Masque’s new head chef Varun Totlani shares a taste of what’s to come

Part of the Mumbai fine-dine’s founding team, the new head chef tells us about his culinary journey and the process of devising ingredient-driven menus

If you’ve eaten a meal at Masque before, you’ve probably seen Chef Varun Totlani in the kitchen. The chef, who has worked at the Mumbai fine-dine since its launch, has travelled as part of the team that took the restaurant to Mexico City, the Maldives and Lancashire in the UK. At that time, he was a commis chef, under Executive Chef Prateek Sadhu. Together, they’ve taken the distinctive gospel of Masque global, whilst winning several accolades; most recently, its spot at number 21 on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

In February this year, Totlani was told he’d be taking over the kitchen. When asked to describe that moment, he starts with, “At first, it was very sad. It was a dream opportunity, don’t get me wrong, but how it happened was very…,” before trailing off. Totlani is referring to the fact that he would no longer be working with Sadhu, who has parted ways with Masque as per an announcement in March.

Teamwork matters

Instead, Totlani will be leading a seasoned kitchen team, some of whom have been with the restaurant since its inception in 2016. For the new menu, which was launched last month, but has been in development since February, Totlani worked with Kamlesh Negi, Shiv Singh Mandrwal and Murli Nayak—all of whom were part of the team that set up the restaurant. An example of one of the new dishes is a salad made with pickled cactus, compressed cucumber, cucumber-chilli chutney and candy cane beetroot, all served with a green apple and coriander broth.

Going forward, Totlani hopes to put his imprint on the restaurant. He says, “I don't want to take up this responsibility just for the sake of it. I'm fully, wholly invested in this.” For now, though, he’s happy to lead a team that has imbibed as much of the restaurant’s philosophy as he has.

Rooted in India

Aditi Dugar, the founder and director of Masque says, “Varun was part of our opening team, with us since day one. He has a deep understanding of the restaurant on the whole, of our ethos and vision, and has played an integral role in our growth. We’ve watched him come into his own over the past five years, honing his vision for the kind of food he wants to cook.”

Totlani has spent most of his professional career at Masque and is a local Mumbai boy. After his schooling, he completed his bachelor’s degree at the Culinary Academy of India in Hyderabad, and then went on to study at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York. Besides internships in different kitchens before and after his education stints, Totlani first worked at Mumbai’s Intercontinental Hotel, where, for two months, he interned, “just to see that is this really for me and get a feel of the actual, real life, behind-the-scenes kitchen thing.” Ultimately, those stints convinced him that he wanted a career in the kitchen, but as he says, “So I have had previous jobs, but the real job—Masque was my first one.”

Before going to the CIA, Totlani admits that he didn’t have too much of an interest in cooking Indian food. Like most students heading abroad, he said, “While in America, it was only when I started craving Indian food that I began cooking for myself and a few friends there.” He stresses, “Even then, I didn't think I would make a career out of cooking Indian food.” As the food at Masque embraced memories, techniques and ingredients rooted in India, Totlani admits, “I started seeing the potential about how it can be done differently, and be accepted on a globalplatform,” which is what changed his perspective.

Citing nostalgia as a driving factor while devising previous menus, Tolani sees the restaurant drawing more liberally on culinary traditions across the country, given the varied backgrounds of the kitchen staff. While there was a focus on Kashmiri ingredients and dishes during Sadhu’s time in the kitchen, Totlani says, “It's always been a team effort. It's never been about one person,” and that ethos will still remain. “Even while working with Chef Prateek, we used to decide what we wanted to do, put it on paper and then the full team did the food trials. When that full team started doing trials, everyone's input was considered, heard and thought about, and if it was right, it was right.”

For example, the new menu features a blackened sunchoke dish which sees the tuber used three ways and paired with patudi—a pancake made with horse gram—which was contributed by Negi. Totlani says, “Negi is from Garhwal in Uttarakhand and there’s a lot of inspiration from things that are nostalgic to him. He has grown up eating those pancakes.”

Fermenting experiments

The restaurant itself will continue to run its fermentation lab, which is where experiments to build flavour are left to, well, ferment. Explains Totlani, “The lab is still going to be a big part of our restaurant. I wouldn't put it down just to fermentation because we're doing a lot more than just fermentation. For example, the course that I was talking about, the amla achaar, involves preserving techniques from our country, and that also happens in the lab.” The amla pickle, (made with red chilli, cardamom and sugar) is used in a course that sees the chopped amla from the pickle become the base, before being topped by a pickling liquid sorbet and finished with salted citron (narathangai).

Fittingly, its Dugar who has the last word when she says, “Totlani’s palate is bold; you can taste that through his first menu. I’m especially looking forward to what he’ll do as he explores new regions of the country through his food.” Having just returned from a sourcing trip to Tamil Nadu the day before we met, it’s clear that Totlani has hit the ground running.

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