From 31 July to 9 August 2026, Pondichéry Café becomes a kitchen by the sea — and the man at the stove is cooking from memory.
Most chefs spend a career cooking someone else’s idea of a good meal. Once in a while, one gets to cook his own.
Malvan sits on Maharashtra’s southern coast, where the Arabian Sea decides most of what goes into a pot — coconut grated straight off the tree, kokum pulled from the vine, fish still catching light off the boat. It is a cuisine built on what is nearby, not what is imported, and it does not translate well onto a hotel menu written by someone who has only visited.
This is why the story behind Sofitel Mumbai BKC’s newest festival is worth telling straight.
At the stove is Executive Chef Vividh Patil, who is from Malvan. The dishes are not a chef’s research trip. They are his own kitchen, remembered.
“Malvani food is not something I learned in a kitchen — it’s something I grew up eating, at home, before I ever wore a chef’s coat. This festival brings that food here, exactly as I remember it. No shortcuts, no adjusting it for anyone. Just Malvan, the way my mother and my Aaji made it.”
— Vividh Patil, Executive Chef, Sofitel Mumbai BKC
Expect the sea to arrive first — pomfret and prawns in a kokum-sharp curry, coconut worked into nearly everything, dry red chillies doing the work other cuisines leave to cream. It is bold, briny, unhurried cooking, the kind that asks to be eaten slowly.
For ten days, from 31 July to 9 August 2026, Sofitel Mumbai BKC hosts Taste of Malvan at Pondichéry Café. The festival is built entirely around Chef Patil’s memory — one coast, cooked by someone who never had to look up how.
The table to book is 9 August — the Malvani Sunday Brunch, where the full spread is laid out from 12:30 PM to 4:00 PM. Come hungry. Leave slower than you arrived.
Whether you grew up on this coast, married into it, or are simply curious what Malvan tastes like when it is not a compromise — there is a table waiting.
📍 At a Glance
Taste of Malvan at Pondichéry Café, Sofitel Mumbai BKC
Date: 31 July – 9 August 2026
Special Event: Malvani Sunday Brunch on 9th August
Time: Dinner from 7 PM to 11 PM | Brunch from 12:30pm to 4pm What → Malvani Sunday Brunch
Price → Adults ₹3,499++ | Kids ₹1,750++
Reservations → +91 91673 91130
