Aditi Dugur

Aditi Dugar first started cooking at the age of 16. But the passion for baking was part of her family’s enthusiasm for food. A four-year career in finance and the life-altering experience of motherhood set her on a different tangent. After quitting her job, Aditi, a lifelong overachiever, knew she had to do something with her life. So she started a small-scale catering business with her mother.

The plan came naturally to Dugar, having always been surrounded by delicious food and tantalizing aromas from her mum and grandma’s kitchen. Months of writing emails to Michelle Roux Jr. resulted in Aditi being accepted in the bakery section of La Gavaroche. Working in a 3 Michelin starred restaurant and surrounded by the most talented chefs confirmed her apprehensions and set out a goal path for her.

Having spent many summers in London, doing short stints at Zuma and Le Petite Maison and working with one of London’s best flower company broadened her horizon. The first time she attended a Sotheby reception to do a flower setup, it dawned on her what the level of finesse at these events is and what India was lacking. What goes into the most perfectly set table for a sitdown dinner and other such details were an eye-opener into the world of creativity and imagination.

It soon became her mission to get to know chefs and train with them while experiencing food with all my travels. One summer she went to Thailand and trained with a street food vendor during the vegetarian festival. Eating the most sinful and tasty vegetarian dishes got her obsessed with South East Asian food. She then got a stage at Bo Lan, one of the best fine dining restaurants in Bangkok. Good food, great presentation and even better service.

The more she travelled and discovered the world, the better she got at what she did. A recent trip to San Sebastian and eating from the rich Basque region drew her very close to the discovery of produce. It was here that she met Prateek Sadhu who shared the same vision. And that’s how MASQUE was born.