Have you ever had a gol gappa made from palak or supped at a pop-up restaurant made entirely of glass? Two upcoming food fests in Delhi NCR have turned into a veritable laboratory, with exhibitors experimenting with novel ideas and food formats to create a unique gastronomic experience.
Get Grubbed
The second edition of the Grub Festival has a lot of firsts. The most unique of these is Asia’s first multi-storeyed travelling pop-up restaurant with a rooftop bar. “So, Grub Stories is essentially one restaurant spanning four storeys, with the topmost being a 60-foot high bar made of glass. Just imagine the view of the city from up there,” says Chaitanya Mathur, who conceptualised the fest with three other young entrepreneurs, Aman Kumar, Arjun Jain and Manveer Singh Cheema. The pop-up features a specially curated menu to include the finest modern European cuisine and progressive barbeque from around the world.
This is also the first time that one will get to see food and fashion come together, with designer Varun Bahl creating aesthetic installations at the fest. “Varun has brought quirky and creative elements together – all aligned with good,” says Mathur.
The fest also offers a chance to learn directly from chefs and home cooks mastering in Persian, Naga and coastal cuisines. It’s the ideal opportunity to glean and preserve recipes that might be on the verge of extinction.
There is a lot of brand value attached with international chefs, but we need to look inwards as well as there are lot of great chefs specialising in regional cuisines. A lot of us might not even have had some of these dishes.
— Chaitanya Mathur
The list of exhibitors has gone up from 76 last year to 110 this year and includes restaurants like Indigo Deli, À Ta Maison & PCO, Urban Pind, Dao Dimcha, Koyla Kebab, Holy Smoke, The Backyard, Zerzura, Imperfecto, Karim’s, Mamagoto, Hybrid, Fat Lulu’s, Koyla Kebab, Fork You Too, Asian Haus, Sugarama and more.
“A lot of pop-ups have been recreated in over 2,400 sq ft of space – which is a lot bigger than the regular restaurants,” says Mathur.
There’s a Luxury Zone by the Leela Ambience Gurgaon, where you can get yourself a spa treatment or compete with fellow golfers in the putting space.
Details: The Grub Fest 2.0 will be held at the Ambience Lawns, Gurgaon between October 23 and 25, 2015. The fest will then travel to Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chandigarh. London and Dubai.
Lost Treasures
The emphasis this year, be it at food fests or at restaurants, is on traditional recipes that seem to be hovering on the brink of extinction. This is precisely what Foodistan, the culinary part of the 10 Heads Festival, achieves to do as well. Touted as India’s most extensive food fest, it features 30 culinary practices from the nooks and crannies of the world.
The keyword is ‘authentic’. So, it’s for the first time that Ibiza’s Bar Barlovento is coming here with a pop-up. They are the only ones to serve authentic cuisine from that region.
— Abhishek Mankad, Director, 10 Heads Festival
Then there is the Hidden Gems section, which features a curated list of street food that has been cooked by generations of a family.
There is a guy whose family has made four different types of gol gappas for decades. He makes gol gappas from palak as well. Then there is Aslam who makes only tandoori chicken with cream. It is believed that this is the way it was originally served.
— Abhishek Mankad, Director, 10 Heads Festival
Who says only ice cream can be served in a cone? At Foodistan, you can have an entire meal in a cone – be it butter chicken or chhole.
“So the cone will be made of naan and will be filled with the chicken. Similarly, there will be a cone of bhatura filled with chhole,” says Mankad.
Details: Foodistan at the 10 Heads Festival has been conceptualised by Trifecta Entertainment and will be held at the Dhanchiri Camping Resort on NH-8, Delhi-Gurgaon Toll between October 22 and 25.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)