Before my first pop-up in India, I got pulled into a wedding.

Two hours before my first-ever pop-up dinner in India, I was standing in the lobby of the hotel in full Indian wedding attire, wearing a turban, holding a glass of brandy. Here's how that happened.

I got invited to Hyderabad to be the guest chef at The Leela. They have a restaurant there called Rain at Leela Chef Studio, a rotating kitchen where they bring in a new chef every couple of weeks. Hyderabad is beautiful and completely wild, more people than New York.

After our first media dinner I went to get on the elevator. Standing next to Prasad, the man who brought me to India, was a gentleman who'd clearly had a few cocktails. He looks at me and says, "You're the chef. You're the chef he's been telling me about for weeks." I had no idea who he was. Then he hits the elevator button and says, "Come on guys, we're going to a wedding."

I didn't want to be rude. So we went. And it turned out we were standing in the middle of a full Indian wedding at one of the nicest hotels in the city. I was still carrying my chef jacket. We very obviously did not belong there. But everyone was so kind, pouring us drinks, so welcoming. Polina asked for a sparkling water and they told her that's more expensive than the alcohol, she had to drink. Word got around that I was a chef traveling the world, and the bride and groom came over and invited us to the actual wedding the next day.

So the next day, full wedding attire. They told me the procession, the baraat, was at 3:30 and would take fifteen minutes. The groom stands on top of a Rolls-Royce doing this incredible dance, sparklers going, live music, everyone dancing in front of the car. I put on the turban.

Then 3:30 became 3:45. Then 4:00. Then 4:30. The groom still hadn't come. And the whole time, everyone at the hotel is getting nervous, because at 7:00 the US Consulate had a very special table coming. Ambassadors, who knows. At one point they walked me up to a room and poured me a glass of brandy. So there I am, full wedding attire, glass of brandy, and the hotel managers keep walking past me like, Jason, what are you doing?

Finally I said, just text me when he's here. I ran up to the kitchen and prepped. They texted, I ran down, did the baraat, and the second the Rolls-Royce cleared the sparklers I ran back up, changed, and ten minutes later I was leading the menu meeting.

The biggest thing I took from that first dinner was ownership. Right out of the gate I told every cook: you're in charge of this dish. A hundred percent. That's how The French Laundry ran its kitchen. The first day they didn't quite get it. The second day they hammered it. By service, each person owned the dish they'd been prepping for days. The feedback was that it was the fastest, most efficient service they had ever seen. It ended up being their highest grossing event.

Thank you to Leela, to Prasad, and the Hadonis. Next, we went to Pune.