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 textile 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 Totlani.
"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 support from everyone. It was stressful, but that was more mental."
Masque interior.
Chef Totlani's menu at Masque is built on nostalgia and a lot of ideas. "Even if it's not nostalgia, it's things you've seen and you've grown up with. I grew up in Bombay [Mumbai], which is a big melting pot. So I don't only cook dishes from my Sindhi culture. It's more about the food I grew up with. Gujarati food and South Indian food played a bigger part in my life than Sindhi food. Though most of my life was spent in Mumbai, I also spent time in Coimbatore, Hyderabad and America. This, too, made a difference in the way I cook.
"What is nostalgic to me is the food I grew up with. I have a good grasp of those flavours and that's what I brought to the table."
The food at Masque stems from the team's efforts to give a platform to local ingredients and extract maximum flavour from the wealth of Indian produce. The menus revisit traditional cooking and ingredients with purpose, exploring the ways these can build cross-cultural bridges.
"To give you examples, the farra with jakhiya course comes from Chhattisgarh and was a dish made by our chef Pulkeit. Typically farra, a rice delicacy, is steamed then tempered with aromatics and served with chutney. However, instead of chutney, which would make it super traditional and not different, we thought of pairing it with a wine and butter sauce, topped with fresh chives. So it's more like a pasta," explained chef Totlani.
"Though I've always wanted to be a chef, I did not want to cook Indian food. It was only when I went to the Culinary Institute of America that I start cooking a lot of Indian food, because I missed it and New York was too expensive to eat out. That's why I say Masque and I grew up together. It is in this kitchen that I really got into cooking Indian food. Now I want to celebrate Indian food in all its glory."
Manipur and Chhattisgarh come together in the black rice farra, jakhiya and grillo dish.
The menu creation at Masque is very much a team effort. Whenever the team has time, trial dishes are put out, tasting sessions are conducted and the inspiration begins from there.
"Some part of the dishes are based on our travels and where we've been, what we've tried and tasted and some parts are things that we might have eaten before. Nostalgia plays a big role in this, so it's a good mix of everything," said chef Totlani.
"What we really want to do is celebrate indigenous Indian produce. And for that, we have to keep, for the lack of a better word, foraging. We have to keep going to places, find ingredients and create a channel or a chain of how it will come to Mumbai, which is more challenging than anything.
"When I went to Jodhpur for a few days, I ran into this bhajiwala [vegetable vendor] an hour outside the main city. He was selling karvanda [Bengal currant or Carissa carandas] and kachri, also known as wild melon or Cucumis callosus which is indigenous to India; all these things I really like. I asked how he could deliver all this to Mumbai and then he told us that there was a bus that went through his village and passed by Borivali in Mumbai. So we spoke to the bus conductor, established a relationship and now every time the vendor has vegetables that are only found in his area, he sends us a box and a team member meets the bus at Borivali.
Koji dosa, gassi and blackened sunchoke puree.
"Kachri is predominantly used only in Rajasthan and since it is a desert region, the people there have to be creative with their food. Kachri is cooked into a sabzi [vegetable] when it's fresh or eaten like a salad. It's one of the most versatile vegetables I've seen. It is also cooked into a curry or eaten raw. It is also turned into a paste and used as a meat tenderiser. When it's no longer fresh, it is powdered and turned into a spice.
"At Masque, we not only use it in seasonal dishes but in our cocktails. We've done a kanji or a fermented broth with it for a course. We've used it raw in a salad. So, we not only take inspiration from the vegetable, but also from the traditional uses of it."
Masque also collaborated with chef Ahme Birian, recognised as a culture and culinary ambassador by the government of Meghalaya. "She took over Masque Lab for one dinner, and now if she has something new growing in Meghalaya, she'll send it to us."
Masque Lab, the restaurant's R&D and test kitchen, opened in 2020 and is a freestyle space.
"It also works as a private dining kitchen and most of the time we host kitchen takeovers there. We had Aditi's mum cook last year and a lady from the Hakka community in Kolkata. It's got that kind of a vibe. Recently, we had chef Peter Cuong Franklin from Anan Saigon in HCMC cook too," said chef Totlani.
A take on the Koli community's rassa.
With most fine dining restaurants in Mumbai describing themselves as "ingredient-driven", Masque distinguishes itself "by not only saying things but by actually doing things".
"We stand out by delivering our experience. Whether it's the cocktails or whether it's the food, the service is what makes us stand out more," said chef Totlani.
"We have so many personalities in the restaurant and it's not just about one person. It's about how everybody is made to feel by at least one of us, if not more. It's the essence of India. You're never going to get just one thing.
"People don't realise how diverse the seasons and ingredients are in India. Though we have ingredients that are available throughout the year, if I want to use the Delhi carrot, I can only use it in the winter. It's not about what you want to do but also about what's available.
"I am also not trying to create dishes that we eat in India. I am putting the Masque spin on them. I'm not a traditionalist. This is my version or my recreation of a dish. It's been a nine-year journey for us and while Masque and the Lab is settled, we are now opening Paradox, where we are trying to do something different. It's not about the storytelling, it's not about where the dish comes from, but it's a space about fun."
An inspired version of the humble bhutta, or corn.
Paradox, which opens on April 13, is a couple of doors down from Masque. It will be a "grown-up" cocktail-forward bar, with food that is more than just bar bites.
"Each dish has bold flavours, charred textures and are audacious combinations. Halloumi and poha [Maharashtrian spiced flattened rice] may seem odd together, but is not. The PB&J is smoked pork with a deep berry glaze and the bone marrow is cooked over embers," explained chef Totlani.
"We're not really going Indian with the food. It is a mix of flavours and is inspired by my travels around Asia. When I came to Bangkok, I had a steamboat experience and that has translated to a dish at Paradox."
Squid, kachri kanji and gooseberry.
