Precious Meals

JUST A PORTION OF pasta at Osteria Francescana, Massimo Bottura’s Michelin three-star restaurant in Modena, Italy, would cost an arm and a leg, so not unexpectedly, when he showed up in Delhi for a popup at The Leela Palace, diners paid a little less than a lakh per person for the wine-paired, sold-out dinner.

Lesser mortals may choke over the extravagance, but for those who enjoy brag­ging rights, it worked out to be a steal of a deal for a dinner curated by the chef whose restaurant was rated No. 1 in the world twice—in 2016 and 2018—and is now permanently on the Best of the Best list.

As a chuffed executive of the hotel explains to me, in the normal course, connoisseurs would have to book months in advance for a dinner slot at Osteria Francescana, fly to Modena closer to the appointed day, check into a hotel for at least three nights, and then fly back. Do the math and it wouldn’t take much effort to figure out that paying close to a lakh per person in New Delhi may be cheaper than going to Modena— and the cherry on the icing is that you’re more likely to get to speak to the chef in your home city than at his restaurant.

Even a decade ago, a dinner being presented on Indian soil by a global celebrity chef of the stature of Massimo Bottura would have been a fantasy. Today, it is not unusual to wake up to the news of a highly decorated international chef visiting metros with the intention of wowing the uber rich with a meal that would certainly make their pockets lighter. In the recent past, chefs such as Mauro Colagreco, Virgilio Martinez and Oriol Castro, respectively helming such celebrated restaurants as Mirazur (Menton, France), Central (Lima, Peru), and Disfrutar (Barcelona, Spain), which are on the bucket list of worshippers of establishments with three Michelin stars, have cooked up storms across Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Our star-chasers heard Ana Ros, the Slovenian chef who is one of the rare women in the world to lead a Michelin three-star restaurant (Hisa Franko), extol the virtues of bear meat, which of course she could not serve at her popups in Delhi and Mumbai. Diners in Bengaluru were luckier—they got to savour the rarest of the rare ‘Desert Rose’, a flower that blossoms in those few-and-far-between years when it rains at the Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth. It was on the menu of a dinner presented by Chef Rodolfo Guzman of Borago, one of Latin America’s most acclaimed restaurants based out of Santiago, Chile.

“We are in the middle of a popup revolution,” says Raaj Sanghvi, CEO, Culinary Culture, a company that specialises in organising events with top international chefs across India. “This was not the case a few years ago. India was often overlooked in the global dining circuit. International chefs came to Asia, but preferred destinations such as Dubai, Bangkok, Singapore or Hong Kong. But things have changed. India’s culinary culture and its market are being taken seriously, not just for its talent, but also for its increasingly discern­ing audience and their spending power.”

Popups can be organisational nightmares. For starters, says Aditya Muralishankar, a former Taj Mahal Hotel chef who oversees growth and collaborations at another major player in the popups business, Conosh, the business model is heavily dependent upon corporate sponsorships, for no mat­ter how extravagant the ticket size, even a full house doesn’t cover the multiple costs, from travel and accommodation to ingredients and excess luggage, to the steep professional fees.

Clearly, you have got to be a high roller if you wish to succeed in the business of popups, which means you have to first invest substantially in your image. Conosh, for instance, has as its brand ambassador Gary Mehigan, who attained international celebrity status and a sizeable Indian fan following with MasterChef Australia. Mehigan has become a regular on the popup circuit — once a year he’s even joined by his old co-presenters, George Calombaris and Matt Preston — and he also travels around India to chronicle the country’s cuisine and culture.

Kaushik Misra, executive chef at the Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi, points out that the base cost of organising a popup is upwards of `20 lakh. “And this is just an estimate, for the actuals can vary from one chef to another, the duration of the visit, the cities and meal periods being covered, and the experience being curated (the dining format, the ingredients used and other such relevant details impact the overall cost),” explains Misra, adding that each popup takes at least four to six weeks to plan and roll out.

He should know, for the Taj hotels in Delhi and Mumbai have seen the likes of Yves Mattagne, chef-owner of the Michelin two-starred restaurant La Villa Lorraine in Brussels, Dutch culinary mae­stro Jacob Jan Boerma, and the Suhring Brothers of Bangkok, apart from Gaggan Anand and Garima Arora, to name a few, potter around in their kitchens, creating culinary jewels that cost a whopper.

Some of them can also be excruciatingly demanding. Sanghvi remem­bers a Japanese chef from Singapore who insisted on sourcing his bluefin tuna from one particular supplier at Tokyo’s Tsukiji Market. Though the event was being hosted in a hotel with its own popular Japanese restaurant, the guest chef flew to Tokyo himself, brought back the tuna of his choice.

Of course, there are also chefs who just go with the flow, cherishing every moment of their stay in India, such as Andoni Luis Aduriz, chef-owner of the Michelin two-starred Spanish restaurant Mugaritz, who was ranked as one of 100 most creative people in the world by Forbes magazine in 2023. When he was asked about the ingredients he wanted to be sourced for him, he is reported to have said, “I am coming to India to learn.” He arrived a week early, toured farms and markets, and completely reimagined his menu using only local produce. “He brought nothing with him and while not every­thing went exactly according to plan, the experience was extraordinary,” remembers Sanghvi. “It takes a very secure and imaginative chef to do that.”

The visiting celebrity chefs, though, are more often stumped by the quirks of Indian high-net-worth individuals (HNIs). Vegetarian menus especially are a challenge, for fish and eggs, unlike the practice in India, are very much a part of the fare internationally. A Jain menu is even more difficult for visiting chefs to comprehend, for it rules out onions and garlic, root vegetables and mushrooms. These demands can lead to unusual situations as in the case of a Jain table at a dinner curated by a celebrated visiting chef in Mumbai. The family at first insisted on not having truffles, these being fungi, like mush­rooms, but had an unexpected change of heart during the dinner when they learnt how expensive these were.

Organising an extra truffle at the last minute is easier than dealing with guests showing up late unapologetically and then demanding that the entire dinner be served from the start, beginning with the amuse bouche. Then there’s invariably a diner whose mobile rings, and who insists on taking the call and talking loudly, just when the visiting chef is navigating the menu for the benefit of the people present.

IF SO MANY imponderables are at play, why are popups gaining so much traction that Conosh alone, to quote Muralishankar, does 15-20 such events in multiple cities in a year? What hotels are not looking for, definitely, is an RoE (Return on Ego). As Misra of the Taj puts it, a popup is an opportunity for his team to be inspired by the visiting chef and, conversely, also become a source of inspiration because of their un­derstanding of how gastronomy works as well as their talent.

Karan Thakur, executive chef, The Leela Palace, New Delhi, notes that each element of a popup, from sourcing rare ingredients to curating the guest experience, “is seen as an investment in the brand that enhances our culinary narrative and guest loyalty”. He adds: “Our in-house chefs deeply benefit from these experi­ences as they gain exposure to new techniques, regional nuances and culinary philosophies that drive gastronomy across the world. These exchanges often lead to long-term mentorships and inspire innovation in our regular menus as well.”

The young execu­tive chef understands the business of popups well, for The Leela Palace, New Delhi has hosted Massimo Bottura on both of his visits to India, and it has also worked with lesser-known but highly accomplished chefs such as Johanne Siy, who was named Asia’s Best Female Chef in 2023. The luxury hotel in the heart of Delhi’s diplomatic enclave, in fact, sees a significant surge in public interest and a spike in business whenever a celebrity chef or bartender comes visiting, and it’s hard to buy the kind of media frenzy that accompanies such celebrity arrivals.

As a great believer in the culture of popups, Rohit Khattar, founder-chair­man, EHV International, whose portfo­lio includes such formidable restaurant brands as Indian Accent, Comorin, Hosa and Chor Bizarre, insists that “popups aren’t just about prestige or visibility, though those are certainly valuable”. Having ‘popped up’ across continents and cities (his restaurants have featured in or have hosted more than 50 popups over the past two years), Khattar can speak with a certain degree of authority on the subject.

He points out that popups allow a res­taurant’s team to experiment creatively, collaborate with other chefs, and stay agile, which helps keep the brand fresh. “And operationally, popups sharpen the team’s skills. You’re working in unfa­miliar kitchens, new environments, sometimes with limited resources, and that really pushes the team to adapt, problem-solve, and grow. Beyond the brand exposure, there’s a lot of learning and long-term value that comes out of doing them,” Khattar adds.

More than anything, a popup is a cre­ative enterprise whose biggest reward is the satisfaction it offers to the people putting it together, making them forget all the setbacks they have had along the way.

a Slovenian chefAna RoscheffoodGary MehiganMassimo BotturaOsteria Francescanapopup revolution