In this week's cookbook review, Himanshu Saini presents his debut, The Rise of Indian Food, written with Liam Collens. Saini is the chef behind Tresind Studio in Dubai, the only three-Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in the world, and this book is the first time his tasting menus have been put on the page.
Born in Delhi and raised in an agricultural family, Saini enrolled in a hospitality management course at eighteen, worked in Mumbai and New York under the mentorship of chef Manish Mehrotra, then joined Tresind in 2014 before opening Tresind Studio in 2018. The Rise of Indian Food gathers more than 100 recipes across 240 pages, with forewords from Massimo Bottura, the two-time World's 50 Best Restaurants winner behind Osteria Francescana, and from Mehrotra himself.
The book is structured around five tasting menus, each built around a distinct Indian landscape: the Thar Desert, the Deccan Plateau, the Coastal Plains, the Northern Plains, and the Himalayan Mountains. Every chapter runs twelve courses, from starters through mains, desserts, and drinks, turning each region into its own complete narrative rather than a loose grouping of recipes.
Signature dishes give a sense of what that narrative looks like on the plate: Ghee-Roasted Crab with Burnt Cinnamon, Date and Rose Lassi with Vermouth, Turnip Kebab with a Roomali Roti Tartlet. These are not simplified versions of Indian classics, they are Saini's own inventions, built from familiar ingredients pushed toward something new.
A dedicated pantry section is the book's most practical addition, unpacking more than fifty of Saini's signature sauces, pastes, and spice blends, the building blocks that make the rest of the book work. For a book built around tasting menu cooking, this is the section that gives home cooks an actual way in, even if the finished plates themselves are firmly restaurant level.
Liam Collens's writing threads through the recipes, tracing Saini's creative process from inspiration to plate, and giving the book a point of view rather than just a catalogue of dishes.
Specially commissioned photography by Shresth Maloo captures both the precision of Saini's plating and the atmosphere of Tresind Studio itself. With five regions, twelve courses each, and forewords from two of the most respected names in global fine dining, this is as much a portrait of a restaurant's philosophy as it is a recipe collection.
Saini's next chapter is already underway: in early 2026, he opened Tresind Mayfair in London, bringing the same tasting menu approach to one of the city's most prestigious culinary neighborhoods.
The Rise of Indian Food is not a book of quick weeknight curries, and it does not pretend to be. It is a record of what a three-Michelin-starred Indian kitchen actually does, region by region, course by course, with the pantry chapter as the one real bridge back to a home kitchen.
For anyone following contemporary Indian fine dining, or simply curious what a tasting menu built entirely around Indian landscapes looks like on the page, this is essential reading.
The Rise of Indian Food is a portrait of Tresind Studio's tasting menus, ambitious, region by region, and backed by two of fine dining's most respected forewords.
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