Coonoor restaurant introduces festive menu for Christmas

From pearl millet crackers and spinach infused gnocchi to ravioli tossed in beetroot pesto, Coonoor’s Cafe Diem lays out an eight course sit-down meal for the festive season

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at Cafe Diem in Coonoor. A cheerful Santa holds aloft a bunch of red and green balloons. The nativity scene is up as colourful string lights lend a fairyland air to the place. “Christmas is a celebration of the year gone by and of new tidings, hope, and happiness,” says Radhika Shastry, who set up the cafe at her home’s backyard that opens into vistas of the valley and tea gardens.

As she lays out an eight-course sit-down menu for Christmas, she reflects upon her nine-year journey of running the cafe that is vegetarian and serves European, Mediterranean and Italian cuisines. What started as a 15-cover hangout that served soups, salads, sandwiches, tea and freshly-brewed filter coffee, is now a bustling 60-cover all day-dining space.

“There is tremendous excitement at the kitchen,” she is quick to add about her annual ritual — curating the Christmas menu along with her team. The curation begins months before the season with several rounds of trials and tasting both in-house and by café regulars. “It’s become a tradition, our 12-day long celebration of the holiday season with the new menu being a highlight. Tables get booked in advance. There is anticipation among our clients on our new culinary creations. The focus is on serving a delicious eight course menu that is memorable. We source fresh and best of the ingredients locally, pay attention to how we prepare the dish, presentation, taste, as well as flavours including the colours of ingredients,” explains Radhika adding that this year’s millet crackers are already a hit.

The pearl millet cracker sits pretty on a goat cheese mousse topped with red onion jam and arugula. While the caprese soup garnished with dollops of bocconcini and a drizzle of basil oil is hearty, the spinach infused gnocchi tossed in bell pepper ragu enhanced with burnt garlic salt can be finished off with a crunch of fried basil, garlic, fresh radish and micro greens. 

Radhika recalls that she enjoyed vegetarian food across the globe during her travels to as many as 65 countries such as South America, Peru, and Chile, to name a few.

She picks the ravioli stuffed with herbed ricotta tossed in a beetroot pesto as her favourite dish. “Beetroots are grown in the Nilgiris in plenty. We have made a pesto with red beets. For the mezze platter, we are making falafels with three beans grown in the hills here, and moringa leaves,” she says adding that the caprese soup made with naati tomatoes got a thumbs up right during the trials.

The red onion jam is again local. She has used Ooty potatoes to make potato pave. “Thin slices of potatoes are marinated and layered with cream and herbs and then baked before it is cubed and served with a dollop of cream and balsamic pearls mimicking caviar,” says Radhika elaborating on the menu that also includes a berry salad where sweet meets salty as fresh berries and arugula are tossed in garlic parmesan dressing. The fennel and orange salad tossed with thinly sliced fennel bulb, and orange segments, candied ginger, sun dried tomatoes, and sliced red chillies with a creamy dill dressing is served with a garnish of micro greens and parmesan.