Date: 01 October 2017 Place: Soma Bangalore Vineyards

The Cosmic Wedding was as ambitious as one could get while curating special pop-up dinners. The theme was mythology and not food; we wanted to use ingredients that have mention in vedas, puranas and the great epics; we wanted the food to be Indian, yet not quite so; we wanted it to be a sit-down, pre-plated, silver-service dinner and we wanted to host in an outdoor venue! How did we land here?

Early in March, we were standing with Darby Raju in the open air amphitheater of his picturesque Soma Bangaore vineyards and sipping on a glass of crisp white wine. The outline of the Nandi Hills in the almost dark of the evening led to a conversation about how the place is considered holy by Hindus who worship Shiva and Parvati, the Bhoga Nandishwara temple being ornately carved with scenes depicting their wedding – the cosmic wedding of the holiest union in Hindu mythology. I heard myself saying that I would love to cook a dinner based on their wedding, with any reference to food I can find in the scriptures and host it in the vineyards under the shadows of the Nandi Hills. The next we knew, we were all in agreement of an event in the near future on the theme of Shiva – Parvati’s wedding!

I came back to Delhi wondering what did I set myself up for, yet the more we toyed with it in our heads, the more we were fascinated by it. After that it was six months of hard work – research, sifting through stories, trying to weave a menu through a common thread, working out logistics, the design and the artwork, drawing guest lists, sourcing ingredients – everything was planned to the minutest details possible. Before we knew it was September on our door steps!

The month to go and the invitation were all out, the ingredients sourced and we started pre-preparation of a lot of the tiny but important components of the dishes, the reality finally hit me! The menu was unique – too unique, perhaps! There was hardly any item that I had a standardized recipe for! Who had heard of using popped and puffed rice, turning those into a flour and baking crackers! Black rice had to be turned into sheets of crisps! It was but a cosmic wedding – nothing failed, not a single batch of test recipe had to be binned. We had made about 60 pieces each of 6 various components that would ultimately complete the stories on the plate.

And the stories – I was so nervous about the interpretation, the narration, the relevance and of failing to hit the mark that I was scared narrating even to Om and Anu! Finally the evening when we did a final tasting of all the courses on the menu amongst the Social Tables trio, I narrated each tale that inspired the dishes and how I had interpreted it on the plate. When both of them picked their favorite stories and could relate to each element through the plates, I felt an enormous sense of relief.

Even then, the challenges were many, I was to cook in an alien kitchen; each course had at least three components and all were different textures and in some cases different temperature. It had to all work like clockwork. My biggest worry was plating and service – it had to be perfect, on time and extremely efficient. As I said before, it was a cosmic wedding – Taj Bangalore, where we had booked stays for all our guests arriving from Delhi, expressed interest in becoming the service partner. Just the day before we were to fly to Bangalore, I got to speak with their Executive Chef, Ashish Ugal, who saw the menu and was willing to work with me in plating and running the service. Another huge load was knocked off our shoulders.

Before we knew, we were in Bangalore and had taken over Aruna aunty’s beautifully decorated home. It was our battle ground for the final but one round of preps and cooking. Adrenaline had kicked in and we were just in a constant state of coordinated dance – there was no time to think, worry or breathe.

And then came one of the funniest moments of the event. We were discussing plating and crockery with Chef Ugal and his team. Chef’s plating ideas constantly hovered around micro-greens and salsa and potato starch, all of which I kept obstinately turning down; they upset my concept and story, and I wasn’t willing to put a single grain on plate that fell outside of it. It looked like we were reaching impasse before we could reach the soup! I decided to summon divine interventions and urged the Chef to listen to the story of Aparna before he decided how to adorn her. It was a minute of attention which I slowly sensed turning into interest. Aparna did her magic; after that there were no more plating wars, the team worked together on putting each story of Shiva and Parvati on plate.

It was 1st and we were in ground zero. Anu was well on her way to pick-up the guests and Chef Ugal from Taj Bangalore and take them to Bhoga Nandishwara temple. Om was planning frames and angles fro the video and photographs while overseeing table setting and decorations with Darby. Aruna aunty was making sure we were all well fed and hydrated. I was carving out one lotus bread after other and supervising the setting up of the make-shift kitchen. The rain, as we knew, was supposed to come for an hour in the afternoon, which it never did. We were relieved.

Just about 15 minutes before arrival of the guests the sky started getting darker. “The skies have been raising such false alarms for the past few days”, we said. The guests arrived and with them arrived thunder! Soon it started to drizzle, rain and then the skies just broke on our heads. “Bangalore doesn’t rain for long”, we were told! It was forty five minutes and the rain showed no signs of letting up. The good part was that the guests were enjoying the rain, the thunder and the wine. Little did they know that my kitchen had flooded. Raindrops fell on and splattered off the hot grills. The table set out on the deck was almost floating! We had to take a call…we had to move everything indoors within the next 15 minutes. The kitchen had to be shifted, service stations altered! The one person who shone through this was Chef Vineet, “Outdoor events become more fun when such things happen!” By the time I was escorted under an umbrella to the fun side of the event, the kitchen was already set, the table laid, my spirits were soaring again, I could appreciate how beautiful the rain was.

From then on, it was a dream run. None of us knew how the next two hours flew! It was an endless stream of plating, service, clicking of cutlery, attending to guests and stories between each course. It was eleven at night by the time the guests boarded the bus back. It was after a lot of photos, hugs, and laughter. Everyone loved the Soma rose, some were partial towards the white. The food was great, they said and the stories the high point. (I promise of share some of them and more about the menu in the next post) Looking back, will we do it again?

Definitely but after we have soaked all of it in. I have to make a special mention of the New Delhi 17 who came all the way to Bangalore for just this event. Their faith in Social Tables humbles us. It felt like having a loving family around.