Chefs and artists go wild for Delhi’s latest food pop-up

Bengalis take their ponds very seriously, and their watering holes, quite literally. For them, ponds are thriving ecosystems, community gossip hubs, and, most importantly, a breeding ground for culinary and hospitality inspiration. So, when chef Auroni Mookerjee and production designer Sonal Sawant decided to create a dining experience inspired by the pukur (Bengali for ‘pond’), they weren’t just setting up a few floating lotuses and calling it a day. Instead, they built an entire dining table with live fish, indigenous plants, and ingredients sourced from the hinterlands. Imagine sitting at a table and suddenly locking eyes with a fish that looks vaguely disapproving of your meal choices. That’s the level of authenticity we’re talking about.

This immersive experience, aptly titled Terra Firma, is part of The Gathering, a festival curated by Sushmita Sarmah and Prasad Ramamurthy. It pairs nine chefs with nine artists to create one-of-a-kind pop-up restaurants. Over two days, diners will be treated to a five-course immersive experience within the white walls of Travancore Palace in Delhi. Chef Viraf Patel and artist Alex Davis, for example, are dishing out The Last Harvest, a futuristic meal that imagines life after rising sea levels have reshaped the world—don’t be surprised if your dinner comes with a side of existential dread. Then there’s chef Gresham Fernandes teaming up with Elsewhere in India for Contrasts and Dualities, a mind-bending experience fusing AI-powered visuals, motion capture, and flavours that play with themes of cheap vs expensive, tradition vs modernity, and nature vs industrialisation. It’s like a delicious episode right out of Black Mirror. Meanwhile, chef Prateek Sadhu and designer Aradhana Seth bring the Himalayas to Delhi with A Table in the Mountains, a meal that could transport you to snow-capped peaks without ever needing a puffer jacket.

This isn’t all. Chef Regi Mathew and architect Vinu Daniel have reimagined a traditional toddy shop with their pop-up A Modern Day Toddy Shop, where architecture and food collide in a boozy tribute to Kerala’s drinking culture. On the other hand, chef Amninder Sandhu and Neha Jain of Ekarth Studio channel nostalgia with Around the Campfire, an Assamese-inspired slow-cooked feast that smells like childhood picnics and crackling firewood. And for those who like their meals with a side of hard-hitting history and reality, there’s chef Anumitra Ghosh Dastidar and artist Archana Hande’s Forbidden. Stolen. Feral, which unpacks the caste politics of food through a deep dive into lost, stolen, and even taboo ingredients. Adding to the mix, chef Adwait Anantwar and designer Devika Narain bring The Durbar of Perception, while chef Vanika Choudhary and artist Punit Jasuja create a fermentation-forward experience in Past Continuous. Basically, it’s chefs and artists gone wild, and we get to devour the spoils. So ensure your tummy is empty, and your phone fully charged; this is guaranteed to be an experience as delicious as it is Instagrammable.

Mookerjee, who has seamlessly blended storytelling with food, is no stranger to artistic collaborations. Having transitioned from copywriter to chef, he understands the power of narrative, making this partnership with Sawant a natural extension of his creative journey. He compares Bengal to an edible map. “You’ve got the Himalayas in the north, the mangroves of the Sundarbans, and the red earth of the Rarh region, all coexisting. But one thing that remains constant across these diverse landscapes is the pukur,” he says. The local pond sustains life, both human and aquatic, and it’s this very essence that Mookerjee and Sawant have brought to their pop-up.

It all begins with a little bit of bitterness, as all proper Bengali meals should. The first course, Shukto or Shira-Ae takes the classic Bengali shukto—a gently bitter, creamy stew—and marries it with Japan’s shira-ae, a tofu and sesame salad. It’s like an East-meets-East situation. This course is a nod to the bagan bari—the country farm house, where vegetables grow under the sleepy winter sun.

Next up, A Palate of Paddy is served on a banana leaf. This course features an assortment of rice and dal varieties, punctuated by batas (spiced pastes) and bhajas (fried delights). It’s an ode to the symbiotic relationship between paddy and dal—grown on the same land, but in different seasons. It’s comfort food, but with a poetic twist—one that smells of damp earth and imagined afternoons spent watching the fields sway in the wind.

And then comes the most unexpected turn in the meal—Escargot from the Pukur. But before you raise an eyebrow and wonder since when Bengalis started slurping snails, let’s clarify: this dish stays true to the village pond’s legacy. In the non-vegetarian version, escargots are used, much like how they were once delicacies found in Bengal’s pukurs. For the vegetarians, locally foraged mushrooms step in as an earthy alternative, and will make you feel like you’re sitting by the water, dangling your feet in it as the smell of freshly cut grass fills the air.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the meal takes you straight to a Bengali biye-bari (wedding home) with Daab Kakra/Shorshe-Daab Diye Bash’r Ankur. The Sundarbans inspire this masterpiece, featuring mangrove crabs in a mustard and tender coconut gravy, paired with rice grown in the saline paddies of the region. For vegetarians, bamboo shoots step in as the star ingredient, proving that mustard and coconut can turn anything into a showstopper. It’s rich, indulgent, and carries the kind of nostalgia that makes Bengalis misty-eyed—because if there’s one thing they take seriously, it’s their wedding feasts.

And finally, we arrive at dessert, Choshi & Khejur Gur, inspired by the Rarh region. This delicate, hand-shaped rice flour pasta, served with single-origin khejur gur (date palm jaggery) and slow-cooked kheer, is like winter in a bowl. It’s the taste of cold mornings when the air smells of steaming bowls of payesh (rice pudding) served to children wrapped in shawls.

Of course, translating something as fluid and organic as a village pond onto a dining table takes a bit of magic, which is where Sawant comes in. Known for her stunning production design in films like Lakshya and Bombay Velvet, she has brought this entire ecosystem to life in the pop-up. “When you enter the space, it feels like you’re in and around a water body,” she explains. “The foliage around the pukur—hibiscus, banana flowers, even snails—is reflected in the menu.”

As the last bites of Choshi & Khejur Gur melt away and the scent of gur lingers in the air, it’ll be clear that Terra Firma is more than just a meal—it’s a journey through Bengal’s landscapes, histories, and memories. Whether it’s the nostalgia of a biye-bari, the earthy comfort of paddy fields, or the quiet magic of a village pond, every course is a story told in flavours. And that’s exactly what The Gathering is all about. It’s a place where food stops being just food and becomes a conversation, an artwork, and sometimes, even a time machine. Whether you’re sipping toddy in Kerala, braving a climate-ravaged future, or locking eyes with a fish mid-bite, one thing’s for sure—you’ll never look at dinner the same way again.

The Gathering is on at the Travancore Palace, New Delhi, from February 22-23. For bookings and more information, visit @thegatheringindia