The idea of The Gathering has its roots in two key elements—capturing a certain kind of vibe and offering new ways of storytelling. For Sarmah, founder of the events company, C.A.B. Experiences, it was important to hark back to the experience of sharing a table with friends and family. “Today, we don’t do enough of that as we are constantly rushing along things. These days parties are all about hanging around drinks or eating at buffets. As part of events, we host a lot of dinners as part of which you invite a chef to do more of what they have already been doing all these years. But where is that space to take a pause and feel that sense of community of sharing a meal with loved ones?” asks Sarmah.

The second aspect of the festival is to offer a sensorial storytelling experience. Often while eating a plate of food, we don’t always know the entire story behind it. Hence Sarmah and co-curator Ramamurthy have tried to offer an immersive experience featuring chefs and artists to build on histo-cultural themes that go beyond just food. “We wanted to give creative practitioners the flexibility to tell different kinds of stories,” adds Sarmah.

One pertinent theme, for instance, in the Conservation section is ‘Forbidden. Stolen. Feral’ by Chef Anumitra Ghosh Dastidar and Archana Hande. They look at how narratives of caste and class supremacy are often ignored while talking about the diversity of Indian food—and the fact that the producers of some of these ingredients were forbidden from eating them. So, the two explore the biographies of ingredients from the Eastern Himalayas and the Western Ghats, which have moved across geographies through trade, plunder, and more.

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Meanwhile Chef Amninder Sandhu and Neha Jain of Ekarth Studio are looking at conservation from a community perspective. Their concept, ‘Around the Campfire’ draws from the chef’s childhood years in Jorhat, Assam, when her uncle would organise outdoor picnics and teach her how to cook fish and game over an open fire.

Sandhu is known for bringing together naturally sourced ingredients in slow cooked dishes made on an open fire at her restaurants, be it Bawri in Goa or Palaash located in the wilderness near the Tipeshwar forest. When she was approached for The Gathering and the curators suggested Ekarth Studio as a collaborator, Sandhu felt that it was a perfect fit. “It was almost as if Neha and I had been thinking of the same thing all along, and it was effortless working with her,” she laughs.

When Jain heard Sandhu’s story of going fishing and picnicking with her uncle, she immediately got down to creating that environment. “We needed to come up with ways of transporting guests to that campfire site within the environs of the Travancore Palace,” elaborates Jain. “So, we have translated Chef Amninder’s memory of the north-east region in design and materiality by creating an 18-feet-high bamboo structure around the dining table.”

Both the chef and the artist have looked at elevating the experience—wherein the guest can embrace the rich history of the region albeit in a contemporary manner. “Bamboo is considered a rural material. But countries like Bali, Indonesia and Mexico have taken it to another level. As India is the largest producer of bamboo, it is important to show the kind of artistic innovation that is possible with the material in the country. And The Gathering becomes an important platform to showcase that,” says Jain.

Sandhu initially envisioned the pop-up designed as an orchid flower, with guests seated within the petals. Jain has built on that idea. People walk into the structure and get seated around an island. The whole feel is black and raw. “We will all be wearing white, with the headgear inspired by the traditional Assamese gamcha,” explains Sandhu. The ingredients too celebrate the north-east, with courses featuring the Manipuri black rice, Sophie berry from Meghalaya, mejenga leaves, guti aloo, pink sticky rice, and more. Sandhu is featuring pithas in the dessert course and ending the meal with the traditional paan-tamul. “The gamcha and paan-tamul are both ways of welcoming and honouring the guests,” she says.

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If Sandhu and Jain have focused on the eclectic produce of the north-east, Chef Auroni Mookerjee and Sonal Sawant are celebrating the cultural significance of the pukur, or pond, in rural Bengal. The idea comes from the chef’s extensive travels and his fascination with the pastoral side of the region and its diverse geographical and ecological features. “You have Himalayas to the north, beachfronts as you approach Odisha, mangroves in Sunderbans, the Rarh region, which is an extension of the Chhota Nagpur plateau. I have been exploring produce in all of these areas, and have come to realise that the pukur is common to each of them. It lies at the heart of village life across rural Bengal—sustaining and nourishing it while also acting as a community spot,” elaborates Mookerjee.

That idea resonated with Sawant, who has been production designer for both ad films and popular cinema such as Lakshya, Kai Po Che and Bombay Velvet. She drew on the different elements that make up the ecosystem—the rich foliage that grows around it, the fish, the ingredients that make their way into the village kitchens, and more. “You get the feeling of being in a conservatory with a small water body and fish on the dining table. Just like Auroni offers a modern take on rustic food, we too have created a contemporary look and feel around the pukur,” says Sawant.

Mookerjee is all for this synergy between the culinary and visual arts. Having been a copywriter before taking up the chef’s apron, communication and design has been a huge part of his journey. “When The Gathering team told me that Sonal is coming on board, I felt that this interplay of food and design will be taken forward beautifully. And it has been amazing brainstorming with her,” he says.

In recreating the environment around the ecosystem, the story of the pukur becomes all the more relatable and immersive. Sawant has been quick to pick up the cultural significance of the pukur in Bengal, interpreting it in a huge kantha mural. “It features a tree from an area that I have visited many times, and from where a lot of the produce is coming. A lot of what I am getting are ‘cru’ ingredients [a term used in the context of wine to indicate a particular are where the grape quality is considered superior]. So, the black cumin honey comes from one plot of land, where there is zero cross pollination. The farmer is so proud of this honey,” explains Mookerjee. Similarly, the Kalimpong ghee is being sourced from one family, which rears a certain kind of grass-fed cows and makes cultured ghee from the milk. “Whether it is a plot of land or the maker’s hand, all of these are cru ingredients,” he adds.

The first edition of The Gathering is serving as a learning ground for the participants as well as the curators. For the debut event, Sarmah and Ramamurthy looked at chefs, who were at a certain stage of their careers and were open to experimentation. “That’s how the conversation started. The next step was to ask them if they could do something that they had not explored before. When they came up with the concept, some of them knew of the kind of artists they wanted to collaborate with. For instance, Anumitra knew that she wanted to work with Archana,” explains Sarmah. For some of the others, the curators suggested names and gave them space to discuss and collaborate. “For instance, we put Chef Regi Mathew in touch with Vinu Daniel. Both have looked at the toddy culture and the people who have engaged with it, be it the farmers of the fishing community. Regi’s is the only pop-up, which does not have a long table. Both agreed that the long table would be incongruous with the toddy culture,” she adds.

The team is now planning to take The Gathering to cities such as Mumbai and Bengaluru as well. The festival might take place in different formats in the future. Sarmah, for one, is all for an all-women version, or one which spotlights lesser-known chefs. “At some iteration, we might look at cheeses that people are making and have a little dairy shop with condiments and ingredients that people could take back with them. The Gathering is all about a joy of discovery, and we hope the future versions will carry that forward too,” says Sarmah.

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