This is not your average food festival. "The Gathering" is one of a kind, where the vibrant worlds of art and food collide to make magic at the Travancore Palace. Taking place over two days, February 22 and 23, the festival brings together nine chefs and nine artists from all over India who collaborate to create a unique host of experiences spread across the expansive grounds of the venue. Each chef-artist duo is tasked with bringing their imagined world to reality through conceptual food and space. As a result, diners get to choose from nine completely distinct experiences in which to immerse themselves.
The line-up is as star-studded as it gets, with India's most renowned chefs rustling up an authentic and innovative five-course menu, each highlighting a certain terroir or technique, and, of course, not without some experimentation and a whole lot of fun.
Noon's Vanika Chaudhary teamed up with Punit Jasuja on the theme "Past Continuous," shining a spotlight on the future of fermentation and the traditional techniques of Himalayan cuisine. Chef Amninder Sandhu and Ekarth Studio brought the campfire to the city, inspired by her childhood days of going on picnics while in Jorhat. Her menu celebrated North Eastern flavours and techniques, with hyperlocal ingredients like sohiong berry, mejenga and jalpai olives at the forefront. Chef Viraf Patel of Oito in Goa partnered up with artist Alex Davis to take the diners straight to the future and into 2125 with the theme "Last Harvest," which is meant to be a "table dedicated to human ingenuity and surviving the inevitable future of life in the next century." Meanwhile, Chef Adwait Anantwar and designer Devika Narain dream up a royal setting with "The Darbar of Perception," where ancient Indian techniques and culinary traditions get an innovative spin.
In addition, Chef Gresham Fernandes and Elsewhere in India join hands to showcase the dualities and contrasts of Indian ingredients, elevated by Murthovic's soundscapes and Thiruda's visuals; Arist Aradhana Seth and Chef Prateek Sadhu bring the culinary cultures of the mountains to the fore; Chef Regi Mathew and Vinu Daniel turn the rustic Kerala toddy shop on its head to create a modern-day version; Chef Auroni Mookerjee and artist Sonal Sawant, through their creation, revisit Bengal to curate an experience inspired from the "biodiversity of the pond ecosystem" with ingredients derived from them; and Chef Anumitra Ghosh Dastidar from Edible Archives and artist Archana Hande explore the histories of ingredients from the Western Ghats and Eastern Himalayas through their theme "Forbidden. Stolen. Feral."
When: "The Gathering" is being held in Delhi on February 21 and 23rd.
Where: Travancore Palace, Shrimant Madhav Rao Scindia Marg, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi, Delhi 110001
Book Here: https://www.thegathering.in/#book-now
