100 years, one epic dinner

How did the Hindustan Times celebrate its centenary in Delhi? With a lavish, ambitious dinner served by a top chef, in a magical garden. It can never be done again

- VIR SANGHVI

What if you could have dinner at a restaurant that existed for just one brief shining moment? Where, if you went back, a day or two later, there would be no sign that the restaurant with its elaborate drapes, hundreds of candles, elegant table settings, and a performance area, ever existed? Where the restaurant once stood, there would be just grass in the middle of a beautiful park?

What if the food you ate was so special that thousands of people try each week to get an opportunity to eat it? But only a few can get in because the restaurant where some of it is normally served is so popular that it takes three months to even get a table? What if the chef cooking the food is a superstar, the most popular chef in Indian history, who runs the only Indian restaurant to have been awarded three stars by the New York Times in this century?

Sounds like a dream, doesn't it?

It was no dream. It happened.

I know, because I was there.

It happened this way. The Hindustan Times turns 100 this year. Shobhana Bhartia, my old boss, who is chairperson and editorial director of HT Media, wanted to create an event that actually felt like a dream: Something that had never been done before and would probably never happen again.