editorial

Words by Charukesi Ramadurai 
July 20, 2026
Tucked in the wilds of eastern Maharashtra, Amninder Sandhu’s open-fire degustation restaurant Palaash delivers a dining experience that’s well worth the journey.
<figure id="attachment_160760" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-160760" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-160760" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Marigolds-in-the-Garden-and-Chef-Amninder-Sandhu-Picking-Ingredients.jpeg" alt="Marigolds in the kitchen garden at Palaash; Chef Amninder Sandhu harvesting ingredients." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Marigolds-in-the-Garden-and-Chef-Amninder-Sandhu-Picking-Ingredients.jpeg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Marigolds-in-the-Garden-and-Chef-Amninder-Sandhu-Picking-Ingredients-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Marigolds-in-the-Garden-and-Chef-Amninder-Sandhu-Picking-Ingredients-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Marigolds-in-the-Garden-and-Chef-Amninder-Sandhu-Picking-Ingredients-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-160760" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Marigolds in the kitchen garden at Palaash; Chef Amninder Sandhu. (All photos courtesy of Tipai)</figcaption></figure>
The sun has just set in a glorious blaze of pinks and oranges when the buggy deposits me at the edge of a teak grove, the trees’ massive leaves crisp and papery in the post-monsoon heat. I follow a path through the darkening woods before emerging into a clearing aglow with soft candles and lanterns, where half a dozen tables have been set for dinner.
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The teak has given way to a stand of palaash, the fiery-flowered “flame of the forest” tree that lends this intimate alfresco restaurant its name. The setting evokes one of those secret, magical midnight picnics from my childhood storybook—except this is real, as the clank of utensils and the low whisper of voices from the open kitchen attest.
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“Welcome to Palaash,” Komal’s cheery voice pulls me from my reverie. She offers a tiny white globe without explanation; popping it into my mouth, I’m met with a burst of tangy santra orange, mellowed by the sweetness of its white-chocolate coating. The vivid flavors of the amuse bouche set the tone for the evening’s meal: local with a global touch.
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With an award-winning chef at the helm and a seven-course degustation menu every night, Palaash would not feel out of place in a glitzy Mumbai mall or a luxury hotel in New Delhi. And yet here we are, at a wildlife lodge on the fringe of an obscure tiger reserve in the central Indian state of Maharashtra, a three-hour drive from the nearest airport.
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Originally from Assam, Amninder Sandhu garnered national attention nearly a decade ago as the head chef of Arth in Mumbai, where she brought a contemporary lens to regional Indian dishes cooked over open fire. A few years after Arth’s pandemic-induced closure, she was drawn to Tipai following a meeting with Keyur Joshi, founder of <a href="https://www.wildlifeluxuries.com/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wildlife Luxuries India</a>, the lodge’s parent company. “With a city setup, your scope for open-fire cooking is extremely limited,” Sandhu says. “But with this space, I knew I could do whatever I wanted—dig up the ground, cook in an underground pit, have a chulha [traditional clay stove].”
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Another plus was the local team of women from surrounding villages already working at the lodge—not only in the kitchen, but in roles ranging from housekeeping to security. In them, Sandhu found an innate discipline and consistency born of a lifetime of cooking for their own families. “When you cook every single day, you develop skills that are hard to inculcate in a young chef, even one who is professionally trained,” she says.
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This is how Palaash came to be staffed entirely by women. Sandhu recalls the initial challenges of training the team—prepping, plating, serving—but watching them now, focused and efficient, it is hard to imagine those days. Komal, for instance, introduces each dish with quiet assurance as she places it on the table. Sandhu spotted the young woman’s potential early. “I was impressed by her confidence,” the chef says. “She could be serving the president of a country, and she will still not be intimidated.”
<figure id="attachment_160758" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-160758" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-160758" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Chef-Amninder-Sandhu-and-Quail-Dish.jpeg" alt="Chef Amninder Sandhu; saoji bater, a Nagpur-style quail dish with crispy chicken skin and suran yam puree at Palaash." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Chef-Amninder-Sandhu-and-Quail-Dish.jpeg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Chef-Amninder-Sandhu-and-Quail-Dish-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Chef-Amninder-Sandhu-and-Quail-Dish-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Chef-Amninder-Sandhu-and-Quail-Dish-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-160758" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Chef Amninder Sandhu; saoji bater, a Nagpur-style quail dish with crispy chicken skin and suran yam puree at Palaash.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_160757" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-160757" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-160757" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Alfresco-Seating-in-the-Forest-and-Bamboo-Smoked-Pork.jpeg" alt="Bamboo-smoked pork with native Indrayani rice; the intimate restaurant sits amid fiery-blossomed palaash trees." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Alfresco-Seating-in-the-Forest-and-Bamboo-Smoked-Pork.jpeg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Alfresco-Seating-in-the-Forest-and-Bamboo-Smoked-Pork-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Alfresco-Seating-in-the-Forest-and-Bamboo-Smoked-Pork-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Alfresco-Seating-in-the-Forest-and-Bamboo-Smoked-Pork-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-160757" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Bamboo-smoked pork with native Indrayani rice; the intimate restaurant sits amid fiery-blossomed palaash trees.</figcaption></figure>
Just as we finish an appetizer of crisp ambadi (rosella) leaves served with a sprinkling of charred pineapple bits and a dollop of creamy yogurt, it begins to drizzle. Unfazed, Komal ushers us to the high stools around the sheltered kitchen island counter. When another couple declines to move, she calmly sets them up with a giant umbrella and carries on with the service, bridging the gap between kitchen and guests with grace.
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The meal that follows makes me rethink everything I thought I knew about fine dining: cooked by four village women, using rustic ingredients, in the middle of a heavily forested region. Many of the ingredients are ones I wouldn’t expect to see on a restaurant menu, or indeed in any formal meal. There is gendaphool—marigolds that have been churned into a palate-cleansing sorbet—and kashiphal patta (pumpkin leaves) paired with Sandhu’s signature bamboo-smoked pork or mutton. This dish is a particular favorite of the chef, lending itself to open-fire cooking and the use of sticky, fragrant Indrayani rice native to Maharashtra.
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The cuisine is seasonal and hyperlocal, rooted in the arid Vidarbha district that the lodge calls home. “The nearest city is two and a half hours away, so we can’t keep running to a market to buy our ingredients,” Sandhu explains. Indeed, the menu is built around what is close at hand: vegetables and fruits grown on the property; the odd flower or leaves; dairy and poultry from local communities.
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Yet the food is clearly designed with a global audience in mind. The menu may embrace rustic bhakri flatbread, but it appears as an easy-to-eat taco filled with slow-cooked mutton and lal thecha, a chutney made from coarsely pounded red chili and garlic. There’s also an optional wine pairing with the main courses; names like sauvignon blanc and pinot noir roll off Komal’s tongue with practiced ease. Above all, the cuisine is defined by Sandhu’s zeal for open- fire cooking, which she says “makes ingredients melt together” in a way that “gas cooking can never replicate.”
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A concept like Palaash could hardly have found a more fitting home than Tipai. Spread across 14 hectares on the periphery of eastern Maharashtra’s Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, the lodge is deeply connected to both land and community. My spacious forest villa features local materials like rammed earth, terra-cotta, and stone, its bedroom opening onto a porch that, in the mornings, comes alive with sunlight and birdsong—and, on occasion, the sight of spotted deer and antelope, or even a stray tigress wandering onto the property.
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There’s also a strong focus on food, from the indulgent kebabs and biryanis at pond-side Talaabwali to slow-cooked comfort dishes at Perch and wood-fired pizzas at Wadi, an alfresco gem set amid the organic kitchen garden. Although Sandhu oversees all the lodge’s food and beverage outlets, it is clear where her heart lies. “My vision for Palaash is to see it listed alongside other top restaurants in the country, and for these ladies to share the stage with <a href="https://destinasian.com/travel-guide/india" target="_blank" rel="noopener">India</a>’s best chefs,” she says.
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When I thank them for this delectable meal, they simply smile and get back to the cooking. Another evening, another satisfied guest. It’s all in a day’s work for them.
<figure id="attachment_160761" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-160761" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-160761" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Pool-Villa-Living-Room-and-Kala-Jamun-Dessert-with-Ice-Cream.jpeg" alt="The living room of one of Tipai’s pool villas; a dessert of kala jamun infused with mahua flowers and served with pistachio ice cream." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Pool-Villa-Living-Room-and-Kala-Jamun-Dessert-with-Ice-Cream.jpeg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Pool-Villa-Living-Room-and-Kala-Jamun-Dessert-with-Ice-Cream-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Pool-Villa-Living-Room-and-Kala-Jamun-Dessert-with-Ice-Cream-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Palaash-Restaurant-at-Tipai-Pool-Villa-Living-Room-and-Kala-Jamun-Dessert-with-Ice-Cream-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-160761" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: The living room of one of Tipai’s pool villas; a dessert of kala jamun infused with mahua flowers and served with pistachio ice cream.</figcaption></figure>
<a href="https://www.wildlifeluxuries.com/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tipai</a> is a three-hour drive south of Nagpur, where the nearest airport is located; stays start at US$640 a night. Palaash is open for both resident and non-resident guests with advance reservations.
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This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://subscription.destinasian.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">June/July 2026</a> print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Fanning the Flames”). Buy a single issue or subscribe <a href="https://subscription.destinasian.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Scenes from Palaash restaurant and the luxury wildlife lodge Tipai: the living room of a villa; chef Amninder Sandhu; a dish of bamboo-smoked pork.

Inside Palaash: Hyperlocal Fine Dining at Wildlife Lodge Tipai