“There is no love sincerer than the love of food.”
George Bernard Shaw
The Indian food scene is growing in leaps and bounds. New eateries are mushrooming across town, sometimes faster than it takes me to get the next meal on the table. Speakeasy bars a new trend, exotic ingredients suddenly commonplace, and Jamie Oliver practically rubbing shoulders with Ongs on every local grocery store! Taking this food festivity one step further, we saw the opening of the Foodhall, a unique high-end destination for food lovers; a new shopping experience.
While the concept of a foodhall is pretty common place in the West, Indian is waking up to a food shopping experience that will leave you spoilt for choice, returning often! The Foodhall from the Future Group in DLF Promenade Mall, New Delhi promises you the best of ‘everything food’{read gourmet} under one roof. A well stocked bakery with cakes, muffins, cupcakes,endless breads, flatbreads all baked fresh in their in house bakery.
You wander around through endless galleries with well displayed shelves full of everything you could ask for. Baking trays, fondue sets in colours that would make the heart sing, silpat, cupcake liners … and more. The baking trays are priced quite high, the silpat too; but the quality appears good. I did miss a dedicated baking ingredients aisle … the baker in me disappointed!
The pleasant surprise was the Olive Oil Bar from Leonardo. A unique concept where you can taste different varieties of quality olive oils from Italy in addition to infused olive oils. I loved that they have pretty little 100ml and 250ml jars that you can fill with your choice of olive oil from caskets stored on shelves.
The spice market was intriguing. Wooden boxes with little partitions were being readied for display and maybe sale with some of the finest hand picked spices from across the globe. The folk manning the spice counters were sadly aloof and rather preoccupied. Sad because spices can conjure up fascinating conversations, and have a huge connect with the Indian soul!!
With a well stocked frozen section and delicatessen, daily essentials, fresh produce, herb plants, cereal dispensers, a ‘dips and anti pasti’ counter, a kanafa counter, desserts, ready to eat food too, Foodhall is ready to rock the food scene in the capital. Never has the interest in gourmet food been so great!
It was an enjoyable launch with plenty of good food making the rounds. There was a ‘live kitchen’ dishing out a variety of culinary delights. Each one of them were excellent, especially the kanafa. Absolutely delicious.
The Foodhall is a great beginning for food lovers, home cooks, adventurous foodies, passionate foodies. The Future Group has taken food retailing in India to the next level. However, I do hope we see some support for more locally sourced produce in the near future.
