Experimental kitchen looks at futuristic Indian cuisine

The place as it stands today

What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about Indian food (and don't say curry)? Is it the akhoni of Nagaland with its fermented pungency? Is it the prickly sea buckthorn of Ladakh, which you need special gloves to pick? Or, closer home, is it the lal mougri, a winter radish available in a few Mumbai markets? Chances are, it's none of these. India is a country with a diverse palate. But the eating habits in its different regions have been set in stone for so many centuries that it becomes difficult for us to think outside of the box. It's difficult for us to look towards ingredients from the more neglected areas to include them in our dishes. And so if we are, say, Bengali, we wouldn't ever think about new ways to approach a classic chingri malai curry. Our attitude would be, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

That's precisely the sort of mindset that chef Prateek Sadhu plans to challenge with a new space he's looking to launch in September, called The Test Kitchen. It's around the corner from Masque in Shakti Mills, the restaurant with which he opened new conversations around the way people dine out in this country. The idea is to start off with 200 flavour profiles - "the flavour bench", as Sadhu calls it - and then play around with what's on offer to find out if something new and different comes of it. Additionally, there will be a separate temperature-controlled area above ground level where the chef will experiment with existing preservation techniques. Workshops will be held where participants will be educated about the lesser-known aspects of Indian cuisine. People can also book private dinners in advance for eight to 10 guests. And the more successful dishes that are born out of the tests carried out here will find their way to the tables at Masque. That, in a nutshell, is the plan.

Chef Prateek Sadhu explains his vision for The Test Kitchen

We pay a visit to the space on a Thursday afternoon only to find that it's a complete work in progress. Mounds of rubble lie on the floor. The place has a typical mill-like structure and, many moons ago, was used for weaving cotton. Later, it had been turned into a factory. Then, it metamorphosed into an office space, evidence of which lies in a small room where a stack of files are still gathering dust. And standing in the middle of the debris, we envision the location's future avatar as Sadhu - who's designing the space himself - tells us how an open kitchen will occupy one end, sofas will be placed at another, tables will be put up for the private dinners, and the brick walls will give way to wooden ones with glass windows to build a warm and welcoming vibe.

So, what does the chef hope to achieve with The Test Kitchen? We ask Sadhu this question before leaving. "The idea came to me around a year ago, and what we hope to do is build a strong community that really understands India geographically in terms of its food. We want to expand [the country's] flavour profiles and develop new ones. And it's really important for us to take Indian food to a global level. We want to tell people, 'Look, there is tradition and there is the future. But both are growing at the same pace and at the same time.' So, while we still have our curries and traditional dishes, we are also futuristic in the way we're moving ahead," he says, adding, "It's time for us to tell a different story."

The Masque kitchen, where Sadhu experiments with food as of now. Pics/Ashish Raje

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