Are we overdoing the storytelling at restaurants?

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. A few weeks ago, I was dining at a coveted Kolkata restaurant—their menu a thoughtful play on the city’s street food and Bengali home cooking, elevating it to the level of modern fine dining. But each dish came with a story—of its inspiration, origin and the chef’s personal connection to it—that lasted more than a couple of minutes.

Time so long that by the time we got to our first bite, it had already gone cold. “It feels odd to start eating while they are still talking, but I like my food hot," said my friend. I am not against a restaurant trying to tell me why they have chosen a particular dish to be on their menu.

But does every dish need to come with a backstory, a nostalgia-dripped anecdote and a “tip" on how to eat it to perfectly bring out its true flavours? In another instance of dining in the same city at Amar Khamar Lunch Room, which highlights Bengali home cooking, each course was served with just the description of what was on the plate. We were left to our own sensibilities to mix and match the dishes in whatever order we preferred. The experience itself became the story.

We all love a good story, but as part of the dining experience, storytelling is one trend that seems to be getting out of hand. A friend who recently dined at a restaurant in Pune says she dreaded each time the server brought out a new dish—it meant a few minutes of monologue. “It was stretched so far that we intentionally ate slow to avoid the next story session," she says.

The trend is taking over the bar menu too. Each drink now has a connection to a childhood memory or is rooted in the principles of Ayurveda. There is a desperate attempt to fit everything into a narrative, no matter how long, absurd