India, July 17 -- I was told to come at 8 pm.

So I did.

For the first few minutes, I sat with chef Sadiya Khan, Pincode's corporate chef, making small talk while the room filled up. Pincode by Kunal Kapur is tucked inside a mall in Bengaluru, which feels counterintuitive until you understand Bengaluru. Then in walked chef Kunal Kapur. No entourage. No spotlight. He pulled up a chair across from me, and we talked.

He got up. He checked on another table. He went to the kitchen. He came back.

That's how the next three and a half hours went. Not a formal interview. Not a staged chef's table. A conversation that kept finding me between services. By 11:30 pm, when I left, and midnight when I got home, I realised I'd just spent an evening th...