Inside Chef Adwait Anantwar’s kitchen: From leading INJA to recreating his mother’s Maharashtrian recipes

“These are some of my favourite dishes,” Anantwar says as he fries the vadis for the kadhi. “I always wanted to learn them from her. There are days when I crave that taste. And although I’m a chef and recreating flavours is our job, her food never tastes the same.”

Growing up, Anantwar was never encouraged to enter the kitchen. “Whenever I tried, my mother would say, ‘Go and study’,” he recalls with a laugh, adding he spent his free time watching cooking shows, particularly those hosted by Chef Vicky Ratnani. His mother explains her reasons: “He always came first in the class.” His father, a retired banker, gently nudged him towards computer applications.

Chef Adwait Anantwar with his mother (Photo: Tashi Tobgyal)

Things shifted during college. “I joined a gym with two of my friends. That’s where I met a chef who had opened a small food joint in Nagpur, offering pizza, pasta and mocktails. I kept asking him for a job. One day, he gave in,” says Anantwar. Over the next year, he did everything an eatery demands. “That’s when I knew this was it.”

When college ended, he told his parents he wanted to pursue hotel management. His father was not convinced but there was no turning back. He enrolled at the Culinary Academy of India in Hyderabad.

After graduation, Anantwar worked briefly before receiving an offer to move to Dubai. He spent over three-and-a-half years there before Atelier Hospitality reached out for its first Middle East venture, Mohalla, an upscale Indian casual restaurant. By 2018, he had gone from management trainee to leading the restaurant.

“I made a lot of mistakes in the first two months,” he admits. Gradually, things fell into place. “I also started anticipating problems, thinking about how to handle them before they arose.”
For months, Anantwar spent nearly every waking hour at the restaurant, without a single weekend off. When the pandemic hit, he found himself watching food videos. That’s when an idea surfaced. “Nikkei cuisine — Peruvian and Japanese — was growing. I wondered, why not Indian and Japanese? One is maximalist, the other minimalist.”

The thought stayed. Eventually, about three years later, it became INJA. “I have always been compared to others and I hated it,” he says. “That’s why I didn’t want to do progressive Indian food. I knew the comparisons would be endless.”

Between 2020 and 2023, he began reimagining flavours from both cuisines. INJA opened in 2023 at The Manor in New Delhi. Dishes such as lobster dashni (lobster poached in rasam) and his reworked, cold interpretation of palak paneer and gulkand pork chashu (pork braised and barbecued before being finished with gulkand marinade) quickly drew attention, with INJA having won numerous awards and recognitions during the brief time since its inception.

Back in the kitchen, Anantwar rinses the poha in a strainer, letting it rest for a few minutes before sprinkling salt and turmeric over it and gently tossing it through. His mother, meanwhile, gives the chana tarri its final touches. She has made it using traditional Maharashtrian goda masala (a blend of coriander, cumin, sesame, dried grated coconut, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaves, red chillies, fenugreek seeds, dagad phool and turmeric).
In the drawing room, he assembles the Nagpuri staple. On a square stainless-steel plate, he spoons the poha, layers it with tarri, tops it with homemade chivda and fresh coriander, and finishes with a squeeze of lime.

As we eat, he shares childhood anecdotes: his father’s insistence on eating local food while travelling — an approach that shaped his own journeys; making pasta and noodles at home; being fascinated by the tawa bhaji at weddings.

It has been a long time since the three of them have spent a day like this — unhurried, unremarkable, yet deeply full. There is food on the table, music in the air and the comfort of repetition: recipes remembered, movements relearned, stories retold.

A Nagpuri thali (Photo: Tashi Tobgyal)

Tarri Poha

Ingredients (for tarri):

½ cup boiled black chana
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small tomato, finely chopped
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp red chili powder
½ tsp garam masala
¼ tsp turmeric
1 tsp goda masala
2 tbsp oil; Salt to taste
1 to 1½ cups water

Ingredients (for poha):

2 cups thick poha (flattened rice)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small potato, finely diced (optional)
2 tbsp peanuts
1–2 green chilies chopped
8–10 curry leaves
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
1 tsp sugar (optional)
1–2 tbsp oil
fresh coriander leaves, chopped
juice of ½ lemon
fresh grated coconut (for garnish)

Method (for tarri):

Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and let them crackle. Add curry leaves and green chillies. Add the chopped onion and sauté until lightly golden. Stir in the ginger-garlic paste and cook until the raw smell disappears. Add the chopped tomato and cook until soft and mushy. Add turmeric, red chilli powder and goda masala. Mix well. Add salt. Pour half cup water and let it simmer for five to seven minutes until slightly thick and spicy.

Method (For poha):

Place the poha in a strainer and rinse gently under running water for a few seconds. Do not soak. Let it rest for five minutes to soften. Sprinkle salt and turmeric over it and gently toss to coat evenly. Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and let them pop. Add peanuts and roast until golden. Toss in curry leaves and green chillies, followed by onions, and sauté until soft and slightly translucent. If using potato, add it at this stage and cook until tender. Add the softened poha and sugar, mixing gently. Cover and cook on low heat for two to three minutes, until it releases a mild steam. Finish with lemon juice and fresh coriander.