In the kitchen of a high-rise apartment building in New York City, chef
Ajesh Deshpande drops small cubes of foie gras into a pot of braised lentils, folding it in to melt it and enrich the legumes. A native of India who enjoys incorporating South-Asian flavours in his French-leaning cuisine, Deshpande fashioned the lentils as a nod to black dal. The legumes will be paired with duck, and by the time he’s done cooking and plating, he will have composed more than a dozen dishes. Joined by a server, he walks them out to the an open-air terrace, and sets them before guests. Then Deshpande stands and delivers, describing the course and answering questions, before his diners dig in, and he returns to the kitchen to ready the next course.