The new guard

They say if you must leave leave when at the top Chef Prateek Sadhu seems to have done just that when he announced his departure in March from Masque an ingredientsdriven restaurant housed in the industrial mill area of Mahalaxmi offering a multicourse tasting menu that he set up with entrepreneur Aditi Dugar in 2016It hasnrsquot taken long for Masque to become a talking point and Sadhu the poster boy of foraged Indian produce Last year it marked five years of its journey with a multicity tour and in March this year it ranked at 21 on the Asiarsquos 50 Best Restaurants listMurungakkai Marrow Chef Totlanirsquos take on Tamil Nadursquos murungakkai kuzhambu and left his dessert featuring aam papad made with alphonso sorbet made from Valloneacutersquos dessert wine Vin de Passerillage from Nashik and ambemohar rice creamSadhu announced that he wished to pursue independent endeavours and was replaced by Chef Varun Totlani who was part of Masquersquos founding team For Dugar it was a nobrainer Founder of Sage amp Saffron and Masque she says that Totlani has ldquoa deep understanding of the restaurant on the whole and has played an integral role in our growth He has moved from strength to strength and has trained both in the kitchen as well as in the front house which is important in gaining a wellrounded view of how a space works Our first menu with him helming the kitchen has just launched and itrsquos really an explosion of flavoursrdquoSome of the dishes that the menu boasts include a salad made with pickled cactus nagfani cucumber and candy cane beetroot paired with a broth of green apple and coriander Then there is the murungakkai marrow which is his take on Tamil Nadursquos murungakkai kuzhambu where the drumstick marrow marinated in traditional flavours is set within a leek cream tart and topped with seeds seasoned with curry leaf His dessert presents a summer in Maharashtra and features aam papad made with alphonso sorbet made from Valloneacutersquos dessert wine Vin de Passerillage from Nashik and ambemohar rice cream He agrees that he had big shoes to fill ldquoI was a little nervous ahead of the menu launch wondering how people would react to itrdquo he tells midday adding with relief ldquothe response has been overwhelmingrdquoChef Thomas ZachariasHe admits that he misses having Sadhu around ldquoBesides that I donrsquot think a lot has changedrdquoTotlanirsquos close collaboration with the former head chef has made the transition easier he looks back at his mentor as someone from whom he learnt how to look at food and treat guests ldquoWhen he decided to move on he didnrsquot offer fancy stories He was honest about his decision to me and has been there as a support system as well as a friend We still chat and discuss things beyond our work too I did discuss the menu with him and whenever he is back in town he is going to come over and give me his feedbackrdquoChef Prateek Sadhu the poster boy of foraged Indian produce announced his departure as chefpartner of Masque an ingredientsdriven restaurant in MahalaxmiWhile it is too early to say how this transition will go the perfect case study say industry experts is The Bombay Canteen TBCFounded by late New Yorkbased Indian chef Floyd Cardoz and entrepreneur Sameer Seth and Yash Bhanage the Lower Parel restobar that seeks inspiration from local food and seasonal ingredients was long associated with chefpartner Thomas Zacharias the affable kitchen star who knew his seasonal produce as well as he did his social media hacksFood writers have only words of praises for Chef Hussain Shahzad who they say has brought his own unique style to the soul of The Bombay Canteen menuldquoThe Hunger Inc group is a beautiful example of brand evolution The way it has regrouped post two huge changes in the last two years can be credited to the team To lose Chef Floydrsquos leadership after his sudden death Cardoz lost the fight to COVID19 in 2020 but continue to strengthen reinvent grow and evolve while keeping his legacy alive is something we all could learn from Zac Zacharias moved on too but from what I observed it was well planned and executed by both him and the team making the transition seamlessrdquo thinks Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal culinary chronicler and editor of the Godrej Food Trends report Itrsquos the onward journey after drastic change that matters Ghildiyal speaks of TBC doing wonders under the gaze of the young Chef Hussain Shahzad Zacharias is now at the helm of The Locavore a platform that champions regional Indian food which she thinks fills a huge gap created in the market postpandemic Zacharias is said to have informed the parent company of his plans a yearandahalf before moving on and worked in tandem to ease in Chef Shahzad to helm the kitchenldquoFor me the decision wasnrsquot about leaving TBC It was stepping away from being an actively cooking professional chef to figuring out how I can create more impact in the food space which led me to launch The Locavore a month agordquo says Zacharias who came on board six months before TBC opened in February 2015 and was there until December 2020 ldquoSameer Yash Floyd and I were a very close group of people leading the company so I understood that my departure would be something that needed to be handled smartly There had to be minimum disruptionrdquo Itrsquos important he feels that everyone including those leaving the successor and all stakeholders handle the transition maturely ldquoIf you really care for what you have built you donrsquot want it to suffer in any way In my case it was as important for me as it was for them to make sure that the restaurant continues to run in the same glory as it did while I was there Chef Hussain was sous chef for TBC and we share a great rapport If someone like him wouldnrsquot have been around it would have been difficult He made it really simplerdquoHis baigan chokha with sattu papdi tomato oil and pickled chillies a technique forward dish inspired by the traditional litti chokhaRestaurateur Gauri Devidayal who along with husband Jay Yousef runs The Table Iktara Magazine St Kitchen says it is time that diners realise that running a restaurant is not a oneman show ldquoThere are misconceptions about what one person brings to an establishment In the case of a restaurant it is not like with one person leaving the team canrsquot execute anymore considering that the rest of the team is the same Of course there is an aspect of innovation and that can be addressed by finding a fitting replacement and successor for the rolerdquo says Devidayal The entrepreneur had worked for seven years with Californian chef Alex Sanchez who helmed The Table ably and the team ended up winning multiple awards including being ranked 4 Best Restaurant in India by Condeacute Nast Traveller India 2019Some will say thatrsquos easier said than done Chef Manu Chandra bid adieu to Olive Bar amp Kitchen Pvt Ltd last year after being associated with them for 17 years as chefpartner overseeing multiple brands including Toast amp Tonic ldquoIt is a big change Chef Manu used to manage about 35 restaurants across the brand in Indiardquo says Chef Karan Upmanyu who took over as Sous Chef for Toast amp Tonic in October last year While the work inside the kitchen wasnrsquot a challenge it was more about the add on responsibilities that came Chef Upmanyursquos way ldquoIt was initially about finding my own management style Earlier I was looking at my department which is the kitchen but now itrsquos about overseeing the entire restaurant It is about keeping the teams together creating new menus for summer special occasions and working closely with other departments especially front house to make sure that our vision translates seamlessly through the tablerdquo Itrsquos been six months since Chandra moved on and Upmanyu maintains that the pressure is still there ldquoEven on my days off I am thinking about the restaurantrdquoRushina Munshaw Ghildiyal Manu Chandra and Pooja DhingraThat Chandra had an easy management style which included drawing in everybody in the creative process made things easier ldquoWhen he was about to leave he sat me down and asked me if I was up for the challenge After that he shared tips and directions for handling roadblocks Over the course of the next few weeks we had multiple and intense meetings with him and AD Singh owner to lay the course of direction for the restaurantrdquoCalling him possibly the best chef in the country AD Singh Managing Director Olive Bar amp Kitchen Pvt Ltd the holding company for Toast amp Tonic shares ldquoHe gave us two months of heads up and even after that he has been available for planning or if I have questionshellip We arenrsquot even looking for his replacement as it wonrsquot be possible to replace him We are currently focusing on providing more exposure to our chefs by taking them to different marketsrdquoPablo Naranjo Agular Karan Upmanyu and AD SinghFinding a successor from the existing team is always easier agree most restaurateurs ldquoThe good thing with Chef Pablo Naranjo Agular leaving he moved from Mumbai back to Columbia was that we had enough time to plan his exit We knew six to eight months in advance that he was leaving He trained the entire team His sous chef Tejashvi who had worked under him for several years took over Luckily for us Le15 Cafe was more a dessert cafe and thatrsquos where my expertise also came in Our regular guests definitely missed him and were disheartened that he was moving on but they were also happy to try our new menusrdquo says Pooja Dhingra pastry chef and founder of Le15 Patisserie and Le15 Cafe which the South American chef helmed for three years before his exit in 2019Zacharias also recommends that the team and promoters be open to change Finding a mirror image leader isnrsquot the best idea ldquoIt is important to understand that you donrsquot always want the leader to be replaced with someone identical or similar Sometimes there is room for the vision to evolve and the food to change I think what Chef Hussain has done beautifully is develop his own style of cooking which is kind of similar to mine and yet very differentrdquoWhile in their case the transition worked out well sometimes it doesnrsquot go according to plan Founded by Chef Rahul Akerkar the iconic Indigo opened in 1999 at a bungalow on Mandlik Road in Colaba and was credited with introducing European finedining to the city Once Akerkar moved on it seemed to fall out of favour with regulars who said it was no longer the same Food writer Raul Dias says ldquoThe Indigo restaurant in Colaba did continue for a couple of years post Rahulrsquos exit but it was no longer the Indigo that everybody knew Rahul has a very strong seafood palette Post his departure Indigo became meat dominated and seafood which was its speciality was all but eliminated from the menurdquo He thinks The Sassy Spoon faced the same issue ldquoI saw a huge difference when Chef Irfan Pabaney who coowned the restaurant moved away the food became more peoplepleasing it was no longer innovative We saw his signature dishes getting slowly dilutedrdquoItrsquos clear what the lesson is then The person may leave but if the vision sticks and the successor earnestly works to keep the soul of the restaurant and menu intact transitions can in fact be easy