Inside the palace food festival series that ends next weekend

There is something quietly extraordinary about eating beside a lake that has been watching over a city for centuries. This summer, The Leela Palace Udaipur built an entire culinary series around that idea, asking what happens when exceptional cooking meets a setting that already feels like occasion. The answer, across four festivals and four very different cuisines, has apparently been something worth showing up for. And for anyone who hasn't yet, one chapter still remains.

Where the setting does half the work, and the kitchen does the rest

The series was shaped by Executive Chef Nishad Sebastin around a deceptively clean philosophy: let each chef cook what they genuinely know. "A multi-cuisine festival gave us the opportunity to offer variety while also showcasing the depth of talent within our culinary team," he says, adding that guests staying multiple days could discover something entirely new at each meal. That thinking played out from mid-May onward, beginning with Frontiers and Flames, Chef Siddharth Kapahi's Northwest Frontier showcase of slow-cooked Raan-e-Sikander and charred Peshawari Gosht, and continuing through Spice and Siam, where Chef Bimal Bahadur held firm on authenticity. "Rather than adapting the dishes too heavily, we wanted guests to experience Thai cuisine in a way that feels true to its roots," Nishad explains, describing a kitchen that kept its lemongrass and kaffir lime honest.

The third festival, The Royal Rajasthani Table, carried a particular weight. Chef Vijay Vadera was cooking this food in the landscape that produced it, just kilometres from where its logic was invented. Nishad describes Rajasthani cuisine as "a beautiful example of how food evolves from the land and climate," pointing to dishes designed around water scarcity, harsh summers, and ingredients built to last. Laal Maas, Dal Baati Churma, Ker Sangri: food that carries its geography in every bite.

Which is where things stand right now. La Vie Française, the fourth and final festival, runs through 14th June at The Dining Room, with Chef Roshan Katara's French menu still very much available. Lamb Bourguignon, Coq au Vin, and Ratatouille anchor the spread, with artisanal cheeses and pastries alongside. Nishad points to the Smoked Grilled Chicken with Jus as the dish that best captures the spirit of it: "Elegant, refined, and a great example of French technique meeting seasonal ingredients." His broader description of what French cooking means to the series is worth noting too. "It's less about richness alone and more about balance, finesse, and showcasing ingredients at their best." Set against the palace at night, the lake holding the lights of the city in its surface, that kind of cooking has a particular context to live up to. By all accounts, it is managing.

Email: shivani@newindianexpress.com
X: @ShivaniIllakiya

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