my mind. But I graduated from there and started my Chef life,” he reminisces.

Experiences Galore

Post graduation, his first job was at the Taj Group, where he worked for almost four years at their Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore properties. He then joined The Culinary Institute of America, where he graduated with double gold medals. This set the tone for this global journey, one that saw him work at well-known names like Alinea, The French Laundry, Bourbon Steak, Le Bernardin, and did a small internship with Rene Redzepi at Noma.

“I was always cooking European style food with some minor nuances of cooking styles. And for me working at those restaurants was not about cooking or learning a recipe but rather it was mostly about the thought process. So, if you are looking at the tomato, for instance, what are you thinking and why? The takeaway was about how we were arriving at the flavours and how ingredients were being used in different ways and forms,” Chef Prateek explains. “It was fantastic and fascinating at the same time. And growing in my career then, these were the things that really helped me to find my own voice and helped me find my mindset as far as food was concerned,” he says.

Chef Prateek Sadhu in the kitchens at NAAR

Coming Home

After a job at The Pierre Hotel, New York, he returned to India as sous chef at Le Cirque Signature in Bengaluru, incidentally where he showcased NAAR as a popup. In 2016 he opened Masque in Mumbai. “While I was in the school, I would be doing a lot of these internships as I was there. With this, the global restaurant culture was getting imbibed in my mind, even as I had the opportunity to work with some of the greatest chefs of my generation. So, I think there was always this seed in my mind that whenever I move back to India, I would open my own restaurant,” he says.

He was also clear that this restaurant would speak the soul of India in terms of ingredients, and food culture. After moving back to India in 2012, he started Masque in Mumbai with entrepreneur Aditi Dugar and ran it for close to seven years winning numerous accolades along the way including a spot in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2021.

Finding his Calling

In 2022 however, he parted ways with Masque and started travelling the length and breadth of the country extensively. “Honestly, just to understand my own country. It’s not that just because you are from India, you understand it’s food culture. For instance, curry leaves may be a commonplace ingredient for one person but in Kashmir it was alien to me when I was growing up. And that is a blessing for chefs as in our country, we have so many different food cultures and I started traveling and understanding what real Indian food means,” he says.

And this is how NAAR was born, with its soul in the mountains and nestled within Amaya, a boutique property in Himachal Pradesh’s Solan district. “I want to tell the story of India through a very different lens of what Indian mountain food means to all Indians,” he says. Admitting that this is arguably the best time to be in the Indian food and beverage industry, he says that he wanted a smaller restaurant as this was what was available. “The restaurant is a 16-seater space as these were old farming terraces that were abandoned and we took the space without disturbing the rest of the ecology.”

Food Files

NAAR creations

Apart from being sustainable, the restaurant showcases six menus through the year as a nod to the changing seasons. But Prateek Sadhu is clear that his focus is not just about ingredients but rather showcasing food culture. “This whole ingredient forward thing is hyped. Every restaurant is Indian driven. Who is not using ingredients? At the end of the day, we are trying to showcase where we are, the kind of ingredients that we work with and source locally,” he opines. His process involves understanding how locals use ingredients before interpreting them in his own way.

Quiz him on what food means to him and pat comes his reply. “I love to eat food, which is very familiar to me. It can be a flavour of spice or chili and or even umami for that matter. My food philosophy is very simple. It’s a very personal lens to the food. If you give me a potato to maybe cook in the way which is very familiar to you, you know the taste will be very familiar, but the way I arrive on those flavours might be very different.” Fortunately for him, the Himalayan belt is blessed with many different ingredients and different techniques. “I usually take those techniques and sort of cook with them. My vision to really put Indian food on the global map. The idea is to put Indian food on one of the biggest stages in the world and NAAR is just a small, humble attempt for that.” For someone who believes he can walk away from anything, he admits that doing the same thing becomes boring and he is always looking at doing something different. Indian food is having a moment and NAAR is certainly having a lot to do with it.

• Follow Chef Prateek Sadhu on LinkedIn and NAAR on Instagram.