Home / Tasting
Before you sign anything
Come and eat it first.
Not a sample tray sent to your house. Not a tasting at a venue where somebody else's equipment is doing the work. Our kitchen, our chefs, the food you are actually considering.
RASA offers a food tasting at its own kitchen in Bangalore before you book. Eight to twelve dishes from your shortlist are cooked by the specialist chef who will cook that cuisine on your event day, on the same equipment. Tastings are by appointment and complimentary for weddings and events of size. Four to six people is the right number — the couple and both sets of parents.
How it runs
One morning, eight to twelve dishes, the chef standing there
- You send the shortlist. Tell us the dishes the family will argue about rather than leaving us to pick our easiest ones. If someone has already said the paneer has to be right, that is the dish we cook.
- We cook it at our kitchen. Each cuisine by its own chef — the Chettinad chef roasts the Chettinad masala, the Kerala chef grates the coconut. That is the whole argument of this house, and a tasting is where you check whether it is true.
- You eat, and you say what is wrong. Too sweet, not enough heat, the raita is thin. It is far cheaper to fix in our kitchen than at your reception.
- We cook the corrections. The adjustments go into the menu file that the chef works from on the day, in writing.
Worth asking while you are eating
Four questions that tell you something
- Who cooked this, and will they be on my event? A tasting cooked by a head chef and an event cooked by whoever is free are two different products at one price.
- How does this dish hold? Food that is perfect at the pass and tired forty minutes later on a buffet is a different dish by the time your guests reach it. Ask what changes.
- What happens when the numbers double? Some dishes scale cleanly and some do not. A caterer who has thought about it will tell you which of your choices are the risky ones.
- Show me this at a venue like mine. Kitchen conditions at your venue decide more than the recipe does. How we set up on site.
Questions about the tasting
Do you offer a food tasting before booking?
Yes, at our own kitchen in Bangalore. Each cuisine on your shortlist is cooked by the chef who will cook it on the day, so what you taste is what your guests get. Tastings are by appointment, and complimentary for weddings and events of size.
Why taste at your kitchen rather than at our venue?
Because at a venue you are tasting somebody else's equipment. Our kitchen has the same tandoor, the same wok range and the same steam that will cook your event, and the chef is standing at it rather than working out of a transport box. A tasting that flatters the food is not useful to either of us.
How many people can come to a tasting?
Four to six works best — the couple and the two sets of parents. Beyond that a tasting turns into a lunch party and nobody gives the food the attention it needs.
How many dishes do we taste?
Eight to twelve, chosen from your shortlist rather than from a fixed sampler. Tell us what the family will argue about and we will cook that, not our easiest dishes.
Is the tasting free?
Complimentary for weddings and events of size once a date is being seriously discussed. For smaller events there is a nominal charge, adjusted against the final bill if you book.
Book a tasting
Date, head count, the cuisines you have in mind. Enough for the first reply to carry a menu and a number rather than a brochure.
What happens after you send the ticket
- A written reply, usually the same day. A first menu built for your occasion, the per-plate figure it comes to, and the two or three questions we need settled before the number is firm.
- A tasting. For weddings and events of size we cook the shortlist for you before you sign. Each cuisine on the menu is cooked by the chef who will cook it on the day.
- The plan for the day. Counters, service staff, timings against your muhurtham or your agenda, and the venue's rules on outside catering, checked with the venue by us.