(From top) The buffet spread at La Terrasse; the live salad bar; a dish from the fare. Pictures by Pradip Sanyal

If ?the world on a platter? is what La Terrasse at the Oberoi Grand has always claimed to offer, the motto was never more true than at the moment. For, the multi-cuisine restaurant of the hotel in the heart of Chowringhee is decking up every evening in traditional fineries from the world over. Every day of the week sees one particular theme carried out in the d?cor with a lavish buffet spread comprising delicacies from that part of the globe.

So, if Monday evening is dedicated to Mexican, everything from the d?cor to the buffet menu shouts the theme out loud. While Tuesdays and Wednesdays are reserved for Italian and Mediterranean, on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays the themes are Spice Route (pan Asian), Caribbean and Indian. As a feast final? to the whole week, Sunday evenings sum up all the themes to offer an international experience, where the buffet is a mix and match of world cuisines.

Says executive chef George K. George: ?La Terrasse is not a coffee shop as it is popularly believed to be. It?s a full-fledged multi-cuisine restaurant with an expansive menu from the world over. To drive home this point and to give our guests more variety, we started the theme nights from January. While the buffet dishes out authentic food from a particular country or zone every day, the restaurant wears a new look with props and decorations based on the theme. We plan to incorporate a couple of new themes every month.?

The theme nights are being livened up, with focus on live cooking. ?Cooking at site always interest guests,? feels chef George. So, on the Mexican night there is a live taco bar, while on the Italian evening this is replaced by a pasta counter, and paratha and chaat counters are set up when the theme is Indian.

Rustling up a theme-based buffet each day of the week might seem a mammoth task, but George?s team is all upbeat about it. ?It puts a lot of pressure on the kitchen to host a theme night every day, but it also motivates the staff. They get to learn a lot more about each particular cuisine. The days of the themes are fixed, but within each cuisine the menu changes every week. So the kitchen team gets a lot of scope to research and innovate,? he explains.

Another recent addition is the Sunday Gourmet Lunch that offers a mix between buffet and a la carte experiences. The Continental (including French classical) menu features a wide range of main-course dishes and breakfast items, but unlike a buffet, the fare is pre-plated at the last minute.

?On a Sunday afternoon, people usually have the time to laze around and enjoy the food. So, unlike a buffet where the food is prepared hours in advance, here the mise en place is done beforehand, but the final cooking is done after a guest orders,? explains George, adding that the menu is different every Sunday.

If one can order unlimited options from the breakfast and main-course menu, the salads and desserts can be picked from an elaborate buffet. The dessert buffet allows one to choose from a mind-blowing variety of around 25 sweetdishes.

The different kinds of buffets remain the mainstay at the restaurant, but a brand new menu for the a la carte option has also been launched recently. ?We review the menu once in two months through a menu engineering process. The dishes that are not doing well are replaced by new ones,? says George, adding that the new menu is far more extensive than ever.

?This time, we have delved deeper into Indian cuisine. Also, we have changed the pasta and pizza sections to include more classical varieties,? he explains.

With live cooking gaining prominence in the evenings, a dash of the same experience is provided for lunch with a new interactive salad bar. A huge variety of greens, cold cuts and sauces are on display here. After the guest takes his or her pick, a chef manning the counter tosses up the ingredients with the sauces and the seasonings.