Hokhe Gad
This dried fish (In Kashmiri, hokhe means dried, and gad means fish) had a strong smell, and I hated it growing up. In the ’90s, when our family fled to Delhi as refugees, my mother sought a sense of identity through language and food. This dish connected us to our roots—we ate Kashmiri food at home, and my tiffin was always packed with it. At home, we only spoke Kashmiri, as she didn’t want us to forget the language. She would share stories of how our grandmother made it, and these moments became precious. Years later, life came full circle when, in Mumbai, I created a mackerel toast—now on the NAAR menu as Dirty Toast, made with fresh trout.
Dirty Toast, made with fresh trout—a fish Sadhu enjoys catching—harks back to his childhood memories of Hokhe Gad. Once a fish he despised, it now serves as a powerful link to his mother and her memories of Kashmir
Salmon Cornets
I first came across this recipe in The French Laundry Cookbook, a gift from a friend during my early days as a five-star hotel trainee. At the time, the only reason I wanted to move to America was Thomas Keller [founder and chef of the California-based restaurant]. I would flip through the pages, unable to grasp the techniques or ingredients; I tried to replicate it as a young cook. This dish made me question everything I was doing and pushed me to think bigger. It went on to become so iconic that it has not been taken off their menu in 20 years. Even if I had not tried it, I felt connected to it.
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Live Shrimps
Back in 2011, when I was an intern at NOMA, I was working on a dish with dandelions when a chef walked in and handed me a freshly caught batch of live shrimps. Served live on ice with a side of sauces, it was one of the sweetest shrimps I had ever tasted. That day, I learnt that the real challenge is knowing when to hold back—how to make an impact without even touching an ingredient. As chefs, we often overthink dishes, trying to elevate ingredients, but sometimes, simplicity leaves the most lasting impression on taste and memory.
Yakhni
This is a dish I grew up eating. I mention it because when I was changing menus at Masque [where I was co-founder and chef until 2022], I found myself digging deeper into my roots. My cooking took an India-centric turn, and as that shift unfolded in my mind, yakhni became a crucial starting point. It remained on my menus for a long time, and we did many versions of it. Eventually, it became my bridge back to Kashmiri cuisine.
(left) Sadhu worked until 2022, he rediscovered his roots through yakhni, including this Hoekhsyun version; (right) the iconic Salmon Cornets from The French Laundry Cookbook, which he once attempted as a young cook. He later went on to work at the famed restaurant
Smoked Mithun
Around 2022, I was travelling to Meghalaya with a friend. We were deep diving into Himalayan cuisine to uncover common threads across its vast terrain. On our drive from Guwahati to Shillong, he took me to a local’s home for a meal. Inside the house, meats hung at various stages of smoking and drying. Our host offered us smoked mithun (bison), and the taste instantly took me back to the smoked reindeer I had tried in Norway. The technique and process were strikingly similar, making me realise how culinary traditions transcend borders. Nothing truly belongs to us—it’s passed down, and we simply evolve it.
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