Interiors & Designs

Regional Cuisines - reinterpreting culinary heritage

Shankar B Prasad

All of us cherish childhood memories of ancestral homes and grandma's delicious food. Culinary memories have cultural connotations. Successful reinterpretations of these memories in a viable F&B outlet depends on comprehension of the intangibles and astute implementation of the same.

Tradition in cooking always applied to methodologies, for instance, the sequence of spices added to the oil, the degree of flame, the proportions - methodologies honed to perfection by practice.

Recipes on the other hand were always innovative - grandmas made do with what was available at hand to churn out simple but delectable food. This is what needs to be conveyed.

Globalisation of food palates has created a discerning breed of clientele who desire simple comfort food that is light and served in an elegant manner with moderate portions that do not behind after-meal lethargy. Once a repertoire of selective but inspiring menus is arrived at, the same approach should be adopted in designing the ambience of the F&B outlet.

For example, Southern food is connotated with idli-dosa or heavily spiced gravies. There is, in actuality, a whole realm to be explored. While the food is flavorful, the spice is not necessarily pepper or chilly. Cinnamon, cardamom and ginger, among other flavors can lead to different experiences. The same would apply to the design concept.

Keeping this in mind, for a South Indian restaurant, the focus of any restaurant table setting would be the chair. Here the chair design is truly innovative. The basic design materials are wood and cane fibre. The weave reminiscences of the traditional charpoy pattern.

The mango medallions bring memories of summers - all typical of South Indian ethos but interpreted in a different manner.

The pavilion architecture echoes a South Indian homestead. The skylight would provide a romantic atmosphere for dinner by moonlight. In fact, the lighting has been designed to stimulate a full moon ambience. The landscape remains fidel to the Indian countryside with banana trees, jasmines, marigolds, taro plants, and palms. Thus, the traditional tile roof has morphed into a lawn of roof concept indicating a lush tropical zone.

A dias for music - may be folk music of the region, completes the theme. The design theme embraces a totality of approach to offer a unique experience, for restaurants are after all a theatrical experience - elegant ambience, delightful food, appropriately chosen menus, soft music, flattering lighting.

This approach is not only valid for Indian cuisines, the same can be applied to interpret Continental, Oriental or Mediterranean cuisines in an innovative manner without resorting to clichés or design pastiche.

It is essential to visualise the restaurant at its peak crowded hours and ensure that the spatial elements and design details hold their own and convey orderliness and relative calm. The following guidelines should be adhered to while the spatial parameters are being designed:

• The entrance to the restaurant should convey a special sense of arrival. After all we are in a country where the guest is perceived as an embodiment of the Divine.
• The entrance from the kitchen should (despite double doors) - be camouflaged. By providing a freestanding wall with a side station on the kitchen side of the wall with an art work on the restaurant side, visual disturbances caused by frequent openings and closings of doors can be minimised.
• Tables close to the kitchen door should be angled to avoid direct exposure to staff ingress and egress
• Side stations should be carefully located. Should they be used for unloading used dishes, they should be angled in such a manner as to avoid direct exposure to the tables near them.
• While guest frequency of any restaurant is based on the quality of food and service, the designer should strive to avoid visual monotony for the clients by varying the design themes to create enclaves of different ambiences within the restaurant.
• To take it further, the designer can even provide for design elements such as centre pieces and artifacts that could be changed periodically to create a sense of freshness to the restaurant. Equally important is that all design elements should lend themselves for refurbishing every three years at a viable budget. This would go a long way in sustaining the interest of the ambience. Of course introduction of new menus would have to go hand in hand to maintain clients' interest.

F&B ventures are very demanding, yet offer high levels of satisfaction. To create an inspiring F&B outlet of timeless appeal and to be acclaimed for an outstanding venture is to experience gratification that is akin to epiphany.

This writer is the chief concept designer at Concept Infinitum 2000 - a hospitality design firm having bases in Bangalore Chennai and associate offices in Singapore and Bali.