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Journalism of Courage
A few courses into Swine Dine and you can almost imagine James Cromwell standing over you in a peaked cap saying, “that’ll do pig, that’ll do”. Whatever the case, all that food certainly made pigs out of its diners. On January 15, at Smoke House Deli in Hauz Khas Village, Impressario restaurant’s chef Gresham Fernandes curated Swine Dine, a community meal for 20.
The concept, which comprises making a menu out of pork dishes, has been around in Mumbai for four years and has also visited Bangalore. “In Delhi, we hope to make it a monthly affair,” says Fernandes. Growing up in a family that celebrated all things porcine and ate them over large family meals, he was inspired to take the concept beyond home. Another reason, says Fernandes, was that, “While you get ribs and chops at restaurants, they don’t really explore all the other bits of the animal, which are also delicious. At Swine Dine, we use everything from the nose to the tail.”
Places are limited to 20 people in the interest of logistics, with Fernandes coming out and interacting with guests in between plating courses. “The fact that everyone at the table is a pork-lover is a great icebreaker. We even encourage a person to come alone, as the whole idea is to meet new people and socialise,” he says.
Over the last three months, Fernandes has done about seven-eight dinners, with a different menu each time. “I like to keep changing stuff around. The occurrence of these dinners is subject to the kind of crowd we get, the season, and the availability of ingredients. For instance, about three months ago, for a dinner I wanted to do blood sausages so I went, killed the pig, drained its blood and used it to make the sausages. At this first dinner in Delhi, since we are in Hauz Khas, which has a very Mughal-era feel to it, I wanted to do biryani and kebabs to capture that mood. The next meal will obviously be something different,” says Fernandes. This week, he’s doing another dinner in Bangalore, which will be classic French.
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