The culinary–cocktail crossover that's redefining modern fine dining

There is a new conversation happening in the world of whisky—one that lives far beyond dimly lit bars and leather-lined lounges. Johnnie Walker’s newest collaboration with NAAR and Wana Yook marks that shift. The partnership is all about reimagining where whisky belongs today, by placing it inside the world of avant-garde food culture and fine dining. This bar takeover signals a move away from old-school perceptions and into the highest rungs of contemporary culinary innovation. 

In pairing whisky-forward cocktails with a Michelin-star kitchen philosophy, Johnnie Walker steps into a new creative space that celebrates flavour as an evolving craft.

Whiskey meets gastronomy

The collaboration bridges two boundary-pushing culinary programs—NAAR’s mountain-driven ethos from Himachal and Wana Yook’s futuristic Thai gastronomy. Together, they explore terroir, technique, and heritage ingredients in a way that feels bold, modern, and intensely flavour-led. It’s a meeting point where innovation takes centre stage, and whisky becomes a vehicle for experimentation rather than tradition. 

Not your regular whiskey cocktail

The cocktails created for this takeover are crafted to mirror the kitchen’s ethos and invite guests to experience Johnnie Walker through a new lens. From the reimagined Himalayan Highball to the Galgal Gold Sour, Alpine Boulevardier, and Mugolio Mountain, each cocktail serves as an ode to the brand’s commitment to flavour-forwardness and reinvention. This isn’t just about evolving the whisky serve—it’s about evolving the category itself. 

To understand how the heritage brand's whisky philosophy is being translated into a culinary experience, we turned to one of the chefs shaping the menu. Chef Prateek Sadhu of NAAR explains how the food interprets this collaboration and what one can expect from the flavour narrative.

Harper's Bazaar: The Thai collaboration brings together two very distinct culinary geographies, Himachal’s mountains and Thailand’s tropical intensity. What was the most surprising intersection you discovered between these two food cultures?

Prateek Sadhu: How naturally they spoke to each other. Both cuisines rely on heat, smoke, fermentation, and wild aromatics—just expressed differently. Himachal uses drying and pickling. Thailand uses pastes and fresh herbs. But the instinct is identical: preserve flavour, build layers, honour the land. Once we saw that, the dishes came together easily.

HB: NAAR is deeply rooted in mountain produce. How did working with Thai ingredients, ferments, herbs, and aromatics challenge or expand your approach? Was NAAR already using this style of cooking? 

PS: Thai aromatics—galangal, lemongrass—are bright and immediate. Very different from the deeper, resinous notes I'm used to. It pushed me to think. We already work with ferments, acid, and heat at NAAR, but Thai cuisine uses them differently. This collaboration made us stretch without losing ourselves.

HB: Your cooking often expresses a sense of place. How do you stay true to that philosophy when you're outside your own terrain, whether it's this collab or when you're cooking in a completely different cultural and ecological environment like Milan or San Francisco? 

PS: Sense of place isn't a location—it's a discipline. It means cooking with what's around you and respecting its logic, not forcing your own. Whether I'm in Milan, San Francisco, or Bangkok, I let the ingredients guide me. The dish becomes an honest reflection of that terrain, even if the memory behind it is mine.

HB: You’ve spoken about being flexible with what the mountains give you. How does the adaptability translate when you step into someone else’s pantry, one filled with ingredients not native to your own landscape?

PS: It's a mindset, not a recipe. In the mountains, weather changes everything overnight—so you adapt. In a collaboration, you stay open without romanticising or resisting what's new. When I step into someone else's kitchen, I'm a guest. My job is to understand their ingredients with humility. Often, the best dishes come from that tension—between what's familiar and what's completely foreign.

HB: When you design a collaborative menu, how do courses evolve? Do you build around a shared narrative with the guest chef or let the ingredients lead you toward what the course structure eventually becomes? 

PS: It starts with conversation—about memories, ingredients, what excites us both. Then the menu builds organically. With Chalee, we talked a lot about smoke and fermentation. That became our anchor.

HB: Thai cuisine has strong traditions in fermentation, balancing heat, acidity, and aroma. Were there any techniques or flavour logics that you felt immediately aligned with your own style at NAAR?

PS: Fermentation, immediately. At NAAR, we ferment to carry the mountain through seasons—dried berries, aged chillies, house-made miso. Thai cuisine does the same, just with a different palette. And the philosophy: heat isn't just spice, it's emotion. Acidity isn't sharpness, it's clarity. We believe that deeply at NAAR. Thai cuisine articulates it beautifully. Same language, different accent.

As the collaboration wraps, what becomes clear is that this isn’t just a crossover of cuisines or cocktail styles—it’s a shift in how we experience whisky itself. Johnnie Walker, NAAR and Wana Yook have created a moment that blurs the boundaries between bar culture and fine dining, proving that whisky can live comfortably in the world of contemporary gastronomy

Lead image: Johnnie Walker, NAAR, Wana Yook

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