Assam chef Nayanjyoti Saikia on his maiden restaurant, 'Roohani'

It still feels like a dream. At times, it feels that it is 2019, and I will wake up from sleep to find out everything was a dream.

Roohani means soulful. We wanted to curate a menu that serves soulful food to guests. We took inspiration from across the globe, but we are tweaking the recipes by using our local produce.

The dessert section deserves a special highlight, since that is my forte. We are doing some classic desserts, but with a twist, eg. a tiramisu that will look completely different; a lemon meringue tart with Assamese kaji nemu (citrus lemon). We also have a reconstructed Apple pie, which we are calling Autumn on a plate. This dessert will give the vibe of an autumnal forest. We are also doing a variety of chaats, where each will have a unique twist as to how they will be presented. We are doing pav bhaji but will serve it as a bruschetta. The in-house toasted breads will be topped with the bhaji, and for the chutneys, we will serve caviar, pearls and yogurt foam. The popular dishes that made my way to win the title easier, like the Curried crab, chicken wings, and a few of the desserts will also be on the menu.

It took a whole year for me to curate the menu. I have curated the menu mostly, but there’s my executive chef from Uttarakhand, who’s making the north Indian dishes and kebabs, and he is fabulous at making kebabs.

Not really. Instead of imported coriander, we are just using the local produce. We are mostly using our local chillis, lemons, and herbs, that might change the taste, but only slightly.

Yes, I think it would. Adding to it, soon after our launch, we will also introduce our 'ethnic menu', which will boast our authentic recipes with a modern touch, but we won’t play up a lot with it, since the concept is to treat our guests with soulful food.

Northeastern food is very different from any other parts of India. We use very hyperlocal elements, seasonal produce, which makes the cuisine unavailable to most parts of the country. As a result, people don’t connect to the food easily, because they haven’t even tasted it. But I want to show people what alternate spices and produce can be used in the dishes and how the dishes can be elevated to suit every palate. With these, the northeast food might receive more recognition from the rest of the country.

Also, whenever I travel, the only thing that haunts me is that we never present our food as proudly as the rest of the world. We have such brilliant food, such fantastic spices, but we rarely talk about them.

There are only a few vendors who export the hyperlocal produce to other parts of the country. Even during the competition, I couldn’t really find our local spices or herbs in the show’s pantry. They had spices from down south, and even from Kashmir, but not from our regions.

The simplicity. The food is healthy and sustainable since we believe in foraging, and it always gives the warmth of a mother’s hug, the warmth of a home.

I don’t know if this is a coincidence, but I had my audition on September 5, and now I opened my restaurant on that very date. I was so nervous that day because the show was my only chance to convince my parents to showcase my inclination towards cooking. Everything fell into place thereafter. Opening my restaurant was my focus from the very start, and I slowly realised that not many people know in depth about our food. So, I had to create a menu that uses the local ingredients that would educate more people about our food.