Banksy on a plate, Dali in a cocktail

It’s not every day that you walk into a restaurant for a meal and find yourself analysing the artwork on the walls. “There are 12 hands. Can you see them?” says one of the staff members at Chorus Café in Mumbai. Titled The Offering, the 12x9ft framed woven piece unfolds like a landscape interspersed with detailed floral motifs, blue skies, rivers and mountains in bullion knots, stem stitch, crochet and feather stitch to name a few. “The hands are of those who put this together”— honouring the six artisans behind the artwork. The food at the new café, which is an extension of an atelier by Chanakya International in the Kala Ghoda art precinct, seamlessly blends ideas borrowed from textiles. The salad arrives with a lace tuile crafted from rice flour. A platter of dips resembles the patchwork on a quilt.

For a long time, art was confined to galleries or museums, and accessible to a select few. Today, it has spilled into urban spaces, animating streets and public corners. Art festivals are common in India’s metros, where Gen Z and millennials gather to socialise and exchange opinions about their favourite artists. In the post-pandemic years, this cultural shift has increasingly become part of food and beverage spaces.

The dining venue has transformed to look and feel like a walk-in gallery with events such as The Gathering. The food and art festival, which debuted last year in Delhi, and returned with a second edition a few weeks ago in Mumbai, pairs chefs and artists to create immersive culinary experiences. Restaurants and cocktail bars are challenging the very notion of dining out by weaving art into their menus and decor through fresh, experimental formats. From Leh to Kochi, independent cafés are championing young artists, many doubling up as art galleries and hosting workshops. For those in the industry, this confluence is a meaningful form of cultural expression, and a way to enhance the dining experience.

“Food and art have long been intertwined in India, through ritual, hospitality, and in the way it is prepared, offered and shared. What feels new today is our collective readiness to experience this relationship consciously and with intent. Chorus Café is a space where food and art come together as acts of expression,” says Karishma Swali, co-founder and creative director of Chorus.

The cafe’s menu is vegetarian and features dishes like Chorus Quilt—hummus, smoked carrot, romesco, herb cream cheese and spinach-chive yogurt—plated to look like the patchwork on a quilt. The Fazzoletti is a square sheet of striped pasta that mimics a handkerchief over seasonal vegetables and burrata. The Lace & Leaf Salad is inspired by the 18th century Renaissance lace-making techniques. What’s more, the dark chocolate bites come in the form of buttons.

“The concept works because both art and food are related, especially when it comes to creating experiences. And since food is a form of culinary arts, it makes for a complete experience of consuming something that appeals not just to the palate, but also to the eye,” says Sangita Kathiwada, who owns Kathiwada City House (KCH), a heritage art and culture space in Mumbai with an art bistro called Circle Sixty Nine. Opened in 2023, it serves European fare complete with salads, pizza and small plates. On the walls is Kathiwada’s private collection of modern and contemporary Indian art, featuring works by S.H. Raza, M.F. Husain, Jamini Roy, Jeram Patel, Prabhakar Kolte, Rameshwar Broota and Vasundhara Tewari Broota.

By next week, KCH’s central gallery will be transformed into what Kathiwada calls “a dine-in museum” hosting a 5-7-course tasting menu experience. The space will be anchored by a special mixed-media painting, and diners will be encouraged to walk around the table and appreciate it. Kathiwada says the idea draws from her visit to Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, almost 20 years ago, where she was deeply impressed by an extravagant sit-down dinner at which Giorgio Armani’s handbags and gowns were displayed as artworks.

For Goa-based independent artist Siddharth Kerkar, art has been a part of his life for as long as he can remember. Growing up with an artist father—painter and installation artist Subodh Kerkar—he travelled the world, attending events and exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale at the age of eight. Art, therefore, became the foundation of Dali & Gala, an experiential cocktail bar that he opened with his partner Vipin Raman in Bengaluru last year.

“Art is a great vehicle to communicate ideas. Being an artist who likes to design art-forward experiences, the aim was to bring visual arts and mixology under one roof,” says Kerkar. The idea for the bar happened two-and-a-half years ago when the duo visited a Salvador Dali exhibition in Europe. The inspiration eventually took shape in a 69-seater space built around the themes of surrealism, romance and adultery. Kerkar has a showcase of over 75 artworks borrowing from the Catalan artist’s uncanny, dreamlike imagery, and the tumultuous relationship with his wife, muse and manager Gala.

The drinks programme is no less audacious, and is conceptualised by Raman along with head of bar Arnold Hou. Cocktails are guided by Dali’s art, be it with the help of garnishes or ice stamps such as a lobster-telephone impression after his famous 1936 work Lobster Telephone or the cocktail The Elephant Paloma that comes with a garnish stamped with Kerkar’s version of the iconic 1948 painting The Elephants. “The reaction has been one-of-a-kind. It’s a very, very Instagrammable space. There’s no way one can resist the urge to take pictures,” adds Raman.

Over the past year, the National Capital Region has also seen a slew of art-forward spaces—like Arts Room, where the cocktails are inspired by Frida Kahlo, Pablo Picasso and F.N. Souza, and the multi-cuisine restaurant Begeterre with Roman frescos and sculptures.

For chefs, art often becomes a way to express their artistic sensibilities. Chef Akash Deshpande, who co-runs Luv, a casual fine-dining restaurant in Mumbai, is best known for blending food and art through his art-themed desserts. In 2023, he came up with one inspired by Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh’s masterpiece Starry Night, featuring a vanilla custard layered with muskmelon mousse, and passionfruit and gondhoraj lime jelly shaped like a crescent moon. Deshpande recalls how it went viral on Instagram with people walking in only to eat the edible art. Trained in classical French cooking, he also paints in his free time. “As a chef, it becomes natural to challenge yourself, to stand out and create something unique. This is my way to pay tribute to an artist I’ve admired for a long time,” he says.

In October, Deshpande launched a dessert guided by Girl with Balloon, the famous stencil mural by the British graffiti artist Banksy. It arrives within a frame, and the only edible element is the red heart made of flourless chocolate cake.

A couple of years ago, Camp Kharu, a cafe cum gallery in Leh, opened its doors as part of an initiative by the Royal Enfield Social Mission. The food is primarily Ladakhi staples such as paba (a barley dish), skyu and chutagi (traditional pastas). The space encourages budding artists, designers and architects from the region to interact and exchange ideas. The inaugural exhibition in 2024 saw photographs of the quiet transformation of Ladakhi kitchens by the local multidisciplinary artist Tsering Motup Siddho.

Perhaps it is this very cultural exchange that is driving the ever-evolving food landscape to place art at the centre of the table as an interactive device to enrich the experience.