editorial

Words by Jasreen Mayal Khanna Photographs by Pankaj Anand April 18, 2024
A bold new restaurant explores the flavors and food cultures of India’s mountainous north.
<figure id="attachment_137758" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-137758" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-137758 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_8475.jpg" alt="Chef Prateek Sadhu outside Naar; grilled skewers of marinated chicken heart and liver." width="1200" height="894" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-137758" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Chef Prateek Sadhu outside Naar; grilled skewers of marinated chicken heart and liver.</figcaption></figure>
High in the foothills of Himachal Pradesh, I stand on a terraced hillside cloaked in wild grasses and pine trees. The only sound is birdsong and the whisper of the cool mountain breeze through the trees. From this perch at 1,460 meters above sea level, the views stretch east across a broad valley framed by the distant peaks of the Western Himalayas. I’m at Amaya, a sustainable boutique hotel near the tiny village of Darwa, and I can’t remember the last time I visited such an utterly peaceful setting. Nor, for that matter, can I think of a better spot for what is being hailed as India’s most exciting new destination restaurant.
Naar, as it is called — the name means “fire” in Kashmiri — is the brainchild of Prateek Sadhu, a Kashmir-born chef who up until a couple of years ago helmed the hottest table in Mumbai, Masque. With its 2016 debut inside a former textile mill, Masque quickly made a name for itself thanks to avant-garde tasting menus that showcased Sadhu’s passion for foraged wild ingredients like Ladakhi sea buckthorn. A string of accolades followed. Then, at the height of the restaurant’s popularity, Sadhu and Masque parted company, leaving people wondering where his next culinary journey would take him. Last year, we found out.
“I knew that whatever I did next had to have very strong meaning and purpose,” Sadhu tells me when we meet at Naar, which occupies its own pine-studded patch at the edge of Amaya’s eight-hectare grounds. “It was while I was doing a pop-up in Leh [in Ladakh] in 2022 that I first met Deepak Gupta, the owner of Amaya, who flew over just to eat my food. He told me about his new resort and I visited for a small break. I had no plans to open a restaurant then, but after that first visit, I just kept coming back because I fell in love with this place.”
It’s easy to see why. Tucked into a private forest, Amaya fully embraces its sylvan setting. Mumbai-based architect Bijoy Jain designed its clutch of copper-roofed villas and chalets — there are just 15 rooms in all — to complement the landscape, utilizing local building materials like brick, stone, and lime plaster. The stylishly minimal interiors channel a Nordic/Japanese aesthetic. Further along the ridge is a lovely teardrop-shaped swimming pool and the hotel’s own farm-to-table restaurant. After a decadent dinner of pasta, Assamese-style smoked pork with black sesame sauce, and apple pie the previous evening, I fell asleep in my cozy bed (grateful for its electric blanket) watching for shooting stars through the open window.
<figure id="attachment_137910" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-137910" style="width: 900px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-137910 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_6342-1.jpg" alt="A photo of a Kashmiri morel hangs in the lounge at Naar." width="900" height="1216" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_6342-1.jpg 900w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_6342-1-222x300.jpg 222w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_6342-1-758x1024.jpg 758w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_6342-1-768x1038.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-137910" class="wp-caption-text">A photo of a Kashmiri morel hangs in the lounge at Naar.</figcaption></figure>
“Moving from Mumbai to the mountains has been a homecoming,” Sadhu says as we pet Imli, the mountain dog adopted by Naar’s team. “I was born in the Himalayas and they are so giant that they make me feel really grounded. I’m just a dot in front of them.” Still, the prospect of opening a high-end restaurant in such a remote location — the nearest city is Chandigarh, a two-and-a-half-hour drive away — wasn’t without risks.
“I worried about who was going to come all the way here to eat,” the 37-year-old chef recalls. “But in the end, I just said to myself: You have your knees and a straight back now, who knows what’s going to happen in 10 years? And when I called my family and partners to tell them that I wanted to open a restaurant in Himachal, they all said, ‘Go ahead, we are with you.’” My visit comes just a week after Naar’s late-November opening.
That evening, I walk back to the restaurant from my room at Amaya. Set at the end of a winding forest path, Naar comprises two salmon-pink limestone cottages, one of which is a lounge where patrons commence their three-hour dining experience with cocktails and canapés.
“Our ethos is about celebrating the Himalayas,” Sadhu says when he brings me a thick Kashmiri shawl to stave off the chill of the lounge’s outdoor terrace. “And it is really important that we are situated in the mountains, not in Mumbai or New Delhi but in Himachal, to tell the story of this region.”
The chef and his team have traveled all over the Indian Himalayas to research local food cultures, from Arunachal Pradesh in the northeast through Himachal Pradesh and up into Kashmir and Ladakh. They discovered commonalities such as nose-to-tail cooking and preservation methods such as fermentation, pickling, and drying, as well as wood-fire cooking. Accordingly, Sadhu operates a zero-waste kitchen backed by Amaya’s horticulturist-run farm and a food lab where they are constantly experimenting with Himalayan flavors. And true to its name, 90 percent of the dishes served at Naar are cooked over a wood fire.
After a divine-smelling Gondhoraj lemon gimlet and a sesame bun stuffed with yak cheese (this is Sadhu’s take on askalu, a village snack that he ate on his very first visit to Himachal Pradesh), I stroll up to the simply furnished dining room to continue the 15-course tasting menu, which will change with the seasons.
<figure id="attachment_137757" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-137757" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-137757 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_6301.jpg" alt="Naar’s 16-seat dining room is unassuming yet sophisticated; flaking smoked trout for the menu’s three-part “trout flight” course." width="1200" height="894" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-137757" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Naar’s 16-seat dining room is unassuming yet sophisticated; flaking smoked trout for the menu’s three-part “trout flight” course.</figcaption></figure>
First comes delicate slices of salted smoked lamb on a crisp bichubutti (stinging nettle) leaf; you can see, taste, and smell the mountains in every bite. This is followed by morsels of chicken heart and liver that have been marinated in pickled chili and mustard and grilled on pine stems. Then there’s a “trout flight,” which sees the fish served three ways: as smoked flakes served on patande (a sweet Himachali pancake) with cured fish sauce and apple-peel butter; poached in chili and trout fat; and as a flavorsome broth made from trimmings. It’s gutsy, original, and delicious — a celebration of a quintessentially Himalayan fish from head to tail.
There are many more highlights to come — brined pork accompanied by bamboo shoot pickles and hemp-seed chutney; chutagi (a Ladakhi buckwheat pasta) with yak cheese “fondue” — but the pièce de résistance is lamb smoked on juniper and served with meaty lion’s mane mushroom and a Kashmiri yakhni (yogurt) sauce. Nor does dessert fail to impress. A sweet homage to the surrounding woodland, it’s called Pine Pine Pine: pine-nut ice cream drizzled with pine salt and fermented pine syrup, presented alongside a crunchy pastry filled with Himalayan lemon cream. This is destination dining unlike anything India has seen before, at least not at this level of purity and intention.
“We’ve assembled a wonderful team and they’re all here because they want to make a difference,” Sadhu tells me the next day. Earlier that morning, he met with his staff for their first briefing before everyone dispersed to complete their tasks. Some are now gathering produce from the farm; others are prepping the evening’s mise en place. Sadhu himself has a meeting lined up with his firewood vendor. Later, they’ll all regroup to discuss who’s coming to dinner — guests are flying in from Mumbai and Bangalore — and pluck flowers for garnishes right before the restaurant opens at 6:30 p.m.
“Our goal is to put India on the global map of dining experiences,” Sadhu says. It’s a lofty ambition. But then, here at this remarkable venture high in the Himalayan foothills, anything seems possible.
<figure id="attachment_137909" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-137909" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-137909 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_6316.jpg" alt="A stone path connects Naar’s lounge and dining room." width="1200" height="900" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_6316.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_6316-300x225.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_6316-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_6316-768x576.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-137909" class="wp-caption-text">A stone path connects Naar’s lounge and dining room.</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Head to the Hills</h2>
Seasonal tasting menus at <a href="https://restaurantnaar.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Naar</a>, which is now open for lunch as well as dinner, are priced at about US$78 for a 15-course tasting menu, alcohol not included. Full-board room rates at <a href="https://www.theamayalife.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amaya</a> begin at US$360.
This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://www.destinasian.com/magazine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">March/May 2024</a> print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“At Home in the Himalayas”).

A stone path connects Naar’s lounge and dining room.

Naar Puts the Himalayas on Your Plate