New Delhi, Nov. 29 -- In a quiet corner of Delhi's otherwise teeming GK-1 N Block Market, is Roots by Rural Mitra. Roots is the cafe; Rural Mitra, the farm that feeds it. The menu follows the season, shifting with what the soil can sustain and the climate allows. Ingredients shine under the careful supervision of chef-owner Meenakshi Kumar.

The former lawyer found her way back to food through discomfort. After nearly a decade in Thailand, first studying at Le Cordon Bleu in Bangkok and then working with chef Gaggan Anand at his eponymous restaurant in the city, she returned to India in 2019. Once home, the produce felt unfamiliar. "I developed gut inflammation and sensitivities I'd never experienced before," she says. It made her pause a...