While it's true that many seals aspire to become chefs, it's also a fact that virtually every chef in Canada aspires to a Red Seal endorsement. As a standard-bearer of culinary excellence across provinces, the Red Seal signals rigorous training and immense skill. So it's little surprise that the owner and operator of Masala Bhavan, Chef Karthikeyan Stalin, boasts this certification himself, considering he spent more than 15 years in the kitchens of five-star hotels and restaurants from India and Sri Lanka to the UK and Canada.

At Masala Bhavan, Mr. Stalin showcases the takeaways from his international culinary career, as well as the basics of cooking that he learned growing up in southern India. Using many techniques and recipes learned from his parents, he cooks traditional cuisine like rice-based biryanis and meat dishes steeped in rich, buttery sauces. He also crafts a retinue of vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options, all of which benefit from the spice blending—and daily spice grinding—he learned from master chefs in India.