In Might this yr, a consumer approached The Oberoi in Bengaluru to curate a particular dinner for his daughter’s 18th birthday. Anirban Dasgupta, government chef on the resort, went on to craft an eight-course menu, with every course encapsulating a distinct part of her life. Just a few highlights included Musically Yours (orange blossom sorbet), Go away Life Like a Portray (pomegranate on a canvas), and Turning One Eight (Thai-infused Brie phyllo tart, kaffir lime mud).
Diners at a non-public occasion at Lupa
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Whereas personal occasions and sit down meals for big teams have seen themed, set menus acquire traction, a number of luxurious lodges and standalone boutique eating places at the moment are upping their recreation by providing the service for extra intimate settings. “Idea eating has been part of our visitor providing for greater than 20 years, however, the demand for bespoke eating, thematic occasions, and novel culinary concepts have obtained consideration within the final 5 to 6 years,” says Anirban who owes the development to well-travelled shoppers who’re conscious of world eating tendencies and are eager to discover new codecs. “Folks at the moment are prepared to spend on bespoke experiences and customisation,” he says.
At Mumbai’s Masque Lab — the devoted R&D house of the favored restaurant, Masque — Varun Totlani, head chef, says it’s the place “we freestyle and curate menus” priced roughly at ₹8,000 + tax per individual. In early July, Varun arrange a dinner for an everyday consumer who needed to have fun her husband’s birthday by presenting him with their favourites from Masque through the years. “This was a 20-course meal, whereby every course was a bite-sized portion.” Classics included corn curd, khad quail, sea buckthorn and cured barramundi pani puri, Bhavnagri chilli rellenos taco, and a mango tres leches.
Cacao Gondhoroj Chocolate from the Masque x Dior occasion
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A style of house
Unique choices for birthdays and household occasions see shoppers requesting for dishes they’ve had on their travels, explains Varun, who, alongside boutique catering firm Sage & Saffron put collectively most meals on the Dior Pre-Fall 2023 present in Mumbai final yr. “For one sit down meal, they needed fashionable Indian meals with conventional Indian components. So we put collectively a menu in three phases: a thali with appetisers, a three-compartment tiffin with fundamental programs, and pre-plated desserts. The tiffin was opened on the centre of the desk, and the breads served individually,” he says, including how the wine glasses had been custom-made, and the {custom} Dior plates had been shipped to Mumbai from Paris for the occasion.
The menu of the Masque Diwali dinner in 2023
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When Bengaluru’s fine-dining European restaurant Lupa opened its doorways in 2023, Chef Manu Chandra additionally launched a Non-public Eating Room (PDR). The ten-seater house with a wine cellar has since hosted a number of unique eating occasions for which Manu and his group have curated bespoke menus (upwards of ₹4,500 per head), full with floral preparations and decor.
His Bangalore Nostalgia menu that was first created for a consumer a few year-and-a-half in the past, has since gone by way of many iterations and served 3 times. One of many variations of the 10-course menu devoted to the town’s landmarks featured dishes resembling Raghavendra Shops (aero idly with crispy vada beignet podi mud, sambar broth, dosa crumble), Cubbon Park (charred child corn and Congress masala butter), Koshy’s (brioche toast with hen liver or mushroom), and Venkateshwara Sweets (Mysore Pak-cinnamon torrija with pandan ice cream), all paired with Spanish wines. “We now have a bouquet of menus out there for these taking a look at bespoke experiences,” says Manu, who additionally affords a variety of eating experiences at his luxe catering service Single Thread Catering, and has curated meals for personal shoppers in addition to corporates resembling Land Rover, Meta, and Spotify.
A dish from Lupa’s Bangalore Nostalgia menu
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Nearer house, at Chennai’s Pandan Membership, curated eating experiences (upwards of ₹2,500, per individual) have been part of the Asian restaurant’s choices. Co-founder Manoj Padmanaban says these menus can cater to giant and small teams, “starting from intimate gatherings of 4 to 6 folks to bigger events of as much as 50 visitors”. “As sure diners search a extra refined and memorable eating expertise, these curated menus take away the effort of ordering, and the stress of creating selections,” he explains.
A few years in the past, the group put collectively a dinner for just a few members of the Singapore Consulate that focussed on providing them a style of flavours they miss in India.
Dishes created for a non-public dinner at Pandan Membership
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Off the menu
A fusion lunch for the Japanese consulate in 2022 featured a five-course tasting menu that supplied a “completely different tackle Pandan Membership’s meals”. Among the standout dishes included salmon/potato sambal croquettes, compressed watermelon with goat’s cheese and French dressing (which drew inspiration from Chef Sashi Cheliah’s signature watermelon and potato salad), darkish chocolate mousse with hazelnut crumbs. “We gave the mousse an Asian contact with yuzu gel. This dessert advanced into our Pandan Want dessert which is now on our menu,” provides Manoj.
Different dishes which have discovered their solution to Pandan Membership’s common menu embody grilled napa cabbage, smoked duck cup, lamb rendang biryani (which is obtainable seasonally), and desserts just like the cinnamon roti with condensed milk ice cream.
The menu for The Travelogue by Chef Anirban Dasgupta
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However it isn’t typically that dishes created for these particular events make it to the restaurant’s common menu. Anirban explains how it’s difficult as all these dishes are extremely ingredient-centric. “Each seasonality, sourcing and availability influences the dishes. Thus, logistically it’s troublesome to deliver them into the common menu. Furthermore, such dishes acquire their uniqueness on being made-to-order,” says the chef who additionally curated ‘The Travelogue’, a nine-course meal for his or her common diners and patrons to introduce himself because the resort’s new government chef. With dishes resembling smoked galette of kidney bean, ragi 2.0, and misal pav, every course celebrated his former workplaces.
The thought of bespoke menu is offering an expertise and to maintain it extremely personalised and customised, provides Shivneet Pohoja, government chef at ITC Maurya, New Delhi. Which is why, he says, “It’s troublesome to weave these dishes right into a listed menu because the dishes are made for sure visitors and sure events that you’d usually by no means have an opportunity to expertise.”
Raindrops and the Raintree, a dessert from The Travelogue
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“These are micro experiences curated to offer you an distinctive time, and there should not many within the nation. There are takers for it. I bear in mind after I opened Lupa after I curated the inaugural dinner at Competition de Cannes 2022 and folks got here as much as me eager to style the identical meals I served there. I informed them, ‘you’ll want to stroll the pink carpet for that!,” laughs Manu, who believes in retaining such experiences unique and off the common menu that “is at all times out there to diners”.
Tales on the core
Shivneet remembers placing collectively a monochrome menu for a small group of pals who wished to commemorate a pair’s wedding ceremony anniversary. “We curated a seven-course tasting menu during which all of the programs had been in numerous hues and shades,” he says. Dishes included a violet-coloured java plum sweet because the amuse bouche, smoked turmeric and butternut squash puree for the yellow hued soup, and a black course that includes charcoal tortellini and black garlic aglio olio. “Black garlic is a particular ingredient whereby garlic is fermented, and matured to offer dishes an umami flavour. For the entree, we had a butter confit sea bass in shades of inexperienced, a sorbet course with blue pea flower, an ember-themed confit hen as fundamental course, and closed with a ruby chocolate entremet in shades of vermillion,” provides Shivneet.
A dish from Lupa’s menu celebrating Bengaluru’s MG Street
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In contrast to placing collectively an everyday menu, an unique meal requires ideating with the consumer, placing the story collectively, and matching dishes with themes. “The method occurs in two methods,” elaborates Anirban, “Both the shopper provides us their broad concepts, the event they’re celebrating, typically notes on folks concerned or firms and logistical parameters. Or they depart it to us by simply sharing their choice of delicacies.”
The strategy to every methodology, nonetheless, begins with a narrative. “The meals turns into the chapters, which performs up components, approach, and plating. Then we complement every dish with customised crockery, cutlery, tableware, alongside lighting, music and even a printed menu,” provides Anirban, who has additionally curated menus (upwards of ₹7,500, per individual) resembling Temples of India (a thali expertise comprising temple dishes from throughout India), Discovery (a six-course European menu the place every course was impressed by sixteenth and seventeenth Century explorers). “The latter included dishes resembling champagne and langoustines soup with butter poached lobster tail, black tobiko, carpaccio of Uchiura Bay scallops,” he says.
A cinema-inspired dish created for a non-public meal at The Oberoi
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Manu explains that whereas these menus comply with a brand new theme, and storyline, he’s additionally looking out for brand spanking new components that may be performed with. “For the Backyard of 5 Senses menu we explored fragrances and culinary functions. We extracted the perfume of indigo and used it in a dessert, and I’m now experimenting with its software in cocktails,” says the chef.
Eton Mess with assorted meringues and granola milk custard, all damaged down into parts served in little purchasing baggage at Lupa
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Revealed – September 13, 2024 03:11 pm IST
