Meet Michelin Star Chef Surbhi Sahni
Our Michelin Starred Mithai Queen
With two decades of professional culinary experience, chef Surbhi Sahni brings home cooking traditions to modern Indian cuisine and confections or "Indian mithai sweets". As a proud Indian chef and female entrepreneur, Sahni pushes back against the manufactured prestige of Eurocentric cuisine and uses her platform to restore dignity to the legacies of home cooks, vegetable growers, rice farmers, and spice wallahs who have nurtured Indian regional cuisine for centuries.
"She is keeping Indian culinary traditions alive.”
Today, she is hailed as a visionary.”
“She’s made a career out of marrying two cultures.”
Before launching TAGMO, Surbhi served as the creative force behind Michelin-starred New York City restaurants, Devi, Tulsi, and Saar Bistro. She was also the creative director and events director at Hemant Mathur Catering. Her restaurant TAGMO has been listed in the Michelin Guide and has received accolades from New York Times, Eater, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, and Oprah Magazine.
While Indian female chefs like her are still a rarity, Surbhi has established herself as a talented pastry chef with hand crafted confections that preserve the essence of South Asian mithai while maintaining the innovation of her distinct flavor pairings and delicate artistry, cementing her status as the unmatched Mithai Queen.
TAGMO, which means tigress in Bhutanese, started with a literal dream that I had about a tigress.In South Asian culture, the tigress is an iconic symbol of feminine strength. She represents a type of power that protects rather than harms. The word ‘TAGMO’ embodies this for me and it’s this feminine energy that guides my business. I want to collaborate, not compete – not make space for just myself, but other women around me!
As a proud queer woman of color, I intentionally embody my Indian heritage as well as values of inclusivity and mutual upliftment. Everyone knows what chai is, but few people know about mithai – that’s my specialty. TAGMO exists to share these delicious sweets as a pathway for people to learn about global food histories. There are very few female mithai makers in India so I want to make space for us while highlighting the rich diversity in our mithai. I want to tell the world the story of how our Indian mithai came to be over generations.
Our Store
226 Front St, New York City,
NY 10038
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Mon - Fri
9am - 5pm
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Sat & Sun
Closed