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Considering everything, one of the cities to be in right now to experience culture, art, and food at its best is undoubtedly Kochi. The city has always had a beautifully strange alchemy to it, and now, with the Kochi Biennale bringing in talent and conversations from across the country and the world, it seems to have captured the pulse of the Indian cultural zeitgeist.
Adding another feather to the city’s cap is 'Tideline', an eight-course dining experience set inside a 400-year-old warehouse. Curated by From Khojj, a collective that creates space for artists to express and understand themselves, with food as the primary medium, Tideline extends Kochi’s cultural conversation in a deeply sensory way. Speaking about how Tideline emerged, From Khojj founder Armaan Essa said, “Tideline came up with the question I had in my mind, which is how do I see Kochi and how has my perspective changed throughout my time in Kochi.”
Tideline unfolds as an archival journey, tracing themes of labour and migration. For example, in one of the courses, the central ingredient is 'pokalli rice', a flood-resistant grain grown in some of Kerala’s most water-logged regions, and now cultivated by only a handful of farmers.
Throughout the meal, each guest receives ten postcards, with every card narrating the story behind the dish being served. The reverse of each postcard is left open, inviting diners to jot down their thoughts on how the food tastes, and the memories or emotions it brings to the surface. The menu itself is never revealed in advance; each course arrives as a surprise, deliberately cultivating a sense of curiosity and wonder among those at the table.
“When the tides hit they leave a lot of residue, and when they go they carry something back with them. And in a metaphoric sense, that applies to Kochi. A lot of people’s stories, food, travel and migration has come to Kochi, and left something here and taken something as well. And we’re trying to focus on the pause that is in between.”
Armaan Essa
The experience aims to be a bedrock that fosters different artistic disciplines and champions the artists. Armaan reveals that he is currently working on a piece with a sound engineer, recording the sounds of the fish market auctions that unfold at dusk along the docks of Fort Kochi. These recordings will serve as an auditory accoutrement to the fish course, layering the meal with the rhythms and textures of the place.
Tideline is meant to almost be a rendition of what movement and migration does to a space. It means to highlight the moment in flux. How people, ingredients, sounds, and stories arrive, settle briefly, and move on, leaving behind traces that reshape a place. What diners carry back with them is a deeper attentiveness to Kochi itself. Tideline uncovers, with food, the transformations that occur when people move and meet.
