F&B has never been short on bold ideas, but today, many of the most influential ones are coming from the youngest minds in the industry.
Across India, young restaurateurs are bringing fresh perspectives, entrepreneurial ambition, and a deep understanding of evolving consumer preferences to build concepts that not only attract diners but also influence broader conversations around culture, community, and the future of dining.
In this edition of The Restaurant Times Young Owners Powerlist, we recognize the industry’s most promising voices who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, creativity, and commercial success at a relatively early stage in their careers.
More than rising stars, they represent the next generation of food and hospitality itself, and through their brands, they are actively shaping how Indians eat, gather, and experience food while setting the agenda for the industry’s future.
Niyati Rao
Niyati Rao always planned to open her first restaurant at 32. She opened Ekaa much before. Life, she says, works in mysterious ways. Growing up dyslexic in 1990s India, school was brutal, but her parents took her to fish markets, chicken stores, and the family’s annual crab feasts, where she found something that didn’t require her to be anyone other than herself. What her past work experiences gave her was not a technique but a question: if the world’s best chefs could excavate their own landscape with such reverence, what could she do with India’s? The answer became Ekaa, a kitchen that has sourced sea urchin from south Indian fishing villages, spent a year working with Kashmiri fishermen to harvest rainbow trout roe, foraged Naga pepper, and introduced Indian durian to the Indian table. Niyati is not just a chef building a restaurant. She is an archaeologist of flavor, one of the most important culinary voices of her generation.
Sagar Neve
Sagar Neve is the restaurateur who knew when to pick up the phone. During the first COVID lockdown, with the industry shuttered and the future uncertain, he sent a Facebook message to a chef he had worked with before, Niyati Rao, and started a conversation that would eventually become Ekaa, one of Mumbai’s most celebrated fine dining restaurants. With over 14 years in the industry, Sagar brings a seasoned operator’s eye to a concept that demands real precision: an ingredient-driven, cuisine-agnostic kitchen housed inside a century-old building in Fort, offering everything from a bar tapas menu to a 20-course chef’s tasting journey. Since Ekaa, he and Niyati have continued building together, adding KMC Bar & Bistro and Bombay Daak to their portfolio. Sagar is the kind of co-founder who makes the impossible feel inevitable: the one who creates the conditions for creative ambition to thrive.
Vanshika Bhatia
Trained at Le Cordon Bleu and shaped by stints at Noma, Gaggan, Junoon, and Olive Bar & Kitchen, Vanshika Bhatia has built a reputation as one of India’s most promising young chefs. She is the founder of Petite Pie Shop in Gurugram, where she brings together classical French techniques and Indian flavors. Her culinary philosophy is rooted in sustainability, zero-waste practices, heritage recipes, and ingredient-led cooking.
Kaushik Raju
Kaushik Raju is the co-founder of Farmlore, a Bengaluru dining concept that places farming at the center of the restaurant experience. Established in 2019, Farmlore has gained recognition for its focus on regenerative agriculture, seasonal ingredients, and immersive farm-to-table dining. Beyond hospitality, Raju is also a trustee of Atria University, where he is involved in shaping new approaches to higher education and learning.
Avantika Sinha Bahl
Avantika Sinha Bahl didn’t arrive at Kampai through a straightforward path. She studied Design at NIFT, went on to complete a Master’s in Luxury Brand Management at the University of the Arts London, and then returned to India to co-run her husband’s family catering business, reimagining it from the ground up. But it was her repeated journeys to Japan and the deep fascination she developed for the country’s cuisine and culture that led to the concept she is most known for. Launched when she was 25, Kampai brought something genuinely rare to Delhi: a Japanese restaurant so authentic that it draws 65% of its clientele from Japan’s embassy community. The portfolio she is building—which includes Arigato, Basque, and The Cocktail Collective—reflects a founder who understands that great hospitality brands are built slowly, with genuine cultural literacy at their core.
Abhimanyu Jakhar
Abhimanyu Jakhar is, by any measure, an unusual entrepreneur. An engineer by training, he entered hospitality in 2016 with a 4-star property in his hometown of Rohtak, before pivoting to shipbuilding, then returning to restaurants in 2020 with Diablo, a Mediterranean restobar he launched in the middle of a pandemic. That launch, executed through two major lockdowns, earned Diablo the Times Best Mediterranean Restobar title in 2021 and established Jakhar Hospitality Private Limited as a brand willing to back ambition with discipline. The JHPL portfolio has since grown to include DEA, Onrique, and the recently opened Alta Stella, each concept distinct, each designed around what Abhimanyu calls “experiences that make people feel something extraordinary.” His background in engineering shapes his approach: he identifies gaps, builds systems, and then deploys them at the intersection of luxury and lifestyle. He is, as he describes himself, a mechanical engineer turned experience architect, and the distinction matters.
Rajdeep Singh Kukreja
At 25, Rajdeep Singh Kukreja left a career in sales to launch Boojee Café with a single 100-square-foot outlet in Bandra. A hospitality graduate from the Institute of Hotel Management, Mumbai, he built the business from his personal savings and expanded it into a multi-location café brand across Mumbai. According to NDTV Profit, Boojee Café has grown into a ₹100 crore-plus business, with a focus on specialty coffee and all-day café dining.
Zonu Reddy
Zonu Reddy is the co-founder of Spago Foods, a company that specializes in bringing international bakery brands, particularly Magnolia Bakery, to India. Alongside her husband, Nischay Jayeshankar, they established Spago Foods in 2018, opening India’s first Magnolia Bakery in 2019, aiming to offer high-quality, authentic desserts that reflect the culinary experiences of New York. Under her leadership, Magnolia Bakery has expanded across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, catering to India’s growing demand for premium desserts and bakery experiences.
Raghav Simha
The story of Project Hum begins, as the best ones often do, in a dorm room. Raghav Simha, Pragun Bajaj, and Jatin Talreja were studying hotel management together at IHM Aurangabad in 2019 when the idea first took shape: a restaurant that would put farmers and seasonal ingredients at the center, not the periphery, of everything. Raghav is the connective tissue of that vision: the co-founder who articulates Project Hum’s philosophy most clearly, who talks about building “an alternative food system” and means it. Under his leadership, the Bandra restaurant serves hundreds of customers a day, ensures its farmer partners earn 60% more than before, and runs an ever-changing seasonal menu that follows the harvest rather than a fixed template.
Pragun Bajaj
For Pragun Bajaj, Project Hum represents something rare for a trained chef: the freedom to cook with complete honesty. After graduating from IHM Aurangabad, he channeled his culinary background into building a kitchen where nothing is sourced carelessly. He visits the farmers personally to see what is in season, what is coming next, and to understand the land that feeds the restaurant’s menu. This direct, deeply personal connection to ingredients shapes everything that leaves Project Hum’s kitchen: from the Asian-inflected grain bowls and freshly made wraps to the rooftop farm menu that changes with the Maharashtra calendar. Pragun’s cooking is an argument that fast-casual food and genuine integrity are not in conflict, that you can feed 500 people a day without cutting corners on a single one of them.
Jatin Talreja
Jatin Talreja is the co-founder who thinks about Project Hum in its fullest sense, not just as a restaurant, but as a community, a movement, and a living relationship between diners and the people who grow their food. It was Jatin who explained the name: “We want this to be an inclusive space that keeps growing with the movement.” And it has. Beyond the dining room, Project Hum runs catering services, daily meal plans for fitness enthusiasts, and events that bring local farmers in person, letting them sample dishes made from their produce and witness the farm-to-table process from the other side. Jatin’s vision for the brand extends well beyond its current two outlets. In a market saturated with concept restaurants, Project Hum under Jatin’s co-stewardship stands out because the concept was never the point; it was always the community.
Ishaan Bahl
Ishaan Bahl is the CEO of Risa Hospitality, the group behind Khyber and 145 Cafe & Bar. A third-generation restaurateur, he oversees the operations and growth of both brands while building on a family legacy that spans decades in the hospitality industry. With nearly a decade of experience, Bahl is currently leading an expansion strategy that aims to add 10 new restaurants in the coming years.
Kabir Moorjani
Kabir Moorjani is the co-founder and chef of Hundo Pizza, the Mumbai-based delivery-first pizza brand he launched in 2020. Trained at Les Roches International School of Hotel Management and Le Cordon Bleu Paris, Moorjani brings a background in international hospitality and culinary operations to the business. Before Hundo Pizza, he founded the Thai restaurant Aroi Mumbai and held operational roles across leading hospitality brands, combining classical training with a modern QSR approach.
Ronak Rajani
Ronak Rajani is the co-founder of Hundo Pizza, the Mumbai-based delivery-first pizza brand he launched in 2020 with Kabir Moorjani. He also currently serves as Assistant Vice President at Swiggy. Previously, Rajani founded Mumbai Foodie, one of the city’s largest food discovery platforms, giving him a deep understanding of consumer behavior and food trends. Today, he combines his experience across food technology, digital marketing, and hospitality to build restaurant brands that are as recognizable online as they are offline.
Simona Mohan
Simona Mohan‘s path to hospitality ran through politics. A Psychology graduate who had worked with India’s AICC Research Department and as a political strategist, she brought an unusual lens to a problem she encountered on a New Year’s trip to Coorg: that India’s most beautiful non-urban destinations lacked any consistent, quality accommodation for the modern traveler. That observation became Raho Hospitalities, which she co-founded in 2022 with the Somana brothers and built, from a single two-bedroom cottage in Coorg, into a cluster-based, asset-light homestay brand. Raho raised crores in seed funding from Campus Fund in 2024 and has since grown from five to over 60 rooms, with a projected revenue of ₹3 crore for FY26. Simona’s background in political strategy—understanding constituencies, building trust, communicating values—has translated more naturally than most would expect into building a hospitality brand that integrates local home cooks, artisans, and auto drivers into its operating model. She is building something that is genuinely good for the places it enters, not just the guests who visit them.
Anand Nahar
Anand Nahar is the co-founder of ZORKO Limited, a rapidly expanding quick-service restaurant (QSR) brand known for making affordable dining accessible across India. An engineer-turned-entrepreneur, he has built ZORKO through an asset-light franchise model centered around innovation, operational efficiency, and customer-centric thinking. Nahar is also a TEDx and Josh Talks speaker who advocates entrepreneurship, calculated risk-taking, and commitment to creating meaningful employment opportunities.
Amrit Nahar
Amrit Nahar is the co-founder of ZORKO Limited, a fast-growing quick-service restaurant (QSR) brand driving affordable dining across India. With academic training in engineering and anthropology, he brings a multidisciplinary approach to business, leading operations, marketing, and brand expansion. Beyond entrepreneurship, Nahar is committed to ethical leadership and sustainable growth, drawing inspiration from his studies in human consciousness and Ayurveda to build purpose-driven businesses.
Rachi Gupta
Rachi Gupta is the founder and chef of The Bread Bar, an artisanal bakery and all-day café she launched in Mumbai in 2021. A graduate of the Institute of Hotel Management, Aurangabad, Gupta further trained in French pastry arts at École Nationale Supérieure de la Pâtisserie in France before returning to India to build her own brand. She later expanded her portfolio with The Gelato Bar, bringing together her interests in baking, pastry, and specialty desserts.
Ish Patil
At 24, Ish Patil founded Donmai, a contemporary Japanese gastrobar in Mumbai shaped by her background in design, art, and hospitality. A graduate of Parsons School of Design, Patil approaches restaurants as immersive cultural spaces, combining food, architecture, craft, and storytelling into a single experience. Built on the principles of mindfulness and community, Donmai reflects her vision of hospitality as a platform for connection, creativity, and cultural exchange.
Mohit R Gowda
At 17, Mohit R. Gowda launched South Tiffin House, a restaurant brand focused on authentic South Indian cuisine and regional specialties. Since then, he has grown the business to 11 outlets across Mumbai through a mix of company-owned and franchise locations. In 2025, Gowda introduced Aahara, a fine-dining concept that marks his entry into a new segment of the hospitality industry.
Closing Note
The names featured in this edition of The Restaurant Times Young Owners Powerlist 2026 represent a new generation of entrepreneurs who are creating brands, communities, and new ways of thinking about hospitality. From chef-led concepts and fast-growing chains to mission-driven ventures and culturally rooted dining experiences, each has demonstrated an ability to identify opportunities and execute with purpose.
As consumer preferences evolve and competition intensifies, these young leaders are proving that age is no barrier to influence. Through creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial drive, they are helping define the next chapter of food and hospitality in India.
