Prateek Sadhu
Chef, Naar
The Chef. The Explorer. The Keeper of Memory.
Prateek Sadhu has built a culinary identity around the ingredients of memory. Born and raised in Kashmir, he initially imagined a career as a pilot before an unexpected turn led him to culinary school and eventually to some of the world's most respected kitchens.
Returning to his roots
Kitchens far from home: his training took him through some of the world's most respected kitchens.
After training at the Culinary Institute of America and working in kitchens including Noma and The French Laundry, Sadhu returned to India. He became chef-partner at Masque in Mumbai, where his cooking developed an ingredient-driven philosophy. The training had taken him a long way from Kashmir. The work at Masque brought him back to it, one ingredient at a time. A chef who starts from ingredients has to know where they come from and what they carry. For Sadhu, much of what they carry is memory. He had once imagined a career as a pilot, and an unexpected turn led him to culinary school instead. That turn eventually led to some of the most respected kitchens in the world and back home again. It is a slow route home.
Leaving at the top
In 2022, he walked away from Mumbai at the height of his success.
In 2022, he left Mumbai at the height of his success and moved towards the Himalayas. He created NAAR near Kasauli, which became an expression of the culinary memories of Kashmir. In 2026, NAAR reached No. 30 on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list. His restaurants, collaborations and culinary experiences continue to inspire a new generation of chefs and food enthusiasts. They show that Indian cuisine can be proudly advocated and can hold its own on the global stage. Leaving a successful kitchen for a quieter one carries risk. NAAR gave the move its answer. The cooking is tied to a place and to the memory of that place, and that specificity is what travelled. It is cooking that could not have been made anywhere else.
Sadhu's work is ultimately about transformation: taking something deeply rooted in a place and giving it a form that can speak to the world. As he puts it in the ROTORIS Room, “We’re very mindful of what you eat first and what you eat last and what you eat in between.”
Prateek Sadhu became A Rotoris Man in 2026.
