11-05-2025
India gets its first sake master brewer
BENGALARU -- "My tryst with Japanese cuisine started in the early 2000s on a visit to New York," says Maia Laifungbam, India's first toji (master brewer of sake). "I tasted sushi for the first time and just loved it. There has been no looking back since then."
A professional chef who worked in several restaurants before becoming head chef at Roboto, a Japanese restaurant in the southwestern state of Goa, Laifungbam says she saw the potential of sake in India when she decided to put it on the menu.
