Gone Flash-Feasting

When Nandini Sood and Anupama Bhat decided to launch their curiously titled culinary venture ‘Goma’ late last year, the idea was fairly simple: to bring people and gourmet fare together. “We wanted to create an experiential dining opportunity, in the form of a ‘pop-up’ restaurant which we would set up at a different venue in Delhi and Gurgaon every few weeks,” says Bhat, who’s often found experimenting with different cuisines when she isn’t working as a textile consultant. Goma, meaning sesame in Japanese, focuses, naturally, on Japanese-Korean fare and has proved to be such a hit after just 10-odd events that the duo is considering turning it into a full-time enterprise. “I think the concept has become popular because the guests really like the informality of it, and that you get to meet like-minded people, often strangers, over a range of food stories,” believes Sood, an educationalist who loves to host happy gatherings over food and abundant conversation.

Goma’s popularity reflects what foodies are now feverishly pursuing: not just experimental and new cuisines, but a whole other culinary experience. No wonder, then, there is a swelling off-the-mainstream dining culture that is emerging on city tables. For a bunch of 30-odd Delhiites, for example, Holi last month kicked off at the Great Delhi Pop-up—Holi Special, put together by food writer and consultant Anoothi Vishal, journalist Smita Tripathi and chef Nishant Chaubey. On a balmy March evening on the lawns of a serene south Delhi cultural space, fusion festive food proved to be the perfect conversation starter, as the motley crowd chatted over Kaanji, a fermented Holi cooler, and delicate kachoris stuffed with California prunes, with a fiery methi daane ki chutney to dip into. Between courses, the guests took a tour of the artwork on display at the venue, and then tucked into a sumptuous thaali of traditional Old Delhi fare, followed by prune-stuffed gujiyas and apple-prune halwa.

To diners around the country, a culinary experience such as this—with its touch of spontaneity— is quickly turning out to be the next big thing on the culinary trail. The USP, of course, is that no meal is quite like another. Typically, pop-ups or supper clubs host 10-30 people, where you are mostly amidst strangers, with a long, lingering three-course meal on offer, which may on some occasions be peppered with a round of book-reading, a music performance, or just, well, “interesting” conversation. Priced at Rs 800-2,000 per person, at times with alcohol, the growing supper club culture may well counter the increasingly expensive, and often mediocre, mainstream dining scenario. Says Seema Chari, language course coordinator at the Italian Cultural Centre in Delhi and a regular at the Great Delhi Pop-up events, “What I enjoy about evenings like these is that there is always a story behind every dish, and a blend of history, heritage, food, and a different but invariably interesting gathering of people every time.”

Manu Sharma, a communications consultant and a big fan of Goma lunches, feels that where a pop-up event scores over a regular restaurant experience is in the thought behind every little arrangement, from the food to the manner in which the host walks the thin line between interacting with guests and being not too intrusive. “Plus, every pop-up is different, with a change of venue, ambience, look and feel,” Sharma points out. That keeps the novelty alive. 

Say sushi to that A Goma lunch in progress at an NCR venue

“Dining as we knew it has changed, and eating out is not just about picking out a neighbourhood restaurant and poring over the menu,” affirms food writer and consultant Rushina Mun­shaw Ghil­di­yal, who recently set up abp Cook Studio in Mumbai, a home kitchen-style cooking studio that hosts curated culinary events. “The Cook Studio is our version of a supper club, which is becoming a popular concept in India. Here, foodies can hire the space to cook and host a meal, without the pain of having to clean up after. Next on our list is hosting a four-course sit-down Viet­namese meal,” she adds.

In Chennai, food entrepreneur M.R. Nishanth has his hands full at Chennai Food Guide (CFG), curating culinary events of all kinds, including barbecues on the beach, biriyani cookouts, food walks, culinary excursions, eco-kitchen visits, and a recently launched CFG Diner’s Club, a supper club that provides ‘exclusive’ dining experiences for members in restaurants in and around Chennai. “Chennai may have been seen as slightly backward when it comes to trying out new cuisines but now there is a definite upswing in experimental dining options, and CFG has grown to have some 11,000 members,” he reports.

Others, meanwhile, have taken culinary explorations to a whole new level. Delhi-based Charanya Chidambaram, a social media manager and foodie-chef, hosts Table Talk@Cici’s to “build a glo­bal can­vas of food narratives”. Her dinner series typically “progresses into a sort of live art installation, where each participant brings something to the table: stories, opinions, dreams and app­etites”. As for her, she puts out all kinds of delectable fare: European, Japanese, Indian, Thai, Ayurvedic and even purely vegan. And for those who want a little more than food on their plate, Delhi duo Ashray and Dhruv Sachdeva’s ‘Humour Me’ evenings across upscale venues in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore venues would perhaps do just the trick. The duo is trying to popularise the concept of ‘supper theatre’ in India, with an “overwhelming response”. “At our event ‘Dinner for Pricks’, we created a pop-up French restaurant called ‘Le Cigare Volant’ at a city hotel, and all our guests were so curious about what it was all about that we were sold out weeks before the show. Eventually, it was all gradually revealed as the night progressed, as a comic-theatre act blen­ded with a sampling of hors d’oeuvres and wine,” says Ashray Sachdeva.

And there’s more. The Supper Club Gourmet Experiences, launching this month in Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune, will see pop-up restaurants at different venues, starring Masterchef winners from around the world.

But even while there may be much hullabaloo around the art of dining in culinary circles, those at the helm of the on-the-fringes ventures prefer to keep a somewhat low profile, and stay off mainstream press when it comes to publicising their events. ‘Pop-ups’ and ‘supper clubs’ are fashionable concepts, taken from the dining culture in the West, and while the interest here is huge, word-of-mouth publicity on social media is the preferred mode of garnering participants as of now.

“We’re in it purely for the love of it, and the idea is not to scale up, because that would defeat the purpose of a pop-up,” says Anoothi Vishal of the Great Delhi Pop-up. Another Delhiite, food author Prabeen Singh, who offers her home for special evenings with customised meals prepared by her, follows a similar ethos. “I have always loved cooking for people, so I started Hush recently, where I create a sit-down dinner for a host who may want to call some people over for dinner but doesn’t want the hassle of doing it at their own place. The rights of admission are reserved, of course,” explains Singh, who dabbles in Turkish, Persian, Far East cuisine, plus unconventional Indian food. Exclu­sivity may be a core ingredient at Hush, but there’s a culinary adventure out there for everyone.