Restaurant Day – A food carnival when anyone can open a restaurant for a day !

Restaurant Day is a food carnival created by thousands of people organizing and visiting one-day restaurants worldwide. The idea of the day is to have fun, share new food experiences and enjoy our common living environments together.

Restaurant Day is a worldwide food carnival when anyone can set up a restaurant, café or a bar for a day. It can happen anywhere: at your home, at the office, on a street corner, in your garden or inner courtyard, at a park, or on the beach – only your imagination is the limit. The event happens 4 times a year and has been gaining popularity since its first event in May 2011. Read more about the restaurat day event here : Restaurant Day

3 weeks of planning, 2 days of preparation and 5 hours of serving later, i am here to give you the insights of my first experience with this event.. our first pop-up restaurant, “moitie-moitie” in montreal. Past few weeks have been crazy and gone by in a frenzy amidst loads of brain storming, recipes, tasting sessions, budgeting and planning… every day, more thrilling than the previous one !

On 17th May, 2014, me and 3 lovely ladies formed a team and brought the International cuisine on a platter for Montrealers. Coming from Mexico, Japan, Franco-mexican and Indian origins, we four had some amazing treats to offer in our 13 item elaborate menu.

Menu included :

INDIAN – Vada Pav & Veg Shammi Kebabs (with dollops of mint-coriander chutney and vinegar onions), Mango Lassi and Carrot Barfi

JAPANESE– Lotus Hasamiyaki, Dorayaki, kokuto jelly with matcha latte and Yuzu Soda

MEXICAN / FRANCO-MEXICAN – Huitlacoche crepes, sopes, esquites, aguas frescas and paletas.

We wanted to serve food that was not only home cooked and served family style but bring out dishes which were not easily available in Montreal restaurants and had cultural connections with its origin. Since we had the opportunity of exploring 4 different cuisines (thanks to the team members), we thought of providing various options to people to choose from. An enthusiastic team leads to so much energy and fun in the work… exactly what we observed with our team.

Since we are all home cooks, we were very apprehensive about our planning and cooking ability for that many number of people. Personally, i have never cooked for more than 10 people and the idea of making food for about 60-70 people gave me jitters ! But that is what fun is all about – challenges 🙂 To keep it manageable, we decided to prepare most of the food one day in advance and keep it ready.

We opened our lovely restaurant at one of our team member’s home backyard. The weather was sunny with cool breeze, just perfect for an outdoor event. We opened the doors at noon adorned with colourful balloons, paper streamers and origami creations.

The atmosphere was charged with excited smiles at our end and enthusiastic groups of people pouring in our little shop from time to time. The hours went by in a jiffy ! I was in charge of preparing the orders and making sure that each order was complete before sending out of our kitchen. It was madness inside the kitchen as we plated each order and made sure that each dish had all its components. People seemed to love all the preparations as we sold out almost all our food within the first 3 hours ! This was so satisfying. Some people even came inside our kitchen to thank us for the meal and appreciated our preparations.

We had some friends coming over too for supporting us. One friend Gianhi Tran , also took some amazing photographs and documented our event for us ! Most of the pictures on this post are taken by her and DSB takes pride in showcasing these lovely photographs! Thanks Gianhi 🙂

I feel that seeing is believing … so without further ado, i would love for you to have a look at the pictures and be a part of the event 🙂

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Personally, i really want to thank my team and the organizers of this event to have given us such a beautiful opportunity to share food and laughter with people. This event has not only been fun but has given me a lot in terms of learning. I learned a lot about team spirit, time management, execution and strategic planning. I am a much confident cook now and the appreciation i got from people has boosted my spirits ! I hope to continue learning and serve happiness on platters !

If u are a home cook like me and looking for a DIY, creative food exploration outlet to show your talent in your city, this is the event for you ! To catch a glimpse of all the pop up restaurants that rose that day in Montreal and bask in the glory of some gorgeous photographs, visit the fb page of the Montreal chapter of Restaurant day organisation here ” Restaurant Day Montréal Carnaval Culinaire ” .