On a balmy evening in Mumbai, the open-air dining space at Taj The Trees, located in Mumbai's Vikhroli, transformed into something far more elemental than a luxury hotel venue.
For four nights, it became a window into indigenous kitchens from eastern and northeastern India, as women from the Santhal tribe of Jharkhand and the Asur community of Meghalaya brought their food, ingredients, and stories to the city.
The entire menu was more than “inspired by tribal cuisine,” it was, in fact, the tribal cuisine at its most basic, yet unexplored, best. It was deeply local food, unapologetically traditional, cooked the way it has been for generations, using ingredients many of which the women carried with them from their home states. The pop-up, supported by the Tata Steel Foundation, was as much about preserving culinary heritage as it was about creating opportunity.
A team of five women helmed the kitchen, and the heart of the experience lay in hearing them speak about what food means in their lives. Chef Dwipannita Rabha from Meghalaya, who curated the menu from her state, described herself as a schoolteacher by profession but a chef at heart. Cooking, she said, in a conversation with THE WEEK, had always been her calling, one she now documents on Instagram, quietly building a digital archive of indigenous foodways.
Platforms like this pop-up, she added, gave women like her the confidence to imagine a future where their skills were recognised beyond their villages.
Her sentiment was echoed by her counterpart from Jharkhand, as both spoke of gratitude for the exposure and a hope that this would not be a one-off, but the beginning of many returns to cities like Mumbai.
The meal itself unfolded like a lesson in restraint. The non-vegetarian thali, generous yet unpretentious, began with a clear chicken soup that set the tone for the evening. Made with barely a handful of spices, it was soothing, almost meditative, oozing earthy flavours minus any kind of excess. Every dish that followed leaned into this philosophy of minimal seasoning, maximum integrity of ingredients.
The desserts were perhaps the most surprising. From ragi malpua to black sesame barfi, they redefined indulgence. Low on sugar, high on nutrition, and rich in texture, these sweets felt less like an end to the meal and more like an extension of it as thoughtful, balanced, and deeply rooted in local food knowledge.
What lingered long after dinner was not just the taste, but the quiet confidence of the women behind it. In a city obsessed with novelty, this pop-up reminded diners that some of the most exciting food stories are not new at all; they are simply waiting to be heard.