There are very few spaces in India [like the Serendipity Arts Festival] that explore food as closely tied to anthropology, history or identity,” chef Thomas Zacharias tells us. “At a lot of big art festivals, food is an afterthought, just there for sustenance or entertainment, and not explored as a theme.” 

Zacharias is one of the curators of the culinary arts programme at the 10th edition of the festival starting in Goa this week, and has conceptualised What Does Loss Taste Like?, a speculative journey set in the year 2100. “This year, especially with the increasing sense of urgency around climate and loss, I wanted to conceive the project around what we stand to lose as a society if things go the way they’re going. It’s clear how we are losing a lot of things related to food and food culture, whether it is culinary traditions, biodiversity, nutrition or food identity. This project explores that by making people feel tangibly what loss would feel like in the future. The brief that I put together was ‘Think Black Mirror meets Indian Food in the year 2100’.”