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!?

A food festival is about authenticity. From importing right food ingredients to the professional skills of a master chef, to creating an ambience that is in keeping with the theme; everything plays a vital role. There are instances when a wine sommelier accompanies the chef to interact with the guests and pair wine with food. ?The most important is to have dishes that are popular and cater to a variety of palettes,? feels Joy Bhattacharya, executive chef, Hilton Towers, Mumbai. ?Unlike the regular fare of a restaurant, festivals are short-lived, hence do not allow a diner to evolve his taste nor to choose what he likes best after many tries at different dishes.?

Menus

A festival menu is different from the regular operational menu at a restaurant. The menu can range from seasonal changes, food pairings like a sizzler and a beer for instance or emphasise on one particular aspect of the menu like a dosa festival to exotic fare such as lobster, caviar or whiskey dinners. Care is taken to see that the menu does not overpower the operational menu at the restaurant, informs Sultan Mohideen, corporate chef, Royal Orchid, Bangalore. ?The only way to ensure that is through a creative eye appeal of colours and occasions and to offer a menu that is not only different from the regular menu but also avoids similarity of dishes.?

Erstwhile royal houses allow a peep into their celebrated kichens when they come to terra firma via food festivals. Culinary legacies of the royal Salar Jung family of Hyderabad, by Kunwar Rani Kulsum Begum, niece of Salar Jung III, The Moghul food festival, Ziafat-e- Baadshahi, by Masihuddin Tucy, a renowned exponent of the Moghul cuisine, 300-year-old ancient Maratha-South Indian cuisine for the Royal kitchen of Rajah Serfoji of Tanjavur among others were thus showcased at the ITC Hotel, The Maratha, Sahar, Mumbai.

Experience

A food festival menu is usually priced 10 to 15% higher than the regular menu. ?Pricing is dependent upon the kind of concept or promotion, upon the cost of imported ingredients used during the festival, the d?cor and ambience created and the entire experience of it,? informs Rohit Khosla, GM, Taj Land?s End, Mumbai. A saga through food and an experience of a region within the comforts of one?s city is what beckons the foodie and the curious to the restaurant. ?I have never heard of a temple food cuisine,? says Anita Mishra, a BPO executive from Bangalore. But when a restaurant hosted a Temple Food Festival, Mishra was lead there by the theme.

?The Udupi Temple Food festival in the month of February? says corporate chef and CEO, Venkatesh Bhatt, Southindies, Bangalore. ?During this period in Udupi, there is a feast prepared at the famous Krishna temple and we showcased the same cuisine which then became interesting to customers as they could relate to it.?

Restaurants transform to another region, state and country when they hold food promotions. Says Neha Arya, marketing communications manager, Hyatt Regency, Kolkata, ?We change the decor of the restaurant by decorating the tables with certain artifacts or ingredients particular to the country of the food festival. For an Indonesian food festival, we had puppets which Indonesia is renowned for placed on each table, along with Indonesian table runners.?

Customers learn not only of food but also cultures. ?It is not just a showcase of cuisine, it promotes the culture, living habits, art and handicraft, music and dance, language and dialect, history of the country and state,? informs Animesh Barat, assistant director, F&B Hyderabad Marriott.

So happy feasting.