The Anatomy of an Indian Fine-Dining Pop-Up

“Pop-ups aren’t new. Only the vocabulary has changed,” says Gresham Fernandes, Chef Partner at Mumbai’s Bandra Born. Sameer Seth, CEO and co-founder, of The Bombay Canteen, reminds us that back in the 1990s and early 2000s, they were called ‘food festivals’, and sprung up at hotels and restaurants to mark traditional and religious occasions. “But now they have become all-encompassing. They include ambiance and service styles,” he adds. 

The food festivals of yore have indeed come a long way and walking into one now comes with aesthetic markers of cuisine and establishments. So, you get a sufficiently packaged version of a departure from the restaurant’s original experience. Elements of the visiting restaurant’s décor creep in and every attempt to replicate the vibe is made. Thus, when Singapore’s South Indian-Korean restaurant Tambi popped up at The Bombay Canteen, soju bombs were doing the rounds.  

Most chefs we spoke to recall some of the earliest all-encompassing pop-ups from between 2012 and 2015. “It had something to do with international recognition for Indian restaurants that began in 2013 with awards like Asia’s 50 Best. The international pop-ups started then. If Massimo Bottura cannot open a restaurant in India, can people in India taste Massimo’s food another way?” says Manish Mehrotra, the powerhouse chef behind Indian Accent and Comorin. “MasterChef Australia was also becoming popular in India around the same time. Chefs from there were doing pop-ups all over,” he adds. 

Mehrotra’s first such outing was with a one-Michelin star chef from Finland. “I went there and cooked for two days, and he came to cook in India. Nobody knew what a pop-up was back then,” he recalls. 

In 2015, at their first anniversary, Mumbai’s The Bombay Canteen hosted their first. “We called it the Mother of all Menus and brought our mothers to cook with us at the restaurant,” Seth tells us. 

The trend

For the last decade, culinary pop-ups and bar takeovers have been all the rage at fine dining establishments. Egged on further by a pandemic that hit the hospitality industry hard, they brought new marketing gusto to the restaurants. This, coupled with the constant demand for newness and accessibility to travel, has made pop-ups a roving success for many. 

“Food is the new music. We look closely at restaurants, chefs, and entities in the culinary landscape. People equate going out to restaurants with collecting Pokemon. There is now a market for what you are doing anywhere in the world,” Seth explains. 

Mehrotra on the other hand believes that a concept that garnered attention through exclusivity has now become a trend to follow. “If anything becomes popular in India, we really go after it. I started molecular gastronomy here, and now people are serving ice cream with liquid nitrogen at weddings. Pop-ups are no longer exclusive. I won’t be surprised to see Haldiram’s doing a pop-up with Tewari Brothers in Mumbai,” he says, chuckling. The demand he admits, does factor in, and people are willing to pay for new experiences. 

Gauri Devidayal’s Magazine St. Kitchen, an experimental kitchen in Mumbai’s Byculla, is a testament to this growing demand. “We went from hosting a pop-up every six weeks to three every month after the pandemic,” she tells us. 

Similarly, for Bangalore-based arts and culture space, The Conservatory, culinary pop-ups were the recipe for revival. “Post-COVID, a space like ours (an arts and performance venue) was the least patronised. Food helped us come back. It got people out like nothing else did,” says Akhila Srinivas, founder, The Conservatory. 

The menu

While some chefs insist on the distinctions between collaborations and pop-ups, others tell us that the process remains unchanged. “The first thing to discuss is the seasonal availability of ingredients, the second is the basic palate of the city, for example, in Dubai, you will not use pork. The type of kitchen equipment is next,” says Mehrotra. 

“We understand each other’s food philosophy. We decided on the basic menu, like the number of meat, seafood, and mushroom dishes. Then we fix the flow of the menu. The preparations should be in sync with each other. A guest can’t have one mushroom dish after another. S/he can’t be served a 100-gm dish before a 30-gm one,” he adds. 

The process is often specific to the restaurant or bar and evolves to fulfill the needs of the clientele and team. For instance, at The Conservatory, Srinivas begins with a concept note. “We take the arts and culture approach to food. The format is incidental. The conversations with a curatorial note. We see what they want to do here. And then we ask ourselves if it is bringing something exciting to the cultural landscape of the city,” she says. This is followed by a no-holds-barred first iteration of the menu. Feedback is then offered, and the teams work towards a final menu. 

Fernandes, when heading out for a pop-up to another restaurant, makes it a point to ask for kitchen videos. “I need kitchen videos. I need equipment and dishwasher videos. Do they have the right plates? We have six blenders in our kitchen. If they have only one, I have to carry some sauces,” he explains. 

The prep

In the age of international pop-ups amid a focus on local ingredients, sourcing as one would imagine, can be an uphill task. Recipes and market lists are solicited well in advance, and the teams begin preparing for the pop-up. 

“Sometimes chefs bring their own sauces and marinades. Other times, we work with ingredients available in the market. Chefs also want to work with local ingredients and go to the market. They broadly know what they would like to use,” explains Devidayal. “But there are always last-minute changes. A chef came here and saw the oysters and wasn’t happy with the quality and decided to go for another dish,” she adds. Srinivas has had similar experiences and uses riders that caution diners about the possibility of menu changes, at the invite stage. 

While availability plays a role in sourcing, Rakshay Dhariwal, Founder and Managing Director – Maya Pistola Agavepura (Pistola) and Pass Code Hospitality, tells us that brand partnerships can also come into play. “At one of our pop-ups, the bartender asked for St-Germain, an elderflower liqueur that you don’t get in India. We had to use a modifier and two different ingredients instead of the liqueur,” he says. 

The sourcing is followed by preparations at the host restaurant. A small team travels for the pop-up and it is the host team that shoulders the responsibility of the prep. It typically begins a few days in advance, and the chefs often arrive two days ahead of the main event. 

Despite the checks and balances, things can go wrong. Mehrotra recalls a few such incidents. “I went to Mexico for a pop-up for 400 people. We were just two people. I sent them the recipes in advance so they could do the prep. I was doing an Indian Accent style Dal Ghosht. They burnt the dal. And we couldn’t source more of the dal. We had to make it with a local variety,” he says. “At another time, someone used 15 gms of saffron instead of five, in a recipe. It was due to a typing error”.

Events can be chaotic, and no amount of preparation may seem enough. Devidayal admits that it is often at the second meal that things begin flowing smoothly. 

“Sometimes people show up for the wrong seating. We keep a couple of seats empty in the house for that. It also helps to build the audience’s trust so they see value in what you do. We’ve discovered they are quite forgiving,” Srinivas tells us. 

The revenue

There is a wide variety of responses that came our way when we began talking about revenue models for pop-ups. One size doesn’t fit all. Based on the restaurant, the chef, the country, and the kind of pop-up, both formats and revenue models change. 

Srinivas introduces us to three of the most common ones in the industry. “There’s a revenue share or profit share model. There’s a markup model. They give us the pricing of the menu and we then use a markup. The third one is a flat fee but that is a model we don’t use often,” she says. “Sometimes chefs want us to pay for their expenses but expect no fee. That’s when they want to market themselves. It is more common with restaurants but has happened with a few chefs too,” she adds. 

Dhariwal goes on to say, “Michelin star chefs may command a talent fee. But, in bar takeovers, there is usually no talent fee. It is the travel and other costs that are paid for by the host restaurant or the brand sponsoring the event”. 

The future

Pop-ups for a restaurant or brand are an interesting way to reach audiences beyond their primary market and create additional recall value. For diners, it is where you can sample meals by culinary greats from around the world. The recent Indian Accent- Restaurant Naar collaboration is one such example. 

Pop-ups are also where you could get an insight into a new city and a new culture, by way of tasting their food. A Kaiseki meal straight from the monasteries of Kyoto at Bangalore’s The Conservatory comes to mind. 

It’s a trend that chefs believe is here to stay. “Slowly, they will start penetrating tier two and three cities. They will keep happening until there is a demand,” he says, adding, “But, if it is only 10-15 restaurants doing pop-ups everywhere, there will be saturation”. 

According to some, they will change form and breach the fine-dining barrier to embrace newer frontiers. “. Not all pop-ups will remain, but there may be new ones that will come. We will see many more formats. And beyond fine dining. They may be a lot more casual. They may be focused on a single ingredient or a single dish. This is just the start. And there will be a place for everybody,” says Srinivas. Devidayal believes that they will move out of restaurants to spaces dedicated to such meals. “I don’t want them to take away from my existing business, I want them to supplement it,” she explains. 

They will become markers of travel trends and the culture that defines our times. It’s no wonder then that Dhariwal is busy curating Japanese pop-ups. “Tourism to Japan is at an all-time high, and flights from India are on a low. It would make sense to get top bars from Japan for pop-ups here,” he explains. 

And while these pop-ups take hold of our culinary quests, some will continue to challenge their basic tenets through imagination, and in some cases, theatrics. “Last year, we did an Onam Sadya called Not an Onam Sadya with Chef Manu Chandra. We had a historian talk about the festival and an AI artist creating virtual work. The Bombay Canteen turned into a Travancore household of yore. It was a performance!” says Seth. 

“We make people travel to a different place. It’s theatrical,” he adds.