Telling a story through food

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When a group of Keralites came to The Park, New Delhi, after seeing an advertisement on the hotel’s Moplah cuisine festival, they were surprised to taste authentic fare which they had not eaten back home. “They were from the northern part of Kerala and Moplah cuisine is popular in the south,” relates Executive Chef Bakshish Dean, The Park. A food festival in Delhi introduced them to their indigenous fare.

Food festivals have been popular for a while now, and hotels showcase regional and at times not-much-heard-of cuisine which becomes a culinary voyage for customers. With new five star restaurants, fine dining, speciality restaurants and multi-cuisine restaurants increasing in numbers, a food festival becomes a bait to lure in the guest. “Customers are on the look-out for different food exper-iences and events,” says Food & Beve-r-ages Manager Vivin Kuriakose, Court-y-ard, Marriott, Chennai. “These festivals are a great way to meet that demand without revamping the entire system. They are also a great exercise to gauge customer reactions and preferences.”

Some hotels use food festivals as a medium to showcase celebrated chefs. Says Bindu Panicker, Marketing & Business Development Manager — Food & Beverage ITC Welcomgroup, “We showcase the best talent from the celebrated restaurants of the world in the ‘Celebrity Chef Series’ at West View restaurants across India in 2006, with Chef Alan Michael Bird of ‘The Ivy’ in London, followed by two Gordon Ramsay chefs — Chef Stuart Gillies and Chef Angela Hartnett in 2007.” Foodies were able to sample these culinary delights in the comforts of their cities.

Themes

From home-style cuisines to regional fares that are relatively new, to introdu-cing international flavours, a food festi-val is a gastronomical journey. Moplah cuisine, for instance, was an eye opener for executive chef, Dean. He got to know of Abida Rashid, the food ambassador of Calicut through one of his chefs who went to Kerala for a holiday.

“Rashid not only introduced a cuisine whose intricacies were an eye opener to us but also busted a few myths like the food has a lot of spices in it or that every meal begins with bread and ends with dessert. In Moplah cuisine, it begins with bread and ends with biryani!”