6 days ago
Kolkata's 6 Ballygunge Place hosts first-ever pop-up in Chennai
When a Bengali invites you home for a meal, it is never just about food, but about storytelling, memory, and a deep, inherited love for the kitchen. Few restaurants capture that sentiment with finesse and depth, and 6 Ballygunge Place, a Kolkata institution, is among the pioneers that have made it possible. For over two decades, it has served more than just meals; it has served culture. This week, it is serving a slice of that culture in Chennai.
At a pop-up hosted by Park Hyatt Chennai's Park Brasserie, the restaurant is introducing its meticulously researched, time-honoured Bengali dishes to a new audience.
At the helm of this pop-up is Chef Sushanta Sengupta, who co-founded 6 Ballygunge Place in 2003 with the vision of bringing Bengali cuisine out of the home and into the world of fine dining. 'From the inception of our restaurant, we always felt like Bengalis will never eat Bengali food outside their home. But times are changing culturally partly because these dishes are not getting made at home anymore. The generation before us who were involved in the kitchen, are slowly giving up, and the new generation is not able to keep up,' he says.
At Park Brasserie, the team serves a carefully curated menu that stays true to their Kolkata flagship. 'We haven't changed anything,' the chef says. 'It's a pop-up, so we wanted people in Chennai to experience our food exactly the way we serve it back home.'
The first course is a basket of luchi, served with a flavourful bhaja masala aloo dum, and an unassuming cholar dal, which is sweet and savoury in equal measure. A raw green chilli and a slice of Gondhoraj lemon adds oomph to each bite. The table is then laden with steaming rice, and bhortas — a til badamer bhorta made with sesame and peanuts, and a chingri (prawn) bhorta, both slicked with a pungent mustard oil, and best eaten with your hands. 'These bhortas are very rustic and not all Bengali homes make it, but we picked it up from some districts. It is like a Bengali version of podi that you mix with rice and ghee in the South,' says chef Sushanta.
The main course continues with a silken chingri malai curry, made with coconut milk, (a nod, the chef says, to Southeast Asian influence on Bengal's coastline). It is paired with basanti pulao, and kosha mangsho, a slow-cooked mutton in a thick, dark gravy. Vegetarian options include delicate chanar kalia, chenna (ricotta) dumplings in a similar coconut milk curry and mochar paturi, banana flower, mustard and coconut, wrapped in banana leaf and grilled.
The meal closes on a sweet note, as all Bengali meals must. The indrani, mini rosogollahs served in a thick creamy rabri, is topped with crunchy chopped nuts. Also try the festive nolen gur ice cream, infused with Bengal's beloved winter jaggery.
At a time when regional cuisine is increasingly finding pride of place on India's fine-dining map, 6 Ballygunge Place's visit to Chennai feels like a moment of culinary diplomacy — a cultural bridge laid gently, course by course.
Park Brasserie at Park Hyatt Chennai is hosting the pop-up by 6 Ballygunge Place from July 16 to 20. A meal for two costs ₹1,350. For reservations call 8939871440.
