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The high table and a lavish dining experience

The Chef's Table gives diners an opportunity to go beyond the menu and taste the finest, most exclusive food

Published: Oct 3, 2017 08:26:37 AM IST
Updated: Sep 29, 2017 06:40:33 PM IST

The high table and a lavish dining experience
Turbot fillet with zucchini is one of chef Fabrizio Littera's most delicious offerings
 

Le Cirque, The Leela Palace New Delhi, India
Le Cirque at The Leela Palace, the Delhi outpost of one of New York’s most famous French-Italian restaurants, celebrates the legendary hospitality of restaurateur Sirio Maccioni. It offers an exclusive and highly personalised dining experience with its Chef’s Table that is strategically placed opposite a custom-built show kitchen. This exclusive spot can be reserved for two to 12 guests for whom the restaurant offers a customised menu  eight to 12 courses.

Chef de cuisine Fabrizio Littera stops at the table to give a detailed explanation of each dish, while the sommelier helps you pair wines with each course, from a selection that has been handpicked from across the world. The section includes the 1996 Petrus and 2007 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti La Tache.

On the menu: Warm carpaccio of Scottish salmon with vermouth and chive emulsion; miso glazed confit of duck with barley risotto and pickled ginger.
Price: Starting from ₹1 lakh plus taxes for two.

The high table and a lavish dining experienceThe eight-course menu, including dishes like daulat ki chaat with roasted almond and rose-petal chikki, is paired with wines and can be personalised for every diner

Indian Accent New Delhi, India

The Chef’s Table at Indian Accent is a unique culinary journey put together by chefs Manish Mehrotra and Shantanu Mehrotra (not related).
The eight-course menu is paired with wines and can be personalised for every diner. The exclusive Chef’s Table is in an enclosed private dining room that can seat up to nine guests. Come November, there would be a larger Table that would seat 30 guests as the restaurant is shifting to The Lodhi, a larger, luxury property on Lodhi Road.

“The Chef’s Table gives me a cherished opportunity to share my experience as a chef with the guest face to face, a pleasure that gets lost when I am in the kitchen,” Manish Mehrotra tells Forbes India.

On the menu: Tandoori bacon prawns, wasabi malai; daulat ki chaat with roasted almond and rose-petal chikki.
Price: Starting from ₹6,000 plus taxes for food and ₹4,500 plus taxes for the wine pairings, per person.

The high table and a lavish dining experienceFennel panna cotta is one of the specialities at ITC Grand Chola where patrons can opt for the Chef’s Table

The India Room, ITC Grand Bharat Gurugram, India

The Vice Regal Table at The India Room, which seats up to six guests, is for those seeking an exclusive experience of the restaurant that showcases creative renditions of French, Greek, Roman, Dutch and British gourmet dishes. While the Vice Regal Table is exclusive for guests staying at the ITC Grand Bharat, the hotel did confirm that non-residents are allowed on a case-to-case basis.
Other ITC hotels, too, offer similar Chef’s Table experiences at restaurants like The Tea Pavilions at ITC Sonar, Kolkata, Dum Pukht and Bukhara at ITC Maurya, New Delhi, and Avartana at ITC Grand Chola, Chennai.

On the menu: Seafood bisque with bergamot scented crème fraiche; slow cooked juniper lamb—duo of New Zealand lamb chops and Jaipur lamb shoulder, spinach and rosemary jus.

Price: Starting from ₹45,000 plus taxes, per person.

The high table and a lavish dining experienceThe daylily soup and sunflower pasta are inspired by ingredients from the resort’s culinary garden
The Restaurant At Meadowood Napa Valley, California, USA
At this Michelin three-star restaurant at the luxury resort Meadowood in Napa Valley, the Chef’s Kitchen Counter Menu is available for only one table seating for a maximum of four diners per evening. The menu, which spans about 12 courses, was first offered in 2012 and is inspired by the ingredients from the resort’s culinary garden. The menu changes often based on seasonality of ingredients. Reservations are available to guests three months in advance through the online reservation platform Tock.

On the menu: Daylily soup, caviar radish; sunflower pasta.

Price: $500 per guest plus taxes. There is a wine accompaniment that starts at $250 per guest.
 

The high table and a lavish dining experienceRanveer Brar put together an India-inspired menu on his Chef’s Table
Ranveer Brar Multiple
In a year, chef Ranveer Brar puts together around 8-10 Chef’s Table experiences. While a majority of them feature across his restaurants in India, Canada and the US, around 3-4 of these are tailor-made. Three months ago, he put together a Chef’s Table for a well-known European industrialist aboard a Norwegian cruise ship. It was an India-inspired menu based on ayurveda and wellness, and the “deal”, says the 39-year-old chef, was that there would be no cutlery on the table. “The idea is that whenever you are eating Indian food, you eat with your hand.” Before each dish was served, a short audio-video presentation was played explaining the benefits of the food item and its ingredients.

On the menu: Old Delhi bheja fry pate with 24k gold and a khameeri melba; fig ‘murabba’ tarte tatin with telicherry pepper chantilly.  

Price: The Chef’s Table on the Norwegian ship cost $700 per person.

(This story appears in the 13 October, 2017 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)

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