MasterChef India Season 7 winner Nayanjyoti Saikia has been consistently creating food content on Instagram under the handle @the_travellercook since he returned from the show. He has collaborated with several brands, attended several events across the country and garnered much appreciation for his achievements. Yet, there was only one question his fans and well-wishers had — when will he have his own restaurant?
One year ago, when the newly crowned winner of the cooking reality show was in Kolkata for a workshop, he spoke to My Kolkata about his plans and dreams. One of them was to open a restaurant of his own by 2025. This September 5, the 28-year-old boy from Tinsukia, Assam, has achieved his dream and is going to inaugurate his restaurant, Roohani, at the Central Mall on Guwahati-Shillong Road in the capital city of Assam. Ahead of the opening, the chef, and now restaurateur, in a quick chat, gave My Kolkata a preview of his new venture. Edited excerpts from the conversation…
My Kolkata: First of all, congratulations for the restaurant. It’s finally happening! Tell us when and where does it open its doors?
Nayanjyoti Saikia: Thank you, so much! We are opening at GS Road (Guwahati-Shillong Road), in Block B of Central Mall. The inauguration is on September 5. On that day, we have invited some guests, including influencers and local celebrities from Assam. The press and media will also be there. On the first day, we are going to have a special chef's table, which will be a nine-course dinner. The next day, which is September 6, we will have another chef’s table, same nine-course dinner. This will be available for prior booking. From September 7 onwards, we open it for the public.
The ambience of the restaurant at GS Road, in Block B of Central Mall, blends in traditional and modern decor motifs
Take us through the menu. How have you curated it?
The menu is progressive modern cuisine that will have an influence of the hyperlocal ingredients. It includes dishes that I like. For example, we have my favourite pastas and some of my favourite Thai dishes. Basically, the dishes I thought I had the scope to play around with my own innovations. We are focussing on elevating popular dishes like kebabs. We will be doing kebabs but with local twists where we use our local lime, different kinds of northeastern chillies and herbs. We are also focusing on desserts (he was popular for his desserts on MasterChef). There are many desserts with some innovative touches. We are planning on desserts like Kaji Nemu Tart Oasis, which brings together Assamese flavours and French patisserie techniques. We have used Kaji Nemu in it, which is our local Assamese lemon. We have something called Bumble Bee which is a rich wild honey frozen parfait with crumbly almond sable drizzled honey caramel. We have used our local roselle flower in the sorbets and syrups. The trials are still going on. We will have the final menu ready soon.
Have any of your MasterChef dishes made it to the menu?
Oh yes, quite a few. The curried crab starter I made for the finale is on the menu. The buffalo wings that were liked by the judges will be there. Many of the desserts too like the parfaits are on the menu.
How many seats do you have in your restaurant? Is there a bar too?
On the first floor we have the restaurant which is an eighty-seater space. On the second floor we have the pub, which can accommodate another 70-80 people. So in total it is a 150-seater restaurant.
Can we expect some signature cocktails with your innovations?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely! We are actually still working on the menu. But there will be one of my favourite cocktails. Which is a roselle flower syrup cocktail stirred with white rum or vodka and infused with kafir leaves. So it is sweet and sour with a lemony zest!
The bar will serve some of Nayanjyoti's favourite and signature cocktails
Your followers and fans have been asking for your own restaurant for a long time. But you wanted time. Share with us what went behind setting it up?
The ideation began in April 2023. I wanted to take some time to learn how to function in a restaurant kitchen, work with a team and understand the business. Finally this year, around February, I felt confident enough and approached an investor. They said, “Let’s do it. It’s now or never.” So, then we began with everything, right from setting up the place to curating the menu. We are still forming our team. While I head the kitchen, we have a chef from Uttarakhand who will be doing the kebabs. We have an Indian chef, an executive chef and more people will be joining us. You’ll get to know the team soon.
Have the learnings at MasterChef helped you as you step in to head the kitchen of a restaurant?
It has helped me in many ways, of course. I learnt several techniques from the mentors and judges that are proving to be helpful to me now. Working in teams with other contestants taught me teamwork. Before MasterChef happened, I was an introvert. I would work in my own kitchen. But the show made me confident. I have invited the judges and my fellow contestants to the restaurant. Most of them are busy at the moment, but some of my MasterChef friends have promised to visit in October.
Finally, tell us why the name Roohani?
When we were thinking about the name, we had a fine-dining restaurant in mind. My favourite colour was purple, so we thought of giving a velvety, purple look to the restaurant, which exudes a classy vibe. There were many other names after that. But when we decided on progressive Indian cuisine, we knew we wanted an Indian look and feel and an Indian name! That's when we named it ‘Roohani’, which means soulful. And that's what we are going to do — serve soulful food that touches the soul of our diners.
