A celebration of India

Masque head chef Varun Totlani on putting the spirit of the sub-continent on a plate

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It took India's first tasting-menu, fine-dining restaurant some seven to eight years to become a household name in the city of dreams.

Located in one of Mumbai's old tex-tile mills, Masque was founded by Aditi Dugar, with head chef Varun Totlani helming the kitchen since 2022. The restaurant's 10-course chef's menu marries tradition and innovation and is defined by ingredients sourced from. local farmers, producers and foraging trips.

"My cuisine celebrates India with its food, culture, traditions, and finds the perfect recipe for all of this together. Masque and I have grown together," said Dugar.

"A change of head chefs wasn't the only transition Masque went through. We also went through a transition where we now use only Indian produce and focus on Indian cuisines completely. Straight off the bat, we didn't say we're modern Indian. That transition also took some time."

Chef Totlani added: "Not only for me, but everyone on our team enjoys eating and it didn't have to be Indian. It didn't have to be anything, but that's what kind of opened us up a little bit. Then the chef transition came. I wouldn't say it was easy, because it was a big loss to the company. We were all very close to [former head chef] Prateek [Sadhu], professionally and personally. I joined the kitchen team with him as a commis chef when Masque first opened. Our kitchen team has somewhat remained the same since inception and that helped a lot. Once Prateek exited, we all stuck together and I had great sup-port from everyone. It was stressful, but that was more mental."