Seven chefs, all alumni of the award-winning restaurant Noma, come together for a collaboration in Gurgaon

Last year, seven chefs from around the world got together to collaborate on a meal for 300 people. The venue was Hotel de Kaserne in Den Bosch in the Netherlands, and the chefs were all former interns of the pathbreaking, ingredient-forward restaurant Noma, in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. “We are all friends who are now scattered around the world, developing our skills in other restaurants. But our styles are a little bit similar, thanks to having interned at Noma, where we learnt about how much research goes into making food and developed a curiosity about little-known ingredients, or ingredients that are otherwise ignored,” says chef Vanshika Bhatia, who worked in Noma — a two-Michelin-star restaurant considered among the best in the world — in 2013. She now co-owns Together at 12th at Le Meridien, Gurgaon, with bar consultant Nitin Tewari.

Bhatia and Tewari are playing host to the second round of this collaboration — christened Chefs World Tour — at Together at 12th. The seven chefs who are coming together for the event are Bhatia, Julian Fort from District Winery in Washington DC, USA; Rahul Sharma from Masque in Mumbai, India; Tom Brokmeijer from ’t Nonnetje in Harderwijk, the Netherlands; Sahil Sethi from Rooh in Chicago, USA; Marten Verelst from Pollevie in Den Bosch, the Netherlands and Severi Laitane who, after working in restaurants around the world, now works as a wilderness guide in his home country Finland. “We thought that since not everyone can travel to Noma, maybe we can bring some of that experience here. We are not trying to replicate that experience, but we have the same approach to food, which is driven by research and an understanding of local ingredients,” says Bhatia.

Each of the chefs will be preparing at least one course of the nine-course menu, which will be served for both lunch and dinner today, and only for dinner tomorrow. In the first edition of Chefs World Tour in Den Bosch last year, the rule was established that the chefs will be preparing a dish inspired by their home country and will use at least one local ingredient. Bhatia, for instance, made a Goan fish preparation using the locally available red mullet, and purple pulao made with purple cabbage. This year, the brief given to the chefs is to prepare a course from their country, but with Indian ingredients. “We’ve already started discussing where we will do this next year,” says Bhatia. Tewari adds, “Usually, chefs visit a hotel or restaurant and do their own food, but here we’re encouraging a collaborative effort.”