Chef Mayank Istwal Brings Ayurvedic Wisdom to Modern Indian Fine Dining

Growing up on a farm in Uttarakhand, India, near the foothills of the Himalayas, Mayank Istwal never imagined he’d one day become the executive chef of a Michelin-starred restaurant in Texas. He did, however, spend those formative years learning from his grandfather, an Ayurvedic doctor, that food is medicine. As they foraged together in the mountains and nearby national parks—gathering ashwagandha, morel mushrooms, and herbs—Istwal’s grandfather taught him to eat in accordance with Ayurveda, an ancient holistic approach to wellness rooted in the Indian subcontinent. Today, Chef Istwal draws on those principles to build seasonal menus at Musaafer, the palatial fine-dining restaurant in Houston that, in 2024, became the first Indian restaurant in Texas to earn a Michelin star.

At 19, Istwal began his studies at the Institute of Hotel Management in northeastern India, and it wasn’t long before he was cooking in the kitchens of luxury hotels across the country. As hectic as the chef’s life was, he never stopped studying Ayurveda. Over time, he developed his own Ayurvedic spice blends—and eventually his own food festivals—where he taught guests about spices through an Ayurvedic lens. Take fennel seeds, for instance: “They’re cooling, they aid in digestion, and they’re mouth freshening,” Istwal says.

The deeper he delved into Ayurveda, the more he experimented with it in the kitchen—and occasionally, he received backlash. “People were upset that I was applying Ayurveda to dishes that weren’t vegetarian,” he says. In response, he’d ask about people living in coastal areas, where seafood is a staple. “Don’t they have the right to prepare their food with Ayurvedic spices?” He adds, “I think Ayurveda should be available to everyone. I’d rather make bridges than boundaries.”

In 2016, Istwal’s career took a dramatic turn. Shammi and Mithu Malik—the Dubai-based husband-and-wife team behind the Spice Route Company—traveled to Bangalore to meet a young chef they’d been hearing about: Mayank Istwal. They were building an Indian fine-dining restaurant in Houston and were searching for an executive chef.

Istwal seated them with a view of the kitchen and, over the course of four hours, prepared a 14-course tasting menu—each dish made from scratch, many à la minute. At the time, he was preparing to move to London, but when the Maliks offered him the job, he changed course and set his sights on Texas. He had one condition: before moving, he wanted to take a 100-day culinary journey across India to study the food traditions of all 29 states.

Musaafer opened in May 2020—arguably the worst possible time to launch a restaurant. Despite a brief closure and the challenges of a 25 percent capacity limit, it quickly found critical and popular success. In 2021, Time named it one of the “World’s 100 Greatest Places.”

Inside the opulent 10,000-square-foot space, Istwal and his team serve a seasonal menu inspired by his 100-day culinary journey and grounded in Ayurvedic principles.

“Ayurveda is so technical,” he says. “I’m always finding ways to make it simpler, so people don’t lose interest.” He also tries to make it playful. One Valentine’s Day, he developed a cheeky “V-Pill” (V for Viagra)—a capsule filled with concentrated watermelon juice, herbs, and spices designed to boost libido.

“In the U.S., you don’t see menus inspired by Ayurveda,” Istwal says. “Even in India, you’ll only find them in wellness spas. But Ayurveda is the oldest medicine in the world. Ayurveda is for everybody.”