Luke Coutinho Hosts A Gourmet Eight-Course Meal At Jaipur’s Rambagh Palace

Raised in Jaipur, the Rambagh Palace always held allure for me. Each visit found me either enjoying high tea while watching peacocks or attending a lavish palace wedding. This time, my journey to one of the Pink City’s most admired hotels had a deeper purpose.

This visit to palace brought me to The Grain Awakening—an intimate, invite-only sensory dining event organised by Arushi Jain Sancheti’s immersive experiences company, AJS Experiences. The eight-course vegan and gluten-free gourmet dinner was executed by celebrated health coach and author Luke Coutinho, whom I first heard about from my mother who also happens to be one of his biggest admirers.

At its core, the event centred on the idea that food and the body share an intimacy that has seen itself gradually erode over generations. The multi-course meal was thus an effort to restore that connection and realign the external pace of life with our internal rhythms.

The Sensorial Experience

From the outset, the event awakened the senses, beginning with smell. Custom fragrances, crafted to complement each guest’s personality, infused the air. My scent was musky and sweet, with notes of vanilla.  Next, we settled into private seating pods intended to cultivate tranquillity and seclusion. The pods, enveloped in greenery and accompanied by the evocative sounds of handpan music, rooted us in nature and set the tone right for what was yet to unfold.

Soon, Coutinho took the mic, doing what he excels at: untangling our inner thoughts.

Before us was a large bowl of mixed grains; he asked us to mindfully sort each type into separate bowls. What seemed a simple task demanded intense focus and mindfulness, and what started as a silent activity became a collective moment of reflection. The experience lingered, sparking conversation long into the night.

More About The Eight-Course Culinary Experience

Designed with great attention to detail, the eight-course gourmet culinary experience was intended as a deliberate pause. It invited guests to slow down and allow the body to receive rather than simply consume. For me, the dinner prompted greater mindfulness of what I was eating. Especially in an era of fast food, the time we invest in eating has decreased just as much as the time we spend preparing meals.

Anchored in ancient grains and clean-eating principles, the entirely gluten-free and vegan menu was developed by Sancheti alongside Rambagh Palace’s culinary team, fitting seamlessly with the dining experience’s intentional focus.

One of my favourite courses was the Assamese black rice, featuring a rose-scented pudding served with coconut and proso cream and gooseberry pate. As someone who enjoys the flavour of coconut, what added the cherry on top was that the preparation was served in a half-cut coconut shell.

The main course was served in a mini thali and featured a sriphala raab, detox barley chaat, winter greens quenelle, jowar-suraj mukhi roti, and amla chutney. As someone who is always looking for alternatives to wheat, I enjoyed the roti so much that I even tried to replicate it at home.

The millet lapsi rounded off the meal on a perfect note. Lapsi is a popular sweet preparation in Gujarat and Rajasthan and is often served as prashad after religious ceremonies and pheras during Marwadi weddings. Traditionally prepared with wheat, this one, made with millet, was flavourful and sweet just in the right measure. 

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