On Tuesday, chef Prateek Sadhu and his staff from NAAR led by chef Kamlesh Negi cooked a state dinner at Rashtrapati Bhavan, marking a uncommon second when a standalone restaurant was invited to curate and execute a multi-course meal at India’s most elite diplomatic desk. The dinner was served to the President of India, the Prime Minister, members of the cupboard, diplomats, and the chief visitor of the Republic Day celebrations (the President of European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and the President of the European Council, António Costa) and adopted a tasting-menu-style development rooted totally in Himalayan meals cultures.
The menu
Traditionally, Rashtrapati Bhavan menus have adopted a well-known format designed to showcase India’s culinary range via a broad, pan-Indian unfold, soups, regional appetisers, gravies, breads, rice, and desserts served as a complete nationwide snapshot. In latest years, Himalayan components resembling gucchi mushrooms and jhol momos have appeared extra incessantly on these menus, signalling a rising concentrate on the area. NAAR’s dinner took that concept additional, inserting a single panorama and culinary philosophy at the centre of the meal. “They told us they wanted to change the format,” Sadhu says. “They wanted to explore how we curate experiences and how we tell stories through food.”
The President’s workplace expressed curiosity in shifting how state dinners are structured. That philosophy formed each course served on Tuesday. The menu opened with small plates designed to set context, together with jakhiya aloo paired with inexperienced tomato chutney, and a jhangora millet kheer completed with meah loon and white chocolate. A soup course adopted: sunderkala thichoni from Munsiyari, Uttarakhand, constructed round buckwheat noodles, roasted tomato, fermented greens, and a dried vegetable chutney, accompanied by yak cheese custard, bhaang mathri, and bichhu buti patta glazed with Himalayan mustard and lauki.
The pre-main centred on pumpkin and sinki, impressed by fermented radish and slow-cooked in buttermilk, served with Kashmiri katlam bread and coriander butter. The foremost course introduced collectively Kashmiri gucchi and Solan mushrooms with poppy seeds, burnt tomato sauce, pine nut salad, and Himachali swarnu rice, alongside a trio of chutneys that includes rai leaf, Doon chetin made with Kashmiri walnut, roasted tomato, and akhuni. Desserts leaned into regional grains and produce: a Himalayan ragi and Kashmiri apple cake completed with timru and seabuckthorn cream, adopted by a espresso custard made with beans from Dima Hasao, Assam, paired with dates and uncooked cacao. The meal closed with Himalayan honey-dressed persimmon and jambhiri lemon.
The backstory
The invitation, Sadhu says, arrived with out warning. “I genuinely thought it was a prank call,” he recollects. “Then they asked if we could get on a video call, and that the secretary to the President would also be joining. That’s when I realised this was serious.” What adopted was an in depth approval course of involving a number of tastings. “It’s a layered system,” Sadhu explains. “First the secretary tasted everything. Once that was approved, the President herself tasted all the courses. Only then did we get the go ahead.””
The response
For one night time at Rashtrapati Bhavan, that philosophy formed India’s state desk. For Sadhu, the response inside Rashtrapati Bhavan underscored the affect of the second. “We had principal secretaries from the Prime Minister’s Office and the President’s office come up to us and say how remarkable the meal was,” he says. “The chief guest even remarked that they didn’t realise Indian food could be presented with this kind of beauty. What stood out most was seeing people take photographs of the food before eating, which is unusual for a state dinner setting.”