'I guess with any chef, there's always an evolution. At one point in my life, I wanted five things on the plate. That was a phase. Slowly and steadily, the more I travel, the more I know about my own country and the more time I spent at the stove and things become clearer," says chef Prateek Sadhu.
"You evolve as a chef. That's a good thing. What I was doing in 2018/19 or even in 2017 was great at that point of time. But in 2022, when I moved on from Mumbai, the idea was to run a restaurant which has a very strong meaning and purpose for me."
Enter Naar, India's first fine-dining destination co-founded by chef Sadhu, which opened in November 2023 and celebrates the place, people and ingredients of its location.
"At this point of time in life, I want to champion what mountain food in India means to Indians and then to the world. India is like a continent in itself, but when we talk about Indian food, we're still talking about only a few narratives. We're not deep diving into a lot of different cultures. Naar, for me, is all about homecoming," explains the chef.
Sadhu, who was born in Kashmir, fled the state with his family due to political unrest and grew up in Delhi. Prior to Naar, chef Sadhu helmed the kitchen at Masque in Mumbai. Translating to fire in Kashmiri, Naar is a reference to chef Sadhu's passion and mission to put a spotlight on the world's highest mountain range.
"I'm from the mountains, so I want to tell this story. At Masque, I was known to go on foraging trips to Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh or Ladakh. I was always on the hunt for rare ingredients. That phase was very sort of pan-India and things from either the South or North. Now, I'm here in this part of the world where the focus is a lot around the entire Himalayan belt. While, it may sound small, it ranges from North to Northeast of India. So, we have flavours from Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh. Look at the entire geography that I have. It's like a full-fledged country," says chef Sadhu.
The exterior of Naar.
The menu at Naar is described as "Himalayan-forward cuisine" and spans six unique seasons -- winter, spring, summer, monsoon, autumn and early winter. "At Naar, everything we do is informed by the fluidity of the seasons. As nature changes outside our windows, so do our plates to rightfully represent the six seasons of the Himalayas. You'll taste the promise of sunshine in a hisalu [golden Himalayan raspberry] in spring, the ripening of a hot summer in a tart cherry, luscious peaches during the monsoon, the onset of autumn colours in pine syrup and the crisp winter air with lip-smacking lime.
"Fire plays a very important role in what we do at Naar and our access to ingredients is phenomenal," says chef Sadhu. "Though logistically it can be a bit of a challenge. It's been some 10-12 years since I've been back in India [the chef went to the Culinary Institute of America, worked at Per Se in New York and Noma in Copenhagen], but this phase of my culinary adventure is the most exciting, simply because I'm working with the best ingredients possible.
"Naar is in the trout belt of India, in the mushroom capital of India and in the fruit bowl of India. When I'm getting a peach, I'm getting the best peach possible. But at the same time, it's logistically a nightmare to even get that perfect peach. I know the people who are growing the best fruits but getting them to me is a challenge, though now we have figured out logistics.
Naar's interior. Naar
"The point that I'm trying to make is that if I'm getting the best peach, I'll put that on the plate. The only thing that is different from what I was doing in an urban city is the intervention. I don't disturb the ingredients too much. I let the ingredients really speak and the kind of flavours and ingredients that I'm working with now, I don't think I had access to all those before.
"When you're working in an urban city and running a restaurant, you can tell whatever story you want, but at the end of the day, you are really working with what is available in the markets. That's brutally honest. And even if you are getting those ingredients, maybe you'll run it for two or three days or a few weeks. The biggest difference is that we work with ingredients for a longer time. We are developing lot of flavours, which I feel are mountain flavours and which are as Indian as any other flavour."
Naar, in its essence, is writing a very different chapter for Indian food.
Monkey fruit with trout belly and amla juice. Naar
"The alphabets are same. We're just trying to make new words. Our inspiration is still the foundation of what people cook at home and the flavours they have. We understand those flavours though the way we arrive at the final dish on the plate is different," says the chef.
"Serendipity plays a very important role and I'm a firm believer. I'm also a firm believer of whatever happens in your life, in hindsight, there's always a plan. The dream was always to open a restaurant in the mountains, but I never had the courage. Between me and my partners, we decided to finally take the plunge.
"I was at a point in my life where my mindset was, 'It's okay if I fail, I have nothing to lose. I can still go to a city and cook, but if I don't do this now, I don't think there'll be any better time to do it'. A lot of other factors also played important roles, but the mind is the biggest culprit. If you have decided something, there's nobody who can stop you, but the first hassle is always to convince yourself."
The chef says one of his biggest learning curves was learning to jump without a parachute and build one along the way.
Ragi (finger millet) cake topped with grilled pineapple served with brown butter crumb and a scoop of burnt milk ice cream. Naar
"The one thing I'm very grateful for, when we opened, was that the entire industry in India and all over the world, rallied behind us. Sometimes one message can make your day and it can instil that confidence," says chef Sadhu.
"This is the most exciting time for Indian F&B. What was happening in Spain, in the late 80s, early 90s, 2000s; the kind of restaurants Spain had that changed the way we look at cooking… it was a moment. It was a Renaissance period. That period moved to the Nordics in early 2000s and the Noma's of the world came and taught us so much. I feel that wave then moved to South America. I feel like we are on the onset of that Renaissance period. There's a certain wave happening in India, as well, and it's here to stay. Given the economics of India, given everything, we are at a cusp of something, which is very exciting.
"A restaurant like Naar works in this environment where we have diners from Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, which cities that aren't really that close to us. Each month, we will have at least one table from Bengaluru. This is given the fact that we aren't really that easy to get to. We are a good 45 minutes from Kasauli and the closest international airport to us is Chandigarh, which is almost three hours away. Five years ago, it wouldn't have worked."
Naar is a restaurant where every day presents a different challenge and new learning paths.
"We just finished a year, but the only vision and dream is to put India on the global map. For the last 10 years, I've been talking about Nordic food. Now, people are talking about South American food. I know India is exciting, but we need more restaurants, which puts India on the leading map of the world in gastronomy," says chef Sadhu.
Barbecued meat skewers, or tujj. Naar
"We want to evolve. We want to talk more about new Indian food. Naar is here to stay. We want to document our journey and whether we are here or not, we want to create a blueprint for the future. It can be ingredients, or it can just be a book on ingredients or a book on Naar. We're still debating about what is the best way possible.
"At the end of the day, it's not about making money. It's about leaving a legacy. We want to tell the real mountain story, about ingredients, about people, about flavours. And there's so much that we are learning every single day and Kamlesh [R&D chef, Kamlesh Negi] has been instrumental in driving this for us."
Though the book may be just part of the bigger scheme of things in Darwa, where Naar is located. The idea, once Naar is established, is to build a "really cool research centre". "I want to go further up North. We want to research ingredients, develop recipes and the basis of lots of things. We want the research centre to feed Naar and through the centre we can do books. There's so many things we can do, it's an endless, endless world."
The menu at Naar changes completely around four times a year, but in-between those times, dishes change or just one component of the dish changes.
"That's the exciting part of it. You're always in research mode. The first year of Naar was all about discovering if a restaurant like it would work. For the last six months, we've been going crazy. From a team of eight, we are now a team of 25, running a 16-seater restaurant," explains the chef.
The beverage menu at Naar also pays homage to its surroundings with its bar manager Yumit Kumar also being from the mountains.
"The same philosophy resonates in our beverage menu, too. As a restaurant, there's a certain philosophy that is followed everywhere, be it the cocktail programme or the food programme. It has to complement each other. We are lucky that Yumit is very well experienced, has worked at great places, is from the region, understands the sensibility, seasons and the language that we are trying to develop," explains chef Sadhu.
Chocolate buckwheat cake with red rice ice cream, pickled cherry jam and cherry juice. Naar
Naar offers a cocktail and wine pairing and will soon work on a non-alcoholic pairing. "I want to see what can be done with the ingredients and learn how we can develop different flavours. But that is me, personally. I'm never content.
"The truth is that the mountains have always been calling. It's only now that I've answered the call. My focus is becoming sharper day-by-day and I'm cooking the food I've always wanted to cook and wanted to eat, every single day. I'm cooking from the heart. I don't know where we'll end up next, but you know, I want to be evolving," says the chef.
