Seven days of super supping

For most people, dining at a five-star hotel involves a bit of financial planning. The best time is the beginning of the month, when you're flush with your salary. Other auspicious days are birthdays and Diwali, which is bonus time. However, this month you can have a posh meal without breaking your piggy bank. Reason: the third edition of Restaurant Week begins on September 19.The concept, borrowed from Restaurant Week in  London and the US, will have 15 restaurants offering a three-course meal of items selected from their menus at a fixed price of Rs 1,000. This time, the participants include five-star restaurants such as San-Qi at the Four Seasons, West View at ITC Maratha and Ziya at The Oberoi and high-end standalones such as Hakkasan, The Table and Indigo.The event, which was launched last September, germinated from a casual conversation between three friends—food professionals Mangal Dalal and Nachiket Shetye and finance pro Azeem Zainulbhai—all of whom view Restaurant Week as an act of culinary activism. "We are trying to showcase restaurants that offer some of the best culinary experiences," says Dalal, who graduates from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris year. "You can have a great meal at Bade Miya's. But it doesn't have the overall ambience." Shetye, a chef at East, a pan-Asian restaurant at Nana Chowk, adds that they plan to make Restaurant Week a bi-annual event and introduce it in different cities every time. This time around, it's Bangalore that will have a Restaurant Week simultaneously with Mumbai.Initially restaurants were reluctant to participate, says Dalal. "They didn't want to be seen as diluting their brands," he says. "I kept telling them that it's celebration of food. Besides, all the restaurants are of a similar stature."But they're enthusiastic about the idea now. During the first Restaurant Week, seven establishments participated, offering to reserve four tables for each day of the event. This time, Shetye says, the 15 restaurants have offered 100-180 tables for the week. "The eventual aim is to take over the entire restaurant for a week," he adds.Chinese Restaurants in Bangalore  and Italian Restaurants in Bangalore  have also Great Crowded. The restaurants look at the event as a way of attracting new customers. "For guests, it's an opportunity to try a new restaurant that they thought they would never go to," says Jeetesh Kaprani, the food and beverage manager at The Oberoi, whose restaurants Ziya and Vetro are participating. "For the price, it's great value for money. So it's a win-win situation for both of us." Anand Nair, the food and beverage manager for The Leela, that's being represented by its Chinese restaurant, The Great Wall, says the event is a marketing opportunity. "Even though our revenue doesn't go up drastically, the number of people visiting increases," he says. "Footfalls are also what we need."This time Restaurant Week has two new side events. On September 21, Olive Bar & Kitchen at Mahalaxmi will host Kitchen Party. It's a ticketed event that allows guests to meet Olive's head chef and two guest chefs, wander about the kitchen, and interact with chefs as they cook and snack on hors d'oeuvres. The other event is Chef's Table Week that runs from September 12 to 18. On offer is a seven-course tasting menu and a chance to chat with the chef. Eleven restaurants, many of which are not part of Restaurant Week, are participating in this. "It gives a platform for a chef to showcase his repertoire in a structured format, says Manu Chandra, executive chef at the Olive in Mahalaxmi and Bangalore. "The menu is more adventurous, we're not sticking to safe norms." Sign up then if you fancy tagliatelle with guinea hen or moussaka 'deconstructed' into its various parts.
Source "TOI"