While Hyderabad now has diverse places to enjoy good food and dining out is quite a favourite recreation for many, the more evolved food lovers are looking for something more.
Curated dining experiences bring out much more than just food in a meal.
Often, they elaborate on the culture and rituals surrounding the dishes or builds around a special interest which a specific group shares.
Regional or theme-based experiences at homes or specially designed dinners at a restaurant are becoming popular in our city, Quite a few individuals, groups and niche organizations have gone into designing culinary experiences that have proved to be quite a hit.
Curating dining experiences is one of the major activities of Offbeat tracks, a Hyderabad based organization with well-designed activities around food, travel, and culture.
As per Vandana Vijay from Offbeat Tracks, the organization helps home chefs host special lunches and dinners at their own home often showcasing cuisines which are not available in restaurants in Hyderabad. A few examples are the Kashmiri Pandit food, and Bohri Thaal dinners organized recently, where one visits the homes of a family from a particular region to enjoy an authentic meal with them.
Vandana stresses that it is not just food that they promote, but also the culture and customs of the community are brought to fore. She feels there is a niche audience for these events, which are usually conducted for a small group of people due to space constraint at the host’s place.
To work around the last issue, they have also recently tied up with a star hotel to organize a pop-up of Kashmiri Wazwan from two home chefs from Hyderabad.
Curated dinners are also being designed around areas of interest. Hyderabad Wine Society is a group of connoisseurs and enthusiasts of wine in the city. Every month, the group organizes wine-centric dinners in top restaurants in the city, organized by sommelier Suryaveer Singh and Vishal Fernandes.
The diners find these curated experiences useful in getting information about the vintage wines not commonly available, as well as education on wine tasting and the kind of food to be paired with these wines. The clientele here are mostly expats and well-travelled professionals.
If you are interested in experiencing a traditional dinner at a Hyderabadi home, there are a few options available too.
Dilnaz Baig has been curating special dinner for select groups at her house in Banjara Hills. Groups of tourists and corporate teams have provided very good feedback on her dinners, which expose the diners to the finer nuances of Hyderabadi customs and culture apart from the food.
Naaz Anjum at Tolichowki is another host known for the Hyderabadi dinners at her home, where one can get some of the lost recipes from Deccan.
Sabyasachi is a food enthusiast and blogs at www.foodaholix.in