Small cities warm up to tasting menus

Chefs are plating gourmet meals in specialised micro-dining spots as small-town India develops a taste for fine dining

- Ruth Dsouza Prabhu

(clockwise from above) Chef Minori Ota in Turtuk, Ladakh; a cocktail at Atelier V in Indore; and a dish from Accentuate Food Lab in Aurangabad.

We are seated around a table and asked to pick olives off hooks placed on a prop that looks like an olive tree. What follows is a meal featuring fresh salads, pastas and Basque cheesecake. Another day, another meal, this time Japanese-inspired with sushi, soba noodles and katsu curry. These may sound like any other gourmet meal on a weekend outing in a metro, except that the former is at Atelier V, a casual fine-dining restaurant in Indore, and the latter at Yakitori, a Japanese restaurant in Virsa Baltistan in Turtuk, Ladakh.

India's culinary landscape is now seeing chefs choosing to root themselves in smaller towns instead of chasing F&B glory in tier-one cities like Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru. Chef Prateek Sadhu's 16-seater Naar in Kasauli is perhaps the pinnacle of what's possible in an offbeat location. In Mangaluru, chef Shriya Shetty's Buco, an artisanal gourmet bakery and café, has made it to must-do lists for both visitors and locals alike. People now drive from Bengaluru or plan a pit stop at Sapa Bakery in Mysuru. Tourists plan a meal at the eight-seater Accentuate Food Lab while on a break in Aurangabad.

SMALL-TOWN ALLURE

Dina Weber, 30, a self-taught baker from Germany, who runs Sapa Bakery, was 20 when she backpacked through India during a gap year in 2014-15 and decided to stay. She recalls that when Sapa began in 2019, Mysuru didn't have many European-style bistros or bakeries. Weber began experimenting with sourdough breads, French and German pastries, eclairs, mousse cakes and tarts.