Inside The Chef’s Edit: Six Chefs Redefine Responsibility, Identity And Creativity At The Bombay Canteen

For a long time, the idea of a chef was tightly framed: a technician in whites, a guardian of recipes, a custodian of hierarchy. But the role has since weathered a quiet revolution. Today’s most influential culinary leaders are not defined by the dishes they create, but by the worlds they build, worlds shaped by identity, memory, resilience, and the courage to question what came before. The modern chef is as much a cultural interpreter as a cook, a strategist as much as a storyteller, a leader as much as an artist. Their work unfolds across borders and mediums, balancing tradition with provocation, preservation with reinvention, and ambition with responsibility.

In that shifting landscape, the Canteen Open House: The Chef’s Edit, returning for its second edition at The Bombay Canteen, has quickly become one of India’s most essential spaces for dialogue. The event started in 2025 as an extension of Canteen Class, a series of intimate sessions that Hunger Inc. Hospitality Co-founder and COO Yash Bhanage describes as “a way of narrowing the divide between students and the industry.” Over the years, that narrow path widened into something far more ambitious.

“What began as classroom-style sessions evolved into a larger idea: what if we opened up the restaurant for an entire day and turned it into a space for honest industry dialogue?” Bhanage says. The first Open House drew over 1500 attendees, confirming a hunger not just for access, but for clarity. He is clear about the mission. “Hospitality can look glamorous from the outside, but it is built on discipline, resilience, teamwork, and relentless problem solving,” he says. “If participants leave with a more honest understanding of what it takes to build and sustain a restaurant, that is a win.”

That intent shapes this year’s edition in profound ways. As Hussain Shahzad, Executive Chef at Hunger Inc. Hospitality, explains, “For this year’s Canteen Open House, the curation was very intentional. Each of the chefs joining us has built something that feels deeply personal and context driven. They have made choices that reflect purpose and clarity. What excites me about this line up is the diversity of journeys. Some have chosen intimate formats. Some have redefined categories. Some have explored their heritage in a way that feels contemporary and honest," he says.

Shahzad believes that though the restaurants may look very different from one another, what connects the chefs is conviction. He continues, "They have all asked themselves difficult questions about why their food exists and who it is for. That is what they bring to the table. Not just technique or accolades, but perspective. They bring stories of risk, reinvention, discipline, and leadership. For young chefs and professionals in the room, that kind of transparency is invaluable. It shows that there is no single path to building something meaningful. There are many routes, as long as you are clear about your intent.”

This year’s edition, The Chef’s Edit, brings together global culinary voices who are shaping how their cuisines are seen, understood, and reimagined. Their stories reveal the new dimensions of authorship, responsibility, and leadership, defining contemporary gastronomy. And what emerges is not a singular vision of the chef, but a constellation of evolving identities.

The Identity Question: A Cuisine For The Future

With Himanshu Saini

Few chefs represent the future of Indian cuisine on the global stage with as much precision and philosophy as Himanshu Saini of Trèsind Studio, the only Indian restaurant to hold three Michelin stars. When Saini speaks of authorship, he frames it as a dynamic landscape rather than a fixed identity.

“There is nothing absolutely right or wrong in cuisine,” he says. “Everything is shaped by personal experience, learning, and observation.” His work is driven by the belief that Indian cuisine must hold space for both preservation and provocation, but only when approached with grace and intelligence.

Saini expands on that idea. “Preservation without curiosity becomes static. Provocation without understanding becomes noise,” he says. 

At Trèsind Studio, he approaches the menu not as a regional thesis but as an editorial exercise in what stories deserve attention. “The intention is not to present India as a geography lesson,” he says. “It is to present it as a lived landscape.” His process becomes one of distillation, allowing a dish to carry the weight of memory without the burden of academic explanation.

That sense of responsibility, Saini says, extends beyond diners. “Innovation without knowledge is decoration,” he says. “Innovation with understanding becomes meaningful.” As Indian cuisine enters global fine dining conversations with greater force, he believes chefs carry the responsibility not just to represent authenticity, but to expand what authenticity can look like.

The Philosophy Of Adaptation

With Chalee Kader

Bangkok-based chef and restaurateur Chalee Kader operates in a culinary universe where formats collide, from Michelin-starred Thai restaurants to diners and genre-fluid concepts. Yet, Kader insists that the medium never compromises the message.

“The larger philosophy and values do not have to change just because the medium changes,” he says. For him, working across formats is not dilution but expansion. “You still need to connect to the person dining, express your identity, even though from the outside it might look like you’re diluting yourself through different genres,” he says. “At the end of the day, the larger philosophy is making good food and using good ingredients.”

Partnership is another area where Kader’s thinking is crystal clear. He describes his framework as simple but non-negotiable: trust, strategic alignment, mutual benefit, and structure. “When all partners share the same goals, built on trust and guided by a solid framework, it becomes easier to succeed,” he says. And on the possibility of failure? Kader is pragmatic. “A clear structure allows for a professional and straightforward exit without awkwardness.”

In a city as competitive as Bangkok, he emphasises the need for confidence paired with realism. “Be confident in your idea or concept,” he says, “but ensure it’s supported by a thorough, conservative feasibility study.” For Kader, creativity and business discipline are not opposites, they are companions.

The Role of Failure: Learning in Slow Time

With Will Goldfarb

In Ubud, Bali, chef Will Goldfarb has turned Room4Dessert into a globally recognised dessert restaurant rooted in botanical research and community. When Goldfarb reflects on his journey, he returns again and again to the themes of space, time, and access.

“Space and time are the ultimate luxury,” he says. “Without them, we wouldn’t have had the chance to explore traditional wisdom, healing through food, and develop our dialogue with the natural world.”

His approach to leadership reframes failure as essential rather than optional. Goldfarb puts it plainly. “There is no such thing as a talent gap,” he says. “There may be an access gap.” Giving people the time and space to grow, he believes, is what builds excellence.

Failure becomes a tool of refinement. “You either win or you learn,” he says. “If you can’t enjoy the setbacks, you won’t get the chance to celebrate the wins.” In his worldview, pain is inevitable, but suffering is not. Setbacks are part of the creative ecosystem, not detours from it.

Room4Dessert, Goldfarb says, is a reflection of his inner world, but he insists the credit belongs to the team. “I am just the front,” he says. “The real work comes from the daily efforts of the Balinese and Indonesian women and men who do all the real work.”

The Geography Of Memory: Cooking As Custodianship

With Prateek Sadhu

Prateek Sadhu’s work at NAAR in Himachal Pradesh cannot be separated from the land that shapes it. When Sadhu speaks of the Himalayas, it is not as a backdrop but as a collaborator.

“The Himalayas aren’t a backdrop to NAAR; they’re the reason it exists,” he says. With that comes an emotional and cultural weight, not to romanticise, dilute, or exploit.

He describes Himalayan cuisine as an archive held by growers, foragers, and home cooks. “When a guest tastes a dish at NAAR, I want them to taste memory: of altitude, season and survival.”

To bring these foodways to a broader audience requires dialogue, not extraction. Sadhu pushes back against the idea that preservation and entrepreneurship are oppositional. “When you undertake these practices with respect, they retain their dignity,” he says. Entrepreneurship, for him, becomes a means of generating economic value and aspiration for local communities.

Building a destination restaurant also demands emotional clarity. “At NAAR, we’re not just running service; we are building belief,” he says. For Sadhu, conviction is the true currency of hospitality.

The Discipline of Slowness: Craft Over Noise

With Dina Weber

For Dina Weber, the heart of Sapa Bakery in Mysuru lies in intuition rather than the churn of trends. Weber says her focus is to keep the work grounded, not performative. “I think good taste is never a trend and whether we talk about matcha or pistachio, we have always worked with those ingredients and will continue to, without giving it more attention than it needs,” she says. Following her own path has become her quiet guardrail. “We largely try to follow our own creative path in terms of product, design and also table set-ups, etc. It’s a creative playground for me and makes me very happy, I just try to keep it away from trends and online craze as much as I can.”

Growth, she adds, is intentionally slow. “We grow very slowly and intentionally, since we are fully self-funded and use money from within to reinvest it’s virtually impossible for us to grow too fast. I often chuckle, thinking a true business person would go mad working with me.” Instead, she expands only where the craft allows. “Bread works well on medium scale… without losing out on any process-driven quality,” she says of the new warehouse in Mysore.

What surprises her most is how non-culinary skills now anchor her leadership. “People management, observing myself and other people’s dynamics and being steady and optimistic,” Weber says. “You also need to be very honest with what you suck at and then get people to join you who don’t suck at it.” Even on the hardest days, what keeps her steady is perspective. “If you can remind yourself that this will pass… and overall you trust your organisation to steam on together, you can keep going, and that’s essential.”

The Architecture of Identity: Scaling Without Losing Self

With Rishi Naleendra

In Singapore, chef Rishi Naleendra balances two identities, the high-end tasting menu world of Cloudstreet and the Sri Lankan exuberance of Kotuwa. When Naleendra reflects on identity, he frames it as a journey rather than a proclamation.

“For most of my early career, I didn’t cook Sri Lankan food,” he says. “It was only after opening Kotuwa that I brought a lot more of it in. It’s important to have your own identity shine through what you do.”

Financial pressure, he says, is the real test of identity. “From the outside, it all feels like passion and fun,” Naleendra says. “But there’s so much pressure to sustain ourselves.” Adaptation, in his view, is necessary, but never at the expense of self. “You have to stay true. And having the right people around you is key.”

As his restaurants have grown, Naleendra’s role has evolved. “My role has changed into more of a mentor than just a chef,” he says. Scaling across borders demands leadership beyond the past. “We started as a small restaurant, but now it has grown into a business. It has changed my role into more of a mentor and a business leader.”

The Chef’s Edit reflects the ethos on which The Bombay Canteen was built, a belief in community, collaboration, and open doors. “It was never just about serving food. It was about creating a community,” Bhanage says. Shutting the restaurant for a full day to turn it into a classroom is symbolic of that philosophy. “Instead of treating knowledge as something exclusive, we choose to share it.”

The Open House responds to a need Bhanage considers urgent: clarity and practical guidance for the next generation. “If someone walks out thinking, ‘I see my place in this industry more clearly now,’ then we have done what we set out to do,” he concludes.

What This Means For Indian Dining

Across Bangkok, Bali, Dubai, Singapore, and the Himalayas, a new definition of the chef comes into focus. The modern chef is not a gatekeeper but a custodian. Not a technician but an author. Not an executor but an editor of culture. They balance instinct with feasibility, identity with evolution, vision with vulnerability. They mentor, question, scale, protect, and reimagine. They embrace failure as part of creation and leadership as part of craft.

In bringing these voices together, The Chef’s Edit becomes more than an event. It becomes a mirror held up to an industry in transition, one searching for meaning beyond accolades and purpose beyond plates.

The future of Indian dining will be shaped by those willing to write new languages for their cuisine, to build communities around their craft, to remain curious, and to share what they learn along the way. And perhaps that is the quiet power of Canteen Open House: it signals a new era where the most important conversations in food aren’t happening behind pass counters, but in rooms filled with students, young chefs, and curious diners, all eager to shape what comes next.