The ladle of the exile
India has few destination restaurants. Naar, a cozy, 16-cover one-of-a-kind restaurant in a tiny village near Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh, is one. The mountains cast a spell on Kashmir-born maverick chef and restaurateur Prateek Sadhu, who, after working with the world’s best Michelin-starred chefs in Europe, and establishing his award-winning restaurant in Mumbai, gave up the allure of the big city, to set up Naar, It recently made it to TIME magazine’s 100 greatest places to visit in 2024.
Born in Baramullah in Kashmir, Sadhu is from an exiled Kashmir Pandit family and grew up on a farm. “In the early 90s, unfortunately our entire community was forced to leave. We were displaced, while fleeing from targeted genocide. We lived for months in refugee camps in Jammu,” he recalls. The deprivation nudged the formation of his earliest memories of food. “Food became central. Through the stories we were told when we were sitting for dinner, my mother was trying to make us connect to our roots,” he says.
At a recent pop-up at Indian Accent, New Delhi, with Chef Manish Mehrotra, Sadhu served up a 10-course meal. Dishes like the Masala carrod ‘kadhi’ with Kashmiri chutney add zest to the palate. “We wanted to serve a kadhi which is popular in Himachal Pradesh, and highlight simple, unfancy ingredients, like carrots,” says the chef, who dried and rehydrated the carrots in carrot juice, which is then mixed with yogurt. His Pahadi pork with bakarkhani and acidic butter goes back to the upper reaches of Uttarakhand or Arunachal Pradesh. “The idea was to use the same techniques and flavours. We used mountain pepper sauce, which is similar to Szechuan pepper,” he says.
His desire was to be a commercial pilot. Instead he joined the Institute of Hotel Management in Delhi, and moved to the Taj Group of Hotels. He went to study at the Culinary Institute of America. He worked in legendary Michelin-star restaurants such as Noma and The French Laundry, working with greats Thomas Keller, René Redzepi and Grant Achatz. “I saw how those chefs championed their region, which is what I wish to do with Naar,” says the 38-year-old Sadhu.
After running the highly successful, award-winning Masque in Mumbai, he decided to take a plunge into the unknown. “They say, when it’s the scariest time to jump, that is the exact time to take the leap. I wasn’t sure if India was ready for a destination restaurant,” he says. He remembers when his reservation lines opened in the autumn of last year. “My system nearly crashed,” he says. Today, a couple of weeks advance booking is needed as diners fly down from Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and Delhi.
The menu changes six times a year, as per the season. The dishes come from all over the Himalayan belt. The current specials are Olu Churme, a Kashmiri snack of crispy potatoes, akin to French fries, and Ladakhi sausages in a Sinki broth. The lamb sausages are made in the Naar kitchen, like the gyuma blood sausages of Ladakh.
His advice to novices? “Just shut up, and cook!”