This Indian female entrepreneur is making a mark on the global dining scene, one Michelin-starred restaurant at a time

Panchali Mahendra does not chase the spotlight, but the industry has been quietly tracking her work for years. Trained in India and shaped by the discipline of hotel life, she built her career around a belief that hospitality is not performance, it is responsibility. Today, as CEO of Atelier House Hospitality and the Altamarea Group, she has helped shape a portfolio that balances global pedigree with sharp, culture-led originals, from INJA to 11 Woodfire to Marea, alongside homegrown concepts like Mohalla that brought Indian street food energy into a modern Dubai context. Her approach is often described as calm, exacting and team-first, with standards designed for longevity rather than hype.

In Dubai, that approach is reflected in 11 Woodfire’s Michelin-starred standing. In India, it is visible in how quickly INJA entered the national conversation, and SoBo 20 marked the group’s Mumbai chapter on Marine Drive. It also shows how she invests in place-making partnerships, most notably Gerbou, created with Tashkeel as a celebration of Emirati and Arab culture and named by TIME as one of the World’s Greatest Places. With Scarpa coming up in Gurugram and Kome planned as a second Mumbai address, Mahendra’s story reads less like rapid expansion and more like a deliberate build, city by city, anchored in clarity, consistency and care.

The restaurant world has long been shaped by male leadership. As a woman building power in this industry, what resistance did you encounter early on, and how did it shape the leader you became?

Early on, the resistance was rarely loud; it was subtle but constant. Being overlooked, not being taken seriously in certain rooms, having to repeat the same point before it finally landed and so on. It pushed me to become grounded in competence and consistency. I learned to let the work speak, to stay steady under pressure, and to build credibility through results rather than approval.

It also shaped how I lead today. I am intentional about the rooms I create and the teams I build. If you have ever felt underestimated, you remember it. So I focus on building cultures where talent is recognised quickly, standards are clear, and leadership is not filtered through gender.

Michelin stars are often framed as the ultimate validation. What do they represent to you today, after winning them repeatedly? Give me the context of your achievement here.

For me, Michelin represents the most meaningful kind of pressure. The kind that sharpens you. It reminds you that you are only as good as the experience you deliver today, not the one you delivered last year. It keeps you humble because the work is never finished.

And if I am proud of anything, it is not the headline of a star. It is what it stands for behind the scenes: a team that holds standards under pressure, a kitchen that respects ingredients, a dining room that cares about guests and a culture that refuses shortcuts.

So yes, Michelin is validation, but more than that it is motivation. It is a reminder of why we do this in the first place; to create something so consistent and thoughtful that it becomes memorable.

Success brings visibility, but also pressure. How do you protect your creative and operational clarity amid global scrutiny?

I am almost boringly disciplined about basics. When scrutiny grows, people start chasing noise: trends, virality, bigger launches. I do the opposite: I go back to what I know keeps restaurants alive: clarity of concept, training, cost discipline, and guest experience.

Operational clarity comes from systems. Creative clarity comes from constraints: knowing what a concept is and then protecting it from dilution.

You’ve built restaurants across Mumbai, Delhi, and Dubai. What does each city reveal to you about culture, risk, and ambition?

Dubai teaches you pace and precision. It is cosmopolitan, fast, and deeply benchmarked: guests arrive with global reference points, so your execution has to be relentlessly consistent.

Delhi teaches you identity. The city has strong opinions and it rewards restaurants that have a point of view, not a safe middle.

Mumbai teaches you ambition with restraint. It is intensely competitive and incredibly discerning.

When expanding across borders, what’s a non-negotiable in a restaurant’s identity and what must adapt?

The spine of the brand, concept clarity, standards, service philosophy, and the culture of the team are absolute non-negotiables. If the culture does not travel, the restaurant will not either. That said, the restaurant must adapt the language of hospitality and communication. How you pace the experience and build menus around local habits and ingredient realities also changes with where you are. Expansion is not copy-paste. It is a translation without losing meaning.

The business of restaurants is rarely discussed with honesty. What is the most misunderstood truth about running a successful restaurant group?

That success is not a creative moment. It is an operational repeat. People think a great chef or a beautiful room is enough. The truth is: restaurants are won in the unglamorous places, training, procurement discipline, labour planning, daily problem solving, and how you handle pressure.

How do you balance instinct and data when making high-stakes business decisions?

I treat instinct and data like two languages describing the same reality. Data tells you what is happening, while instinct tells you why it is happening: energy in the room, friction in service, whether a dish has emotional pull and whether a concept still feels true. If data and instinct disagree, I do not pick a side. I investigate the gap.

Leadership in hospitality is often romanticised. What does it actually demand of you, day after day?

It demands presence. Not performative presence: real presence. Being available when things go wrong. Making decisions when you are tired. Staying calm so your team can stay calm… It also demands emotional control; guests remember how you made them feel, but your team remembers how you led them under pressure.

Do you believe the industry is finally making space for women at the top or are women still expected to outperform to belong?

Both are true. There is more space for women now than when I started, but I still see an unspoken expectation that women must be exceptional to be considered merely equal. The notion is changing, but there is a long way to go. Honestly, I do not wait for fairness to arrive as a gift. I believe you build credibility, build allies, build teams, and then make the ladder wider behind you.

When history looks back on this era of your career, what do you hope it says about your impact on the global dining landscape?

I hope it says we built restaurants with soul and staying power, not just openings.

If anything, I want the impact to be measured in two ways: concepts that held their identity across cities and people who grew—team members who became leaders because we built culture, not just operations.

Awards and lists are meaningful, but legacy is what remains when the press cycle moves on: standards, culture and the kind of hospitality that makes people return.