Food festivals are just not event spaces. They are now defining a city’s cultural identity and experiential quotient. Team Viva reports
If there’s one thing that unites us all, it’s food. Also, good food can never go out of style. It’s something that always pumps up our mood and makes us smile. And for the last few years, Delhites have been showered with an array of food festivals. Ranging from the Asian Hawkers Festival with its East-Asian offerings to the Gourmet High Street Food Festival, which brings together food lovers from across the city to learn culinary techniques, celebrate new food and appreciate spirits. Adding to the vibrancy of the city, these festivals are often accompanied by live music and dance performances, cooking classes and games so that visitors can lounge around to savour a wholesome experience.
FOOD AS A PIVOT OF A NEW EXPERIENCE
Last year promised to be a market that took visitors on a culinary journey from Tokyo to Bali via Sichuan and Yangon. And this edition is more about the cultural experience and not just food. The added elements are flea market, 14 new restaurants and Singaporean menu to the list.
“We will present six singers-cum-songwriters in our effort to promote new and emerging talent. Additionally, we’ll have a b-boying act daily that’s a bit of Korean culture coming to us via Los Angeles,” said Restaurateur Sid Mathur.
The organisers say the restaurants will try to present the hawker experience, which is the backbone of the Asian food tradition, with gourmet touches to make it special. The portions will be small so that visitors can sample different cuisines without feeling uncomfortably full.
Atul Sikand, the founder-moderator of Indian recipe-sharing group, Sikandalous Cuisine and co-founder of the Delhi Gourmet Club, summarised the philosophy driving the Asian Hawkers Market, “According to the National Restaurant Association of India’s Food Services Report 2016, Pan Asian cuisine ranks next to North Indian as the most preferred choice of the diner. We are clearly on to a good thing. Through this festival, we want visitors to know the different offerings the city has in terms of Asian cuisines. More and more number of restaurants participate every edition because at the end of the day, it increases footfalls.”
NEW TWISTS: FAD OR TRENDSETTER
If your samosa is not fried, has marinated aloo, chunks of mango and pomegranate wrapped in chilled crispy melon, is it still a samosa? Will your mind be willing to taste flame-fired lobster with moilee cream drizzled with pineapple shavings? When beans and custard apple turn to dust on your plate, can you still believe you’re eating vegetable and fruit? If methi parantha turns into a cigar and a microgreens-filled salad that looks like a terrarium, smokes up as you pour on the dressing, you know you’ve entered a fantasy food world.
Well that’s exactly what the Gourmet High Street is all about. “We are the only food discovery platform, wherein we encourage our visitors to come and sample new food products in the market for free. Our platform allows brands to reach out to their target audience, engage with them, launch new products, take pre launch feedbacks and finally sell to them. We also believe the contribution of chefs in the food industry is humongous and we need to identify it by building platforms like this. At the festival these are the people who we showcase,” said Kavneet Sahni.
The Asian Hawker Market will come up with the Singaporean menu.
FOOTFALLS: DO THEY MEAN BUSINESS?
From the restaurateur’s perspective, these events are good for business as they help reach out to a wider audience, who will perhaps return to their restaurant after liking something they sampled at the festival. Apart from a lot of food options available, these festivals also tend to introduce new concepts to the city.
“Initially, the restaurants participated in the food festivals to let the people know what they are offering. Gradually we realised that the festival was becoming more than that. There are many restaurants who show up exceptionally well in the festival and no doubt that people visit those places even after the festival is over,” said Aditi Kapoor, founder of Palate Festival.
“Platforms like Palate Fest give the brand an opportunity to reach out to new as well as the existing customers. We want to showcase to the people the best from our menu and the fest gives us the chance to it on a large scale. The festival has undoubtedly increased the number of people visiting our restaurant because they tasted some or the other dish of our at the fest. It pushes the brand to the wider audience,” said Saurabh Khanijo, Director, Kylin.
Atul Sikand, the founder-moderator of Indian recipe-sharing group, Sikandalous Cuisine and co-founder of the Delhi Gourmet Club, summarised the philosophy driving the Asian Hawkers Market, “According to the National Restaurant Association of India’s Food Services Report 2016, Pan Asian cuisine ranks next to North Indian as the most preferred choice of the diner. We are clearly on to a good thing. Through this festival, we want visitors to know the different offerings the city has in terms of Asian cuisines. More and more number of restaurants participate every edition because at the end of the day, it increases footfalls.”
