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.