You are what you eat

Food for thought awaits at a Gurugram bistro by EDIDA-winner Vritima Wadhwa

04 Jul 2025

When talking about a new restaurant, is it too precocious to quote Foucault? In the context of The Fio Table in Gurugram, it might just be in order. To paraphrase (perhaps too simplistically) what he’d call the technologies of the self, dining becomes a microcosm of modern subjectivity: you are what you eat, but also where, how and why you eat. The act of dining shapes our identities, holds a mirror to our desires and shows us what we value.

EDIDA winner Vritima Wadhwa of Project 810, the designer behind The Fio Table, describes it as an “intimate home.” Light filtering in, a play of textures and exposed materiality. An honest expression runs through the 1700 sq ft restaurant. “The initial discussions were centred around creating a space that felt personal and soulful, where dining felt like a celebration of togetherness,” expands Vritima, who is also the Design Principal at Project 810.

In a culinary landscape chasing distilled authenticity, where does that situate a dining experience that attempts to whisk you away into another culture?

WHAT YOU EAT

In The Physiology of Taste, 18th-century French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin described human evolution through food: The caveman worried about what to eat. The nobleman asked when to eat. The modern man asks where to eat. Immersive dining, when done right, can satisfy all rungs of taste.

From pillowy pizzas crafted out of Napoli dough to Hot Butter, which is not a condiment but a luxurious chilli tequila-based tipple, The Fio Table journeys across the Mediterranean through their delectable courses of curated bites. But before you dive into a morsel of their scrumptious food, it is the space that transports you from the cacophony of Gurugram to the balmy openness of a European coast.

WHERE YOU EAT

To create the bistro’s easy-going demeanour, Vritima, alongside Pratyush, Amarinder and Shivi, the design team at Project 810 channels the spirit of a summer on the shore. The first thing you see when you enter is a forest green exposed ceiling. Slowly, the chiselled texture of the plaster comes to view, which the designers describe as reminiscent of “sunbaked European coastal homes.” The greyscale colour of the walls echoes in the concrete flooring.

The furniture also carries this nonchalant allure. A long community table invites you to socialise over shared meals. Crafted in solid oak, the bar stuns with a stepped marble shelf and louvred cabinets. The idea of dining at home perhaps comes through the most in the glimpses of the kitchen, with the hubbub behind the scenes becoming apparent through the fluted glass and raw metal.

WHY YOU EAT

“The space reinterprets European sensibilities in a rooted context,” says Vritima. In a culinary landscape chasing distilled authenticity, where does that situate a dining experience that attempts to whisk you away into another culture? Maybe the answer lies in the idea of home. It is only in the comfort of the known, do you begin to question the possibilities. The Fio Table, with its unbound openness, sober tactility and warmth, reminds you of the modest Epicurian joy of the good life and how the scales dip in the favour of simplicity against hedonistic excess.