Mind Mapping: Flavour, Nostalgia & Art on a Plate

INR 499
Culinary Arts
Workshop

The Old GMC Complex

The Food Lab

21st December

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

This workshop dives into the idea of how history, art, culture and flavour can come together on a single plate. It is not just a class on cooking, but a space to understand how food carries memory, emotion and identity. The session focuses on how we can use our own life experiences to create dishes that spark nostalgia, curiosity and connection.

The workshop is led by Chef Madhav Dayal and begins with a collective mind-mapping exercise. Together, we break down the thought process behind conceptualising a dish: where it comes from, what emotion it wants to express, what memories or cultural influences it draws from, and how all of that translates into flavour profiles, textures, visual composition and plating.

Participants will be encouraged to revisit their own childhood memories and explore how those moments could become a dish. The aim is to learn how to take a story or an experience and turn it into something that others can taste and feel. It is an interactive format where everyone builds ideas in real time, learns from each other and sees how fine dining can be deeply personal and expressive rather than intimidating or exclusive.

By the end of the session, participants will have a clear understanding of how to map flavour with emotion, how to approach conceptualisation from scratch, how to think about plating as visual art, and how a dish can communicate something beyond taste. The workshop opens up the idea that a plate can be a canvas for storytelling, memory and culture, and that anyone can create something meaningful with the right tools and curiosity.

This workshop is for anyone interested in food, creativity and expression. No professional kitchen experience is required. Just memories, imagination and an interest in exploring the possibilities of what a plate of food can be.