Mumbai has fast turned into a gastronomical city. The people here look forward to pop-ups! It’s soon become the new \u201cit\u201d culture but few feel as composed as the one I attended on Friday night.\u00a0 Its not everyday that you get to interact and try out Michelin star gourmet food.<\/p>\n
Over the weekend, Chef Patrizia Di Benedetto, the first Sicilian woman to earn a Michelin star, hosted a six-course set menu with optional wine pairing at Celini, Grand Hyatt Mumbai. Chef Benedetto\u2019s food is unhurried, focused, quietly expressive. A reminder that great cooking doesn\u2019t need volume; it needs intention.<\/p>\n
Chef Benedetto says, “in Sicily, every woman is a good chef. We learned how to cook from our grandmothers and mothers when they cooked for family and friends. I am very excited to bring the taste of Sicily to Mumbai and hope that the city loves it the way we have loved it all our lives.\u201d The set menu is priced at \u20b94,995 plus taxes, with a \u20b92,000 plus taxes wine-pairing add-on. The special Wine Dinner on November 21 was priced at \u20b95,995 plus taxes per person, but the experience continues today and tomorrow \u2014 November 22 and 23, with both the set menu and an extensive \u00e0 la carte selection available for lunch (12:30 pm to 3 pm) and dinner (7:30 pm to midnight).<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\nIf you\u2019re planning to go, these two days are your window to experience Patrizia\u2019s limited residency at Celini. I visited Celini on Friday evening and from the moment the first course arrived, there was an unmistakable sense of quiet confidence. Patrizia, who has spent more than three decades shaping contemporary Mediterranean cuisine, didn\u2019t present a postcard version of Sicily. She brought a distilled interpretation of it: edited, refined, deeply personal.<\/p>\n
The courses moved with a rhythm: clean citrus notes, balanced acidity, warm olive-oil richness, and a gentle assertiveness in flavour that never tipped into excess. The wine pairings deepened the experience without overwhelming it. And then came the dish that, for me, defined the evening \u2014 the pistachio-crusted lamb. Perfectly cooked, aromatic, and textured with a delicate nuttiness, it was the kind of dish that makes you slow down instinctively. It didn\u2019t try to dominate the meal; it simply took its place as the centrepiece. If there was a showstopper on the table, this was it.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\nAnd just when I thought the evening had reached its peak with the pistachio-crusted lamb, the dessert course reminded me that Sicilian cooking always\u00a0leaves room for a final flourish. The menu offered two choices; both distinctly rooted in the island\u2019s traditions. One was a ricotta gelato\u00a0with candied capers\u00a0and a bright, sticky Malvasia orange marmalade\u00a0that tasted like someone had captured Sicilian sunshine in a spoon. The other was a pistachio parfait with warm chocolate sauce, a richer, more indulgent finish that wrapped up the flavours of the night with warmth and softness. I chose the gelato, and it was the kind of dessert that doesn\u2019t try to overwhelm the palate; it simply closes the meal the way a good story ends quietly, elegantly, and with a small note of surprise.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\nBy the end of the night, it became\u00a0clear why Mumbai is embracing this new wave of pop-ups. When done right with intention, restraint, and a chef who knows exactly what story she wants to tell a pop-up becomes more than a meal, it becomes a moment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n