Kashmiri Flavours Find a Home by Powai Lake

Chef Nalini Moti Sadhu of Matamaal brings Kashmiri Pandit cuisine, family recipes, traditional music and regional craft to Nawab Saheb at The Westin Mumbai Powai Lake from October 8 to 10, 2026.

Mumbai, October 8, 2026: For three evenings, the journey from Dal Lake to Powai Lake will be measured not in kilometres, but through kahwa, lotus stem, fennel, dried ginger and the slow transformation of meat and vegetables.

Nawab Saheb at The Westin Mumbai Powai Lake is hosting Kashmir, By the Lake, a culinary collaboration with Chef Nalini Moti Sadhu, chef-owner of Matamaal, from October 8 to 10, 2026.

The experience brings Kashmiri food to Mumbai within a wider cultural setting of live santoor and jal tarang music, Kashmiri-inspired décor, storytelling and a specially curated art bazaar. Kashmiri craft has drawn national attention before, including the hand-made beauty from Kashmir that decorated the G20 Summit room. Powai Lake provides an evocative backdrop to an evening designed around the landscapes and memories that have shaped Sadhu’s relationship with Kashmir.

A Kashmiri Tradition Beyond Wazwan

For many diners outside the region, Kashmiri cuisine is synonymous with Wazwan, the elaborate banquet tradition associated with professional wazas and an extensive succession of meat dishes. Similar celebrations have travelled across India, such as The Taste of Wazwan celebration at JW Marriott Bengaluru.

Kashmir, By the Lake turns attention towards Kashmiri Pandit cooking, a distinct culinary tradition built around both vegetarian and meat preparations. Many recipes avoid onion and garlic, creating flavour instead through asafoetida, fennel, dried ginger, yogurt, Kashmiri chillies and mustard oil.

Dried ginger is particularly important to the cuisine. Matamaal identifies dried ginger, asafoetida and fennel among the principal flavour foundations used in Kashmiri Pandit kitchens. Matamaal

This creates food that can appear richly coloured yet remain aromatic rather than aggressively spicy. The gravies gain depth from carefully balanced spices, yogurt and patient cooking instead of the onion-heavy bases common to many North Indian restaurant preparations.

Chef Nalini’s cooking is rooted in recipes and techniques learned from the women in her family. Through Matamaal, which she founded with Surender Sadhu, she has spent more than a decade presenting Kashmiri cuisine and culture to diners beyond the Valley. Earlier, the Sadhus presented The Kashmiri Rhapsody at The Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore. matamaal.com

What Is on the Menu?

The menu brings together Kashmiri Pandit specialities and selected dishes from the region’s wider culinary repertoire.

Vegetarian preparations include Dum Aloo, Nadur Yakhni and Paneer Tuj. Nadur, or lotus stem, is especially evocative of Kashmir’s lake-based food culture. In a yakhni preparation, it is cooked in a delicate yogurt gravy scented with spices such as fennel and dried ginger.

The non-vegetarian selection includes Mutton Roganjosh, Rista, Tabakmaaz and Gaad Nadur.

Roganjosh is among Kashmir’s most recognisable dishes, although its preparation varies between communities. The Kashmiri Pandit interpretation traditionally develops its characteristic depth through asafoetida, dried ginger, fennel and red chilli rather than an onion-and-garlic base.

Tabakmaaz presents lamb ribs cooked until tender and then finished to create a rich exterior. Rista, traditionally associated with Wazwan, consists of pounded meatballs served in a deeply coloured gravy. Gaad Nadur combines fish with lotus stem, bringing together ingredients closely associated with the Valley’s waterways.

The meal begins with a traditional kahwa welcome and concludes with a Kashmiri dessert alongside a contemporary whisky-flambé creation. Guests can order à la carte or select between vegetarian and non-vegetarian set menus, accompanied by announced Indian craft-spirit pairings. passionateinmarketing.com

More Than a Restaurant Pop-Up

The most interesting aspect of Kashmir, By the Lake is its attempt to place the food within a broader cultural context.

Regional cuisines are frequently reduced to a handful of recognisable dishes when presented in luxury hotels. Kashmiri menus are not new to hotel dining, as the Kashmiri culinary journey at Novotel Mumbai and Chor Bizarre’s Kashmir menu at The Ritz-Carlton show. By including music, craft, décor and storytelling, this collaboration gives diners a way to understand that Kashmiri cuisine is not a single uniform repertoire.

Pandit home cooking, Muslim household traditions and Wazwan share ingredients and geography but follow different culinary structures. Understanding those distinctions turns dinner from a simple tasting exercise into an introduction to the Valley’s layered cultural history.

The setting reinforces that narrative. Nawab Saheb is The Westin Mumbai Powai Lake’s Indian speciality restaurant, known for food inspired by the subcontinent’s princely and regional kitchens. Its position beside Powai Lake creates a natural visual connection with the waterways that feature so prominently in Kashmir’s landscape and culinary memory.

This does not make Powai a substitute for Dal Lake. It gives the restaurant a setting in which food, water, memory and migration can be brought into conversation.

Kashmir, By the Lake: Event Details

Reservations can also be made through the Nawab Saheb booking page.

For diners familiar only with roganjosh or Wazwan, the three-night experience offers a wider introduction to Kashmiri food. For members of the community, it may offer something more personal: the taste of a family kitchen presented beside another lake, far from home but still connected to it through memory. Kashmir’s wider cultural pull is also visible in Jammu and Kashmir tourism at IITM 2023 in Mumbai.