How to give your Sunday picnics a delish makeover, for a price

Sometimes a picnic is the best way to experience a new place. (Photo by Helena Lopes via Pexels)

Who doesn’t love picnics? After all it’s all about savoring good food with your loved ones in a salubrious setting with some fun n games thrown in. And with the brutal pandemic mostly behind us, and cloistered families getting out to enjoy some quality time outdoors, picnics are all the rage again.

Capitalizing on this growing trend, hotels, resorts and entrepreneurs are stepping in to offer experientials.

Ayushi Jain, 31, who runs the Delhi-based catering service Graze With Love, says her handcrafted grazing boxes and picnic hampers cater to all kinds of picnics “from those for pets to wedding anniversaries, friends’ gatherings, senior citizen birthdays or just families enjoying the pleasant weather over good food”.

Picnic basket by Graze With Love

Jain, who has catered to about 40 picnics since November 2022, says a new trend is kids’ al fresco birthday picnics for which she curates gourmet boxes with assorted items like teacakes, croissant sandwiches, muffins, and chips with dips, chocolate-coated strawberries, desert cups, paninis, caramel popcorn, white chocolate covered dates, cheeses and bruschetta, among others.

For her picnic grazing tables, she offers assorted platters containing crisps, breads, cheese, nuts, fresh fruits and dips. “Our dips range from Mediterranean ones like hummus and muhammara to cheesy/yoghurt ones flavored with Indian tadkas as well as beetroot-flavored ones. Pita chips, beetroot and lotus stem chips are also part of the repertoire. Sweet cheeses (cranberry-walnut; strawberry-thyme, etc.) are paired with cream crackers. There’s always demand for something novel and fresh, so we’re constantly rejigging our menu to satisfy all palates,” she adds.

Big platters (for 8-10 people) are typically pegged at Rs 5,500 which also include dry fruits, nuts and savories like pizza bombs, cold mezze, multigrain coleslaw finger sandwiches, falafel and fruits like strawberries and grapes.

To be sure, you can pack your own picnic baskets with store-bought and home-made snacks you and the family and friends enjoy. What these service providers offer is convenience, and expertise in customising the good old picnic to different situations, from a rock-climbing picnic to a small anniversary party.

Bespoke is also the buzzword for Suramya Uppal who helms the Delhi-based Maison Pantry catering service. “Food presentation is key for picnic hampers as it creates a new aesthetic for the outing.” For themed kids’ birthday picnics, the 26-year-old offers curated boxes with special themes like unicorn, dinosaur, Spiderman and space. From date picnics to Valentine Day picnics as well as indoor picnics, the entrepreneur says her hands are full this season.

“The picnic concept has been such a hit that we’re now getting requests for organizing them throughout the year. It’s not just restricted to winters or Spring as people are always celebrating some occasion or the other. We recently curated a ‘rock climbing’ picnic as sports themes are hugely popular among the youth,” Uppal elaborates.

Picnic basket by The Maison Pantry

Apart from Delhi, which offers a plethora of scenic spots like Sunder Nursery, Lodhi Gardens, Humayun’s Tomb, etc., other cities like Bengaluru (Nandi Hills, Hogenakkal Falls) and Mumbai (Karjat, Aarey) are also jumping onto the picnic bandwagon.

At the freshly minted Westin Resort & Spa, Himalayas, Uttarakhand, picnics take on locally inspired flavours. The resort organizes picnics that include “a small trek in the Garhwali Himalayan mountains to explore the local flora and fauna during a fun family day out,” explains Executive Chef, Vivekananda Saha.

As hill people usually carry paranthas or maggi with them on picnics, the resort sets up a small camp for picnickers on a hilltop which offers 360 views of the Himalayan foothills. “Families can make Maggi noodles and adrak chai up there on an earthen stove while the accompanying naturalist fills them in on the region’s biodiversity. The picnickers have fun collecting twigs to fire the stove and cook the food together,” adds the chef.

The Westin picnic basket

Hotels packing a picnic basket for guests is, of course, not new. Yet some locations are best experienced at leisure, in open spaces - like on a picnic. Local drinks and snacks in these hampers can also make the picnic experience more specific to that holiday.

Saha says the response to his picnics has been encouraging, and he is now also incorporating local beverages like lemonana, kombucha and buransh tea flavored with Himalayan spices in the hampers. And as the resort is located in a fragile and eco-sensitive zone, the resort’s cane picnic hamper – which contains sandwiches, whole fruits and fresh juices – includes only glass and metal cutlery and no plastic containers.  Prices range around Rs 3,000 per head for the experience.

Westin is also tying up with a local village—Kandagaon—where guests will soon be able to rustle up a Garhwali thaali with local families. “It will showcase the region’s culinary heritage through dishes like Pahadi mutton, jakhiya aloo, jhingora breads and kheer. This initiative will also generate employment and act as a force multiplier for the local economy,” shares Saha.

Not that the picnickers are complaining. With gourmet goodies to munch on in beautiful locales while bonding with family, they seem to be having their cake and eating it too!