The Gathering comes to Mumbai and the season's best harvest menus

Over the weekend, Mumbai's Mukesh Mills will undergo a visual metamorphosis, and find some of the country's biggest names from the food and arts scene come together for a unique festival cum pop-up — The Gathering. The event is an immersive dining experience that blends art, fashion and design as chefs plate up their menus inspired by each of the creative disciplines.

This is the second edition of The Gathering, and promises to be bigger and better. This year's line-up of chefs include Kolkata's ‘momo queen’ Doma Wang and Sachiko Seth, Niyati Rao, Ralph Prazeres and Bawmra Jap to name a few. There are workshops and literary talks, music performances, and even a speakeasy cocktail bar.

“There are lots of things in the world today that fragment us. But there are not enough spaces for people to kind of get together, not just with their own kind, but even people who are outside of the immediate social circles and we would like to kind of encourage more connections between them,” explains founder & festival director Sushmita Sarmah about the concept behind the walkthrough festival.

Kolkata's beloved mother-daughter duo (Doma Wang and Sachiko Seth) will serve a five-course menu that borrows from Wang's memories of growing up in her father's noodle factory in Kalimpong. Architect and designer Udit Mittal, whose work explores themes of material memory, will transform the dining venue with installations reminiscent of a noodle shop crafted with bamboo cane.

The menu will be a modern interpretation of Tibetan cuisine, says Seth, who helms Popo's in Kolkata, a restaurant serving Himalayan food. There is laphing, which is traditionally cold noodles made with mung bean starch, but here it will be served with scallops; a tartare of dried yak, smoked pork lard and churpi; and ema datshi with grilled peppers stuffed with mushroom and rice to name a few. “We have sourced the smoked pork from Dimapur and dried yak from Bombila in Arunchal Pradesh,” informs Seth.

While chef Niyati Rao has taken inspiration from her mother's wardrobe, specifically her collection of sarees, and will be collaborating with the fashion brand Abraham & Thakore. “Each course draws from a textile tradition and expresses it through ingredients native to similar geographies,” says Rao. She will serve a khadi-inspired dish of a warm grain preparation, which is a bread course with hand-churned buffalo butter and nolen gur or date palm jaggery. Rao will infuse milk, rose, beetroot, almond and orange blossom to create a dessert borrowed from Lucknow's rich chikankari legacy.

The Gathering is scheduled from 16-18 January at Mukesh Mills, Colaba, Mumbai. Tickets on District by Zomato.

Flavours of winter
As winter sets in, our food traditions blend the seasonal cycle of nature with warm, comforting dishes. At Folk, chef Jasleen Marwah's menu makes way for regional specialities such as chutagi, a slow-cooked Ladakhi soup, topli nu saag, a medley of seasonal greens cooked with Parsi topli nu paneer, amrud ki chaat prepared with pink guavas, and Bihari litti chokha of fire-roasted baingan ka chokha and aam ka kuchha to name a few.
Where: 14, Maharashtra Chambers, Lane, Kala Ghoda, Fort, Mumbai.

A royal harvest feast
How did our kings usher in the harvest season? Silver Train restaurant in Mumbai is hosting a special menu to celebrate dishes that were prepared in the erstwhile royal kitchens. Start with panakam, a drink of palm jaggery, dry ginger and black pepper, followed by a range of accompaniments comprising til-gud chutney from Maharashtra, seasonal spring onion shoots, and kachumber of carrot, radish, and cucumber, Punjabi fermented shalgam-gajar khatta, and roasted appalam among others. The thali features Baroda varan or plain lentils, ven pongal made with new rice, winter-special sarson ka saag (from Patiala) and hara cholai ras (from Gwalior). For non-vegetarian diners, there is Murgh Kali Mirch Kaliya, a slow-cooked winter dish from the princely state of Dumrao in Bihar.
Where: 4th Floor, West Zone, Gourmet Village Phoenix Palladium, Lower Parel, Mumbai.

From the winter kitchens of Punjab
Celebrate Punjab's favourite harvest festival at Bengaluru's newest restaurant Lohri. The menu is rooted in the region's seasonal offerings such as Mirchi te Ganna da Ras, a sugarcane juice with a kick of chilli, Sarson da Gosht, Murgh Lababdar and Khoya Mutter Makhana, that can be paired with breads like Palak aur Lasun Naan and Beetroot & Roasted Jeera Naan. The desserts are indulgent and feature slow-roasted atte ka halwa and the winter classic gajrela.
Where: Ground Floor, Trinity Circle, Old Madras Road Trinity Pothraj (opposite 1 MG Mall).