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Meghalaya on a plate: Chef Niyati Rao brings Italian-Khasi fusion to Mumbai
Updated On: 23 October, 2026 06:05 PM IST | Mumbai | The Guide Team
As her award-winning Italian-Khasi fusion restaurant, Nonna Mei hosts a three-day pop-up in the city, chef Niyati Rao sits down for a conversation on the flavours, traditions, and research that shapes the menu
Interior Olive Bandra Night.
What drew you to the food ecosystem of Meghalaya?
Niyati Rao: There is an incredible raw, untamed honesty to the indigenous ingredients and foraging traditions of Meghalaya that you simply don’t encounter anywhere else. When you taste things like smoked pork infused with wild perilla seeds or local Khasi spices, it completely reframes how you look at regional Indian flavour profiles. It’s an ecosystem that forces you to strip away modern pretension and respect what the terrain naturally provides. For someone who thrives on culinary research and unexpected fermentation, stepping into those mountains felt like opening an entirely new archive of taste.
What kind of research did you dive into once the idea of Nonna Mei emerged and you began work on the menu?
Niyati Rao: With Nonna Mei, the research was all about finding that precise intersection of comfort and curiosity without ever feeling forced or pretentious. We didn’t want a superficial mashup. I spent hours dissecting flavour structures, looking at how homestyle comfort food techniques could be elevated while retaining their soul. It involved deep-dive experimentation with textures, balancing spice and umami, and ensuring that every single dish told a distinct story rather than reading as a gimmick on the menu.
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