Why our menu has fewer dishes than you expected

There is a category of dish that is superb in a restaurant and a disaster at a party. It is not about difficulty. It is about what happens in the ninety minutes between the pan and the plate.

The holding test

Everything we cater sits on a buffet counter for up to two hours. That is the reality of a buffet, and it is brutal on some food. A crisp dosa is not crisp after four minutes. A delicate cream sauce splits. Anything fried and thin goes from crunchy to leathery while the first guests are still finding their seats.

So the menu is built from dishes that improve, or at least hold, under heat. Slow-cooked gravies. Dals that thicken agreeably. Rice that steams rather than dries. Puran poli, which is arguably better warm than fresh.

The travel test

Pune traffic is the second constraint. Food travels sealed and temperature-controlled, but it travels. Anything that needs to be assembled at the last second gets made at your venue or does not get made at all — which is exactly why chaat and dosa are live counters rather than menu items.

If a dish cannot arrive tasting the way it left, it does not go on the menu. Nobody remembers the dish you did not serve. Everybody remembers the one that turned up cold.

What that leaves

Regional Maharashtrian meals built around bhaji, varan and bhakri. Punjabi combos with gravies that hold. Rice bowls that are a complete meal in one container. Live counters for anything that needs to be finished in front of you.

It is a shorter list than a restaurant menu. Every dish on it has earned its place by surviving a real event.