Luxury hotels and boutique restaurants offer bespoke menus, dining experiences

While private events and sit down meals for large groups have seen themed, set menus gain traction, several luxury hotels and standalone boutique restaurants are now upping their game by offering the service for more intimate settings.

In May this year, a client approached The Oberoi in Bengaluru to curate a special dinner for his daughter’s 18th birthday. Anirban Dasgupta, executive chef at the hotel, went on to craft an eight-course menu, with each course encapsulating a different phase of her life. A few highlights included Musically Yours (orange blossom sorbet), Leave Life Like a Painting (pomegranate on a canvas), and Turning One Eight (Thai-infused Brie phyllo tart, kaffir lime dust). 

While private events and sit down meals for large groups have seen themed, set menus gain traction, several luxury hotels and standalone boutique restaurants are now upping their game by offering the service for more intimate settings. “Concept dining has been a part of our guest offering for more than two decades, but, the demand for bespoke dining, thematic events, and novel culinary ideas have received attention in the last five to six years,” says Anirban who owes the trend to well-travelled clients who are aware of global dining trends and are keen to explore new formats. “People are now willing to spend on bespoke experiences and customisation,” he says.

At Mumbai’s Masque Lab — the dedicated R&D space of the popular restaurant, Masque — Varun Totlani, head chef, says it is where “we freestyle and curate menus” priced approximately at ₹8,000 + tax per person. In early July, Varun set up a dinner for a regular client who wanted to celebrate her husband’s birthday by presenting him with their favourites from Masque over the years. “This was a 20-course meal, wherein each course was a bite-sized portion.” Classics included corn curd, khad quail, sea buckthorn and cured barramundi pani puri, Bhavnagri chilli rellenos taco, and a mango tres leches.

A taste of home

Exclusive offerings for birthdays and family events see clients requesting for dishes they have had on their travels, explains Varun, who, alongside boutique catering company Sage & Saffron put together most meals at the Dior Pre-Fall 2023 show in Mumbai last year. “For one sit down meal, they wanted modern Indian food with traditional Indian elements. So we put together a menu in three phases: a thali with appetisers, a three-compartment tiffin with main courses, and pre-plated desserts. The tiffin was opened at the centre of the table, and the breads served individually,” he says, adding how the wine glasses were custom-made, and the custom Dior plates were shipped to Mumbai from Paris for the event.

When Bengaluru’s fine-dining European restaurant Lupa opened its doors in 2023, Chef Manu Chandra also introduced a Private Dining Room (PDR). The 10-seater space with a wine cellar has since hosted several exclusive dining events for which Manu and his team have curated bespoke menus (upwards of ₹4,500 per head), complete with floral arrangements and decor.

His Bangalore Nostalgia menu that was first created for a client about a year-and-a-half ago, has since gone through many iterations and served three times. One of the versions of the 10-course menu dedicated to the city’s landmarks featured dishes such as Raghavendra Stores (aero idly with crispy vada beignet podi dust, sambar broth, dosa crumble), Cubbon Park (charred baby corn and Congress masala butter), Koshy’s (brioche toast with chicken liver or mushroom), and Venkateshwara Sweets (Mysore Pak-cinnamon torrija with pandan ice cream), all paired with Spanish wines. “We have a bouquet of menus available for those looking at bespoke experiences,” says Manu, who also offers a range of dining experiences at his luxe catering service Single Thread Catering, and has curated meals for private clients as well as corporates such as Land Rover, Meta, and Spotify.