Prateek Sadhu

No Fuss, No Frills

Masque is spearheading the exalted experience when dining out in Bombay, and it's got a long way to go, says owner-chef, Prateek Sadhu. Step in and treat your senses to the gastronomic creations of the artists at Masque, with The Masque Lab as its newest invention to savour

Text & Photographs: Farzana Contractor

It is purely coincidental that UpperCrust should choose to put on its cover, the first after three quarters of a year gone in a vacuum, an owner-chef of a restaurant called Masque! Mask, the one word on everyone's lips these horrid COVID days!!

Well, Prateek Sadhu was selected for one simple reason. He deserved to be on our cover! A chef on a mission, Prateek has gone way past creating ripples, and is now truly living his dream of creating food memories for his staunch patrons.

As a new Instagrammer and with so much time on hand this past year, I had been following a few interesting chefs, one among who was Prateek Sadhu. I noticed young Prateek working pretty hard all through the tough pandemic months. First from home and then, when the lockdown was relaxed, from The Masque Lab, which he had launched in February, just before the virus made its appearance. Unfortunately, it was a case of bad timing. But never mind, soon this pandemic will be a thing of the past. As it already seems to be at The Masque Lab where eager beavers, the die-hard foodies have already started to make bookings, dine at, reclaim their lives! This interesting new space is situated just around the corner from Prateek's unique restaurant Masque which he had opened in 2015.

I came to Bombay from Panchgani, where I had been locked down for eight months, only to shoot and interview Chef Prateek, and I was so glad I did.

Prateek has such an effervescence about him. He seems to dispel gloom with his enthusiasm for life and sincere involvement with food.

So, let's get on with his story.

Prateek Sadhu is a Kashmiri Pandit who grew up in three cities; Srinagar, Jammu and Delhi. His heart as a child and teenager was only set on one career; that of a pilot. Not just a pilot, an Indian Air Force pilot! To which end he even appeared for the NDA (National Defence Academy) examinations. But as life happened, he landed up in Gurdaspur studying Hotel Management. And went on to work at the mother of all 5-star hotels, The Taj Mahal Palace. This was where he got his basic training. Indeed a good thing. He worked at Taj Mansingh in Delhi and Taj President in Bombay from 2005 until 2008 when he decided to go for further studies in his field to Culinary Institute of America in New York. CIA must surely have been a turning point not just in the learning curve, but in confidence-building and exposure on an international level. Life was never going to be the same for this young and brimming-with-life chef who then went on to work with the likes of Thomas Keller, doing stints at Keller's Per Se and subsequently other restaurants of stature such as Michael Mina's Washington-based Bourbon Steak and René Redzepi's Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Prateek has been waiting in the wings, so let's give him a chance to speak up, while I relish the most amazing Avocado and Burrata sandwich that he made for me. "Ah, Noma! This restaurant impressed me so much. It opened my eyes, changed my outlook. Singularly, Noma has put Copenhagen on the world culinary map. This made me start to question Indian food concepts and our own attitude to our own cuisine. Noma touched a chord in me which was already prevalent. Noma is what made me want to return home to India and set a new ball rolling. To be honest, The Lab concept was in my mind even before I opened Masque."

And so, chucking the new job he had just signed up for at Amber – an Indian cuisine restaurant in San Francisco. Prateek paying heed to his parents' advice decided to come back home to start a food "venture'.
But sensible young man that he is, he stopped en route to Delhi in Paris where he spent one full month doing nothing more than eating great food, drinking in the sights and imbibing the Parisian way of life. Perfect for a chef on the go. These would go on to become  experiences that would stay with him for life!

Once back, and now it's Sep 2012, Prateek is spending some quality time with his family in Srinagar when he gets a call from a friend regarding an opening at The Leela Palace Udaipur. In two minds about working in Rajasthan, an unsure Prateek took up the Asst. GM, Mr Grant's offer to just visit the hotel, see for himself and then decide. "One look is all it took, I was sold. The Leela Udaipur is such a beautiful property. Such freedom to work in such a democratic atmosphere. Such patronage from esteemed guests from all over the world. Such a pleasure working at The Leela Udaipur for two years," reminiscences Prateek.

From Udaipur, Prateek was posted at The Leela Palace Bengaluru where he launched Le Cirque after which it was time to tie the knot. He got married in Dec 2014 to Aashina Kaul, a movie marketing executive.
It was soon after this that he chanced meeting Aditi Dugar, a home caterer, and they got talking food, restaurants, what was needed in Bombay. One thing led to another and soon they were discussing an unusual restaurant concept and finalising plans to open Masque. But not before Prateek had finished researching Indian ingredients, travelling north, south, east and west to every interesting food corner of the country and returning satisfied that he was now ready to embark on his mission. "It was one year of intense research. I went south to Pondicherry and north to Uttarakhand in search of unusual ingredients. Of course, I swept minutely my favourite areas in Kashmir and the Himalayan belt. Edible cactus, quite rewarding..." says Prateek.

But Prateek knew right at the onset that changing perceptions is not an easy task. Trying anything new is tough. And that the first steps are the crucial ones, just as the first few miles are for a marathon runner. Says Prateek, very candidly, "Doing what I was, was certainly risky. A fixed-menu restaurant where you did not know what was being served to you until you came to the restaurant was not everybody's cup of tea. Add to that the extremely unusual ingredients I was using... There were times in the first few months of opening Masque where noticing an unsatisfied customer did give rise to self doubt. But then again there was that strong inner voice which urged me forward... Believe me the first two years were rather difficult. But I knew where I was going, where I wanted to be. These were baby steps and I wanted to evolve. If a chef doesn't do that, it's finito for him." Thankfully, Prateek's journey so far has been fulfilling and I can endorse, he has evolved so much from the first time I saw him rustling up fancy fare on the occasion of food connoisseur, Kishore Chhabria's birthday, on the astounding terrace of Kishore's home at Malabar Hill in Bombay.

Going forward, I enquire, "Why the name Masque?" "Masque from masquerade... because I wanted my customers to feel like they had come to an opera. Come to see a performance, where the show starts at 7.00 pm, where the artists, my chefs and servers would each play their part. It had to be a food show, an exalted experience." A concept that has succeeded when you see how the young servers emerge from behind a tall velvet curtain on one side of the entrance to the kitchen, bearing food in assorted plates and platters and bowls in varying colours in all shapes and sizes made from all manner of serving material; glass, pottery, crystal, wood, metal, sea shells and what have you.  Where you are served each of your six or 10 course-dinners by different servers, one more endearing and accomplished than the other. Where your attention is always at peak, thanks to their engaging explanations, where monotony takes a back seat due to all the nuanced learning that goes on. Where you are taken to the kitchen itself, to be served one of the set courses by Prateek himself, like being taken to the green room, where you could shake hands with the cast, show appreciation or ask your curious questions...
Chef Prateek Sadhu feels in the four years that Masque has been "performing', they have just scratched the surface, "Honestly, it will take generations for us to understand nuances of the innumerable Indian ingredients that we have, it's that vast a subject. The narrative on Indian food is certainly changing. I feel on a scale of 10, I am just at level one!"

At a symposium that Prateek was once at, he merely unrolled a map of India and pointing to the 29 different states, began, "Within its boundary, India has cuisines of 29 different countries! That's right, each of its 29 states has its own unique food, culture and tradition..."

With Prateek at the helm, at The Masque Lab where the open kitchen takes centrestage, you eat with your nose first; flavour is of paramount importance to this chef. "Flavour, the aroma of food should first get you going and then when you put that first morsel in your mouth, the taste! The feeling should touch something inside you. Should remind you of something. The biggest compliment I get is when a diner tells me he or she remembered a taste from childhood!" says Prateek. Recreating memories can be a big high.

Post COVID, and when I am back in Bombay (meaning I am again in Panchgani now), I will be happy to go to The Masque Lab just to create new memories. I like its refined and subtle atmosphere, muted colours, no fuss, no frills, no deviating from the main cause; good food.

The iron spiral stairway, its dominating feature, gives a mystery feel, where does it go?  Well, it leads to the tiny lab, where they experiment, save and store new flavours and tastes in beautiful glass jars for future use, it is also where the mixologist conjures and serves his drinks from the tiny cabana. I drink a lot of wine with my nose and I am happy to know they serve you wine, any wine, the best, the most expensive even, by the glass, thanks to the Coravin which allows this facility. The idea of not being stuck with one bottle, one grape, grabs me. So, if you spot me there, nose buried in my wine goblet, you know I am truly having a savouring time, creating divine memories!!

Smoked Mackerel, Green Apple and Fennel Chutney

Prateek and his team hard at work at Masque Lab

Dark Chocolate, Gondhoraj Lime Gelato, Apple Chips