Chef’s Kitchen

Each month we bring a guest chef into our Chef’s Kitchen column to give us tips that elevate their cooking (and hopefully ours). They also provide a recipe that showcases their tips. Our guest chef this month is Sanjay Sharma, owner and chef of Masala Bar & Grill, an upscale Indian restaurant with a menu of authentic favorites drawn from all corners of the Indian continent. The bar offers signature cocktails, wines, taps and Indian beer, and features Happy Hours, late night entertainment and a dance floor. The steal of a lunch buffet always includes the critically acclaimed Butter Chicken.

Sanjay Sharma was born into a family who for many years have, and continue to own and operate, restaurants in Jalander City, located in the Punjab region of India. After time spent learning his trade within the family unit, Sanjay came to Canada in 1981, and for the next 7 years worked as a chef in top Indian restaurants in Ottawa and Calgary. In 1988, he came to the U.S. and worked as a chef in several Seattle-area Indian restaurants, the Marriott Kitchens on the Microsoft Campus and at Swedish Hospital in Seattle. In 1999, he opened the original Masala India Cuisine just east of Northgate Mall. Now 10 years later, he has created Masala Bar & Grill which he sees as “my ultimate dream restaurant.”