Their camaraderie gleams through their smiles. For Nachiket Shetye, the director of Citibank Restaurant Week India, his business partner Mangal Dalal has been the greatest source of ingenuity and enterprise. For Dalal, on the other hand, Shetye has demonstrated how indefatigable beliefs can lead to surprising results. Their work is a reflection of the friendship they share—honest, unremitting and life-long.
Considered one of the largest gastronomic events in the country, Restaurant Week India, which commences on September 11, is ready with its new offerings. Choose a restaurant from the catalogue of some of the finest names in the food and hospitality business, and experience a three-course, pre-set menu from the list of preparations available, priced Rs 1,100 for lunch and Rs 1,300 for dinner. “We started with seven restaurants in Mumbai and have grown to 105, participating across five cities,” says Dalal, remembering old times. “We invested a lot of effort with each restaurant partner to convey the concept, and to convince them of the long-term benefits. In fact, for the first two rounds we made confirmation calls to each and every diner participating in Restaurant Week.” Now, they’re a team of four people who start working on the logistics three months prior to the event.
The first Restaurant Week that was initiated in Mumbai in September 2010 had close to 1,100 diners. The last edition in April 2015 that took place across Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai had almost 11,450 diners. “In this round, we’re adding Kolkata to our line-up of cities and we expect to have more than 13,000 diners,” says an excited Shetye.
Twenty-six of the top restaurants in the city, including A Ta Maison, Artusi, Dakshin, Dum Pukht, Eau de Monsoon, En-Fine, Indigo, Kiyan and others have been shortlisted. “Having eaten at most of these, the founders feel the food sensibilities of these restaurants have evolved tremendously over the last few years.
After studying culinary arts at the Culinary Institute of America, Shetye worked with several restaurants in New York, followed by running a Pan-Asian restaurant in Mumbai. “I now gravitate towards vegetarian offerings as it’s easier to showcase a nice cut of fish or meat, but difficult to highlight a simple vegetable. They’re unexplored by non-vegetarians, but are equally delicious,” he says. Try and eat as much as you can. This is as pocket-friendly as it gets.