Sicily’s first Michelin-starred woman chef brings a Mumbai pop-up that teleports you to Sicily

Mumbai has fast turned into a gastronomical city. The people here look forward to pop-ups! It's soon become the new “it” culture but few feel as composed as the one I attended on Friday night.  Its not everyday that you get to interact and try out Michelin star gourmet food.

Over the weekend, Chef Patrizia Di Benedetto, the first Sicilian woman to earn a Michelin star, hosted a six-course set menu with optional wine pairing at Celini, Grand Hyatt Mumbai. Chef Benedetto’s food is unhurried, focused, quietly expressive. A reminder that great cooking doesn’t need volume; it needs intention.

Chef Benedetto says, "in Sicily, every woman is a good chef. We learned how to cook from our grandmothers and mothers when they cooked for family and friends. I am very excited to bring the taste of Sicily to Mumbai and hope that the city loves it the way we have loved it all our lives.” The set menu is priced at ₹4,995 plus taxes, with a ₹2,000 plus taxes wine-pairing add-on. The special Wine Dinner on November 21 was priced at ₹5,995 plus taxes per person, but the experience continues today and tomorrow — November 22 and 23, with both the set menu and an extensive à la carte selection available for lunch (12:30 pm to 3 pm) and dinner (7:30 pm to midnight).

If you’re planning to go, these two days are your window to experience Patrizia’s limited residency at Celini. I visited Celini on Friday evening and from the moment the first course arrived, there was an unmistakable sense of quiet confidence. Patrizia, who has spent more than three decades shaping contemporary Mediterranean cuisine, didn’t present a postcard version of Sicily. She brought a distilled interpretation of it: edited, refined, deeply personal.

The courses moved with a rhythm: clean citrus notes, balanced acidity, warm olive-oil richness, and a gentle assertiveness in flavour that never tipped into excess. The wine pairings deepened the experience without overwhelming it. And then came the dish that, for me, defined the evening — the pistachio-crusted lamb. Perfectly cooked, aromatic, and textured with a delicate nuttiness, it was the kind of dish that makes you slow down instinctively. It didn’t try to dominate the meal; it simply took its place as the centrepiece. If there was a showstopper on the table, this was it.

And just when I thought the evening had reached its peak with the pistachio-crusted lamb, the dessert course reminded me that Sicilian cooking always leaves room for a final flourish. The menu offered two choices; both distinctly rooted in the island’s traditions. One was a ricotta gelato with candied capers and a bright, sticky Malvasia orange marmalade that tasted like someone had captured Sicilian sunshine in a spoon. The other was a pistachio parfait with warm chocolate sauce, a richer, more indulgent finish that wrapped up the flavours of the night with warmth and softness. I chose the gelato, and it was the kind of dessert that doesn’t try to overwhelm the palate; it simply closes the meal the way a good story ends quietly, elegantly, and with a small note of surprise.

By the end of the night, it became clear why Mumbai is embracing this new wave of pop-ups. When done right with intention, restraint, and a chef who knows exactly what story she wants to tell a pop-up becomes more than a meal, it becomes a moment.