the dastarkhwan

A dastarkhwan is more than a cloth laid out for a meal. It is an invitation to gather, a tradition of hospitality, and a place where food, conversation and culture find common ground.

Chef Mohib’s culinary world encompasses continents, but is rooted in the Deccan, through his Hyderabadi family’s cooking. Our artist Othersoul brings black basalt, drenched in magma and framed in fabric, as the only apt setting for such an exploration of memory, ancestry, trade and geopolitics alike.

The menu traverses the Deccan’s history, from the pepper trade that almost bankrupted the Romans to Mughal emperors’ desires for courtly spices. Under everything lies bedrock: black basalt, created by volcanoes, yet nourishing civilisations in its stony bosom. A material that doesn’t hold water, it nevertheless creates sweetness: drought fruits like ber, and murrel fish bred in tanks patiently chiselled from living rock. Custard apples echo the shape of zeolite crystals born in basalt’s gas bubbles, both children of the Deccan. And under the rock, magma: sulphuric black salt sprinkled on the shocking colour of jamun, haleem’s hours of smoky cooking echoing centuries of geologic heat.

A space of moving visuals, lights and latticework, motion-reactive projections, and iridescent fabric surrounds and holds its steady yet fiery heart. The food is a journey through a family’s memory, while the space embraces a geological timescale. Wherever you fall in this spectrum, you are sure to emerge transformed.