Sagar, first-generation Nepali-American Executive Chef for Everest Cuisine in California, embodies the very spirit of feeding cross-cultural understanding through artistry, care, and innovative food interpretations. Having migrated to the US as a child, he started presenting his heritage cuisine in important new ways to increasingly new audiences.
Sagar was raised obsessed over the cooking of traditional Nepali dishes passed down from his homeland, with reverence for the ingredients and techniques passed down through the generations. He hails, however, from California, where cultural exposure means a dizzying panoply of flavors around the world-an exposure that helped awake the innovative fusion desire within him.
Customers will gobble a meal that twists comfort food to new heights by marrying it with experimentation: chili-honey glazed chicken momos, saffron-masala flatbreads topped with avocado-mango salsa. Tradition and modern twists allow new immigrants and native-born patrons to appreciate Nepali culture through the familiar lens.
While playing to true Himalayan favorites, Sagar injects every dish served with freshness and international touches through creative reinterpretations. Probably the most popular at Everest Cuisine is the house variant of the heated lentil stew that India abhors, at least with smoky tomatoes and heirloom rice varieties.
Their aromatic thukpa soup begs to be slurped over chicken broth dotted with Vietnamese basil, turmeric, and tended-to mushrooms. All innovations splash forward a sense of deeper appreciation for how cultural blending can steadily improve the tapestry of culinary expressions across borders.
Not only is Sagar creative with food, but through community programs and events, he promotes deep cultural exchange. His storytelling nights at Everest Cuisine provide him an opportunity to share with greater audiences the Nepali folklore, traditions, and family recipes in his mother tongue.
Cooking shows have made the audience comfortable talking out for their heritage by way of food items they can share with their loved ones and friends. Sagar also wants to create a working environment inclusive of all and the staff at Everest Cuisine are recruited from various diverse backgrounds united under the mission to bring appreciation across borders for our shared humanness.
By creatively paying tribute to where he came from without borders, Sagar propagates the ideology that tradition feeds evolving identities and inspires cultural pride in new generations. His works will surely remind patrons around the globe of renewed cultural understanding and appreciation regardless of whether their journeys may have crossed the borderlands from the familiar or foreign.
Above all, Everest Cuisine inspires that feeling of finding global citizenship through dignified cultural sharing across all circumstances and tables in life. It is a vision that Sagar hopes will continue to bridge communities for years to come.
