A few days back I chanced upon a reel by one of the creators that I follow announcing his first ever pop-up, which he plans to host this weekend.
Archit Agarwal is a Gurugram-based marketing professional who is also better known as @architlost on Instagram. His food blog, Life of Simple Treats (LOST), is his space to document all the recipes that he’s experimented with over the years, and is quite the hit with the millennials on Instagram.
“Some of my earliest memories have been of sitting in the kitchen with my mother and grandmother as they prepared meals for the family,” he says.
However, it was during his time in the US as an undergraduate student, that he realised the true value of cooking a meal and “turning ingredients into something special.”
I remember coming across Agarwal’s Instagram page a few years back. Apparently, Aggarwal launched his page to learn more about marketing and growth, when he secured a marketing position in an agency. But it’s been seven years since then, and the passion to cook and to create content and share it via Instagram, blog and podcasts continues to grow.
What made him decide to host an exclusive pop-up after all this time?
“This is another way to engage with my audience. As content creators, we share our recipes through visuals and sounds, but consuming food is a sensory experience that can only be fully appreciated in-person. This pop-up allows me to share my creations directly with people, while also interacting with them,” quips Aggarwal.
The pop-up, in the culinary world, is a term that creates the impression of exclusivity. It is not regular, which lays the groundwork for enchanting an incoming diner with an aura of expectation — a bit of surprise in what could possibly have been an otherwise-regular dining experience.
Yet, just as you step into an anticipated curated experience, you’re welcomed by a menu designed by a home-chef/baker or a recognised restaurant from around the country or the world. The experience remains similar, but becomes exponentially more niche—a new niche in the realm of food entertainment.
In South Delhi’s latest food hub, Ghitorni, stands indicā, the brainchild of writer Damini Ralleigh and Sandeep Garg. The place is a space where gastronomy meets dialogues in the form of pop-ups, workshops and symposiums. Ralleigh and her team recently concluded a pop-up with Chef Tanisha Phanbuh that highlighted the staples from Meghalaya through a seven-course menu. “The plates we serve tell stories of the people who cook the food, their communities, the terrain the food comes from and people who grow it. It’s a unique proposition that resonates deeply with the modern diner, who craves not just a meal but an immersive experience through flavours, cultures and traditions”, Ralleigh says.
Ralleigh, a journalist, moved to Italy to pursue a degree in gastronomy and subsequently started working with the Slow Food Movement, before moving back to Delhi. Upon her return she met Garg who comes with an experience of over 15 years in farming and processing.
What makes these niche concepts stand-out and is there an audience for it in Delhi? At indicā, one of the pop-ups that was hosted aimed to foster a dialogue between Delhiites and the migrant communities that reside here, and brought them before the guests in a tactile form through food. That pop-up was the mehmaani feast that they put together with the Afghan refugees in Delhi as a fundraiser.
Meanwhile, at Archit Agarwal’s pop-up this weekend the diners can expect a melange of global dishes that have been created to suit the robust Indian palate. From a classic lasagna, chicken fusion tacos to a Christmas tiramisu with a two year old rum soak - these dishes are some of the popular ones from his blog and have been elevated to suit the pop-up experience. Agarwal and his wife Natasha Ratti Kapoor will be hosting this at their home in Gurugram for a limited seating of six guests.
Through it all, what you witness are creative expressions that never found their permanent place in a restaurant, but definitely warrant a tangible audience. Each of these examples are creations that celebrate ingredients and dishes through their own stories, making the dining not only experiential, but also adding a degree of relatability and inclusivity into the setup. As you go through their paces, you realise just how much personal investment has gone into each of these experiences—which, incidentally, are on a steady rise across India.
Vernika Awal
is a food writer who is known for her research-based articles through her blog ‘Delectable Reveries’