'It's a lifetime opportunity to cook for the most high-profile table of India. It's a matter of honour for me.'
On a cold, 9°C-ish day after New Year, the reservations line rang at the NAAR restaurant.
Known for its exquisite mountain cuisine, NAAR, voted last year one of the best restaurants of India, is located 45 minutes from Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh. Snuggled high up in the foothills of the Himalayas, amidst pine forests, at 4,800 feet, near Darwa, it possesses breathtaking vistas of the not-so-faraway snowy peaks.
A member of the team took the slightly bewildering call and notified Chef Prateek Sadhu, the celebrated culinary pioneer behind this high-altitude alpine restaurant.
"We thought it was a prank call. They said 'We are calling from the President's house.' She said, 'Okay, great. Whose president? Which company?'... I called back. I figured this might be legit.'
It certainly was legit. Rashtrapati Bhavan was calling to ask Sadhu if he could put together a grand and memorable banquet -- "they said 'we want to put up the best show and we want to highlight what India and Indian food can be to the world'."
This was for the dinner when President Droupadi Murmu would host for Dr Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and António Costa, president of the European Council.
From January 2 onwards, Sadhu coordinated with New Delhi long distance. "We had a couple of video calls and they really wanted to move fast."
For the first time, says Sadhu, Rashtrapati Bhavan did a tasting menu as a State dinner and it was of Sadhu's rare and uniquely-crafted Himalayan food, that brings together the tastiest ingredients and preparations found all over the great Indian range from Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh.
Sadhu, of a Kashmiri background, who trained at the Institute of Hotel Management, Gurdaspur, Punjab, and worked in San Francisco, the Napa Valley, New York, Copenhagen, Bengaluru, Mumbai, made his name into an exciting brand when he started Masque, an upmarket 'ingredient-driven' eatery in Mumbai that quickly gained popularity, won him accolades and was several times on Travel+Leisure and Conde Nast's list of top restaurants.
In 2022 he left Mumbai to start NAAR (the word for fire in Kashmiri), now two, which is attached to the boutique hotel Amaya. The gastronomic adventures he embarked on at this dreamy location was probably even more truly after his own heart.
Furthermore, it seems the food he invests his heart in, is the stuff everybody's heart is longing for and NAAR brings fans from all over, determined folks seeking down his legendary cuisine at this 16-table eatery for the price of Rs 6,800 a head.
Foodies arrive from Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai, spending huge sums on air tickets and car hires to dine at Chef Sadhu's elegant Table With A View, tucking into signature trout entrees, lamb with fermented radish or Kashmiri morels served with rice and other exotic fare.
Sadhu was not able to figure out how President Murmu's secretariat got to hear about him. Nor does he remember if anyone connected to Rashtrapati Bhavan maybe ate at his restaurant.
"I don't know. At NAAR, usually every day there's some high-profile person, (and it's been like that) for the last two years. I asked them. They were like, you know, 'We've been talking about your restaurant in a lot of briefings', that was what I was told. 'We knew about the restaurant and we wanted to reach out to you. So, this was a perfect time'."
He agrees it was a bit short notice and a bunch of tricky logistics had to be worked out, but it was not impossibly difficult and was, after all, for India's First Residence.
Transporting all sorts of fragile ingredients, like wild herbs, Solan mushrooms and more, that arrived at the restaurant from his various hill farmer suppliers, from the Himalayas to Rashtrapati Bhavan, across about 320 km, had to be organised by NAAR to make sure everything arrived perfectly intact.
His brief from the President's team was fairly simple. "The entire thing was (to be) vegetarian -- that was number one. And the spice levels were to be restrained."
Cooking a vegetarian meal was "not at all" tough, he recalls, because India knows how to cook the most outstanding vegetarian food in the world. What had to be cracked was their main mandate -- putting up "the best show".
"It was a very different format. Usually, the State banquet will always have thalis and everything. This year for the first time, Rashtrapati Bhavan had a state dinner with a tasting menu which was focused on Himalayan food.
"So, for them also there were a lot of things which were getting done for the first time and we had to do couple of tastings. It was more about spice levels than other things."
How did Sadhu and the NAAR crew decide on what they eventually served? "The idea was to highlight Himalayan food. We carefully chose dishes from different belts, which had a stronger story, which highlights India, which highlights the culture of India, which highlights the produce of the mountains, which also highlights the technique from the mountains."
"We put a lot of thought into the menu and the small bites which were served before also. Everything was very thought through. Whatever was served had a very strong cultural significance.
"We were very nervous. I was very nervous. I've cooked in like the best kitchens of the world, but you know, this was little nerve-wracking for sure."
The Rashtrapati Bhavan's posse of chefs were on hand to assist them. "The entire team was really helpful, including the chefs. Everybody was also very inquisitive about the way we do things. But at the end of the day, it was fully in collaboration with Rashtrapati Bhavan what we did and the team was brilliant."
Sadhu stayed behind the scenes coordinating every last perfect detail. Protocol dictated that they didn't have access to the banquet. "It's one of the most high-profile and heavily-guarded tables and we couldn't go inside at all when they were dining. Then we were called and we met the chief guests from the European Union, the President, the prime minister. We met everyone."
The guests were very appreciative of the food, "The only feedback we got was that everything was amazing. People were blown away and were in the dining room clicking pictures. That says a lot about the food served."
That it went off so smoothly was a complete relief for Sadhu. "I was really, really relieved. Big smile on my face. I think I drank a litre of water after it was all over. I was just like dehydrated."
"I was in awe of everything entering Rashtrapati Bhavan, cooking there. It's not that you get to see Rashtrapati Bhavan on a daily basis. and see it internally, the functioning of it, how they operate, how the kitchens operate. It's a lifetime opportunity to cook for the most high-profile table of India. It's a matter of honour for me, honestly."
Sadhu is back at NAAR doing what he does best on a daily basis -- dabbling and innovating with mountain flavours to get together the best samples of Himalayan forward cuisine. "If I'm cooking for somebody, be it at the restaurant or (elsewhere), it's always about time and place and the mood.
"Himalayan forward cuisine means we are really highlighting the terre of the Himalayas. The Himalayas are very diverse. It's huge. It starts from Kashmir (and goes) to Arunachal Pradesh, and there's Ladakh and we are trying to put a context to what the cuisine can be of the belt. There's no definition for it, honestly. Just come and experience it now. You'll understand what we are trying to do."
He says that many of his dishes are a hat tip to his Kashmiri roots and his mom's Kashmiri cooking, "My mom cooks some fabulous Kashmiri food. She's the best in the family. She just cooks brilliant food, that's all. I love the Yakni she makes and I've done many versions of it at various restaurants where I've cooked.
"And, of course, travelling through Kashmir, eating at many houses, I've picked up things. I enjoy cooking Kashmiri food, but maybe it's not a direct recipe, it's an idea, it's a technique that I'll always incorporate from Kashmir, because at the end of the day I'm very proud of where I come from and always like to embrace my roots.";
NAAR and hosting folks eager to try his farm-to-table food has been immensely rewarding. "Today people are travelling here from every nook and corner of India -- travelling from Chennai, travelling from Bangalore, travelling from Hyderabad. When you see all this, that people are taking a flight and then they are driving for two-and-a-half hours on treacherous roads just to dine here. Those moments are special for me. This is something, which in my experience of cooking in India, I have never heard of. That speaks a lot."
As you speak to him over the phone you can hear a dog barking in the background and even over the telephone wires one imagines one can hear the Sound of Silence. What has it been like getting away from the Big City Life and living in remote Himachal? "I'll tell you one sentence: I'm having the best time of my life."
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