The delectable art of luxury film watching with gourmet food: PVR Cinemas Chef Interview

With the fall/winter season almost at our doorstep, India’s one of the biggest cinema chains PVR Cinemas just launched a new Director’s Cut menu for its dynamic audiences that crave something new every time they look at a luxurious outing. With films, food always makes for an unbeatable pair, and what better than a gourmet food menu that involves some of the best cuisines? This time around, the cinemas launched a scrumptious Rajasthani and Middle Eastern menu with a few Mexican twists in between.

To help us understand the thought behind this unique mix of food dishes on the new menu, Chef Mayank Tiwari, Group Executive Chef at The Luxury Collection, PVR INOX Ltd. got talking to WION about the inspiration behind this new menu that offers the best of two eclectic world cuisines, his two cents on the whole ‘cinema halls food are very costly’ and what we can expect next. 

Here are the excerpts from our chat: 

WION: What was your thought behind this new menu? 

Chef: Classic menu change travels between the scientific study of the sales patterns of a menu. It also brings into account what ingredients are moving out and what ingredients are coming in because of seasonalities. The one thing I was very keen on moving forward and doing this time around was to revive recipes and document recipes that otherwise get lost in transition at our homes. This is the first chapter of a series of cuisine revivals. 

WION: Apart from the exotic dishes we see on the menu, what’s something you have tried for the first time? 

Chef: This menu is special. It also has plant-based dishes. We're introducing an entire section of plant-based dishes. In the international realm, we have Arabic food. Chef Shiva has a lot of experience with Arabic food. He's worked with some very nice Armenian and Moroccan chefs. So have I, back in the days when I was at restaurants, I worked in a Mediterranean restaurant chain in India.  

With monsoons, we thought we will do Dal Bati Choorma and Junglee Murgh with Papad Parantha. I also wanted to explore the Kerala Anglo-Indian food in the upcoming menu changes. We're also looking at exploring Kashmir but that sits better with winter. We're also looking at Rampuri or the food from Dharbanga. I have a very close colleague who is from that region and I feel that there's a lot of food that can be done from there as well.

We are creating a think tank within the kitchen teams at PVR Inox. So I am basically envisioning bringing these teams together and enriching them rather than them just being executionary supervisors. The idea is to turn around the roles and also try and bring a lot of value to the menus from their experiences. So this is one of them. 

WION: The dishes taste delicious and what a spread you’ve put up as testers. Was this curation research-based though? (After I tried Al Faham, Armenian Losh Kebab Burger, and other delectable items on the menu)

Chef: Yes, this was research-based. We spoke to a lot of people and then we thought with monsoons, these dishes fit the scheme of things. We also want to balance the number of new dishes we introduce since there should be a mix of classics and new dishes. For plant-based, our vision was to give people an alternative to meat protein. People have come to us before asking for alternatives to meat protein. 

Among the regulars, well-seasoned french fries, pizza, burgers, or chaat..never go out of style. 

WION: Where are you sourcing the ingredients from - are these local or imported? 

Chef: For Middle Eastern dishes, Tahini and stuff come from abroad but for vegetables, we rely on small farmers instead of mandi-based shops. Our dried food ingredients come from Chandni Chowk. 

WION: Lastly, we would like to know how you weigh in on the discussion of “Cinema halls offer expensive food”?

Chef: That has never been about food. If you were to actually compare, our pizza at Director’s Cut is somewhere around Rs 800. For a Neapolitan, high malt flour-based pizza with excellent quality cheese, it’s cheaper than a Domino's 12-inch pizza. Our Classic Margherita would maybe just be Rs 40 more expensive but at least we aren't using hydrogenated fat-based cheese. In our business, ingredients-based cost always results in a certain recipe cost and a certain selling cost.