Can a city be remembered through the shade of its trees, the spaces that bring us together, and the food we share?
Bangalore’s identity has long been shaped by its spreading trees, defining how people gather, interact, and experience the city. They hold memories, offer shelter, and create moments of pause. For architect George Seemon, Bangalore is home and a reminder that architecture is also about what we choose to preserve. Its greenery speaks to the increasingly important relationship between nature, people, and the built environment.
For chefs Kanishka Sharma and Pallavi Menon, Bangalore is a city of diverse influences and shared experiences. Sharma’s Bangalore is rooted in memory, while Menon’s exults in discovery. Together, their instinctive, contemporary culinary approach reflects the city’s openness to different cultures, ingredients, and ideas.
A Canopy in the City brings these perspectives together. An abstract canopy of sal wood, steel and fabric allows light, material, and foliage to create a sense of belonging. Beneath, the shared table brings food, conversation, and human connection together.
Architecture creates the setting. Food brings it to life. Together, they explore how the memory of a city can travel beyond its geography. For one weekend in Mumbai, Bangalore comes alive beneath a shared canopy.
Menu
01
Vicars & Tarts
Bangalore begum, green goddess, cacao coffee, beetroot
Devilled Raspberry, tabiko, potato yolks, white chocolate
02
Butternut, Butternut Memory
Tamarind, garlic, curry leaf
Veronique
Ajo blanco, sole, soul, bacon fat, grapes, fish, almond
03
GOPI
Cauliflower, celeriac, cabbage, salt, dehydrated rehydrated vinegar, seared spice
04
Nightshade
Heirloom beets, beets like rice
Chicken Chicken Where Are You?
Pressed thighs and hard choices
or
OSSO
Saffron tomato bones
05
Cubbon Park
Canopy, olive oil, coffee, corner house, brut, black olives, cacao, truffle
Cubbon Park
Canopy, olive oil, coffee, corner house, brut, black olives, cacao, truffle, pork floss
Kanishka Sharma & Pallavi Mithika Menon
Chefs and co-founders, NĀVU, Bengaluru
Kanishka Sharma and Pallavi Menon arrived at the kitchen from different directions, and their work keeps that difference in view.
Sharma came into cooking sideways. A background in brand and marketing gave way to some fifteen years in pickling and preservation, largely in Tamil Nadu. She began hosting sit-down suppers that invited other cooks to the table and sought to revive what she calls “leisurely mindful eating.”
Menon’s route was more formal and yet expansive. Trained at IHM Aurangabad, she spent about eight years in hospitality before a sabbatical took her to the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy. There she carried out ethnobiology fieldwork in Albania and Kosovo and studied sustainable gardening, working on an organic farm in Belluno.
Menon’s first contribution to Sharma’s table was two nights of cooking that explored her own heritage. One occasion became two, next a daily collaboration. And they’ve been happily cooking together since then.
George Seemon
Architect and Design Director, Stapati, Bengaluru
George Seemon believes a building should belong to the place it occupies. At Stapati, he brings this thinking to architecture that takes its cues from the landscape, local materials and the traditions embedded in a region. His most striking work is the Matchbox House, his own home, set within a mango orchard in Bagalur. Built with rammed earth and stone excavated on site, the house leaves the orchard intact. His preference is for plain geometry and honest material. He has described himself as an architect who does not complicate structures with excessive cuts, curves and bends. His approach is less about imposing a vision on a site than discovering what is already there.