From January 17th to the 21st, one lucky Juhu bungalow is about to become a part of culinary history. Mumbai is 25-year-old Chef James Sharman’s fifth destination on his quest to accomplish a feat of 20 pop-up restaurants, in 20 cities over a time span of 2 years.
The name of this ambitious endeavour? The ‘One Star House Party.’ Sharman and his four colleagues/mates have already started quite the following through their cooking escapades on the world tour’s latest destinations: Beijing, Ho Chi Min City, Bangkok and the Mount Everest base camp.
This wandering foodie entourage spends a month in each pop-up destination, first familiarizing themselves with the local ingredients for the initial three weeks, and then cranking out inspired dishes during their final week.
And if you are curious about the quality of their cooking, guests have actually opted to be served in a San Franciscan, apartment bathtub, just so they could grace their taste buds with a few creations served up by this unconventional team.
“It’s so much more palatable to immerse yourself in a culture and build out a dish from an experience you’ve had,” Sharman explains to the New York Times. Experience definitely defines the young man from Leicestershire, England.
At the age of 15, Sharman left home and worked as a kitchen porter. He then moved on to work as Chef Tom Aitkens’ protégé, spending his nights sleeping in the kitchen, as he made his bones working with one of the world’s most notable chefs.
Yet, even after proving himself as a chef to be reckoned with, working at Copenhagen’s Noma, titled as the world’s best restaurant in 2014 and currently ranked the fifth-best in the world, Sharman couldn’t settle down. On his off days he was known to catch a flight to Hong Kong and moonlight as a private chef, before racing back to Denmark.
Lord knows where this talented chef gets his energy from, then again, who cares. It’s not often a legendary chef comes to you to cook, and thanks to Sharman even sherpas have eaten a Michelin star meal.
Tip of the hat to you sir! Here’s a link to One Star House Party website, where you can check out the rest of their worldwide tour: http://www.onestarhouseparty.com/
Pro-tip: All of their pop-up restaurants are BYOB