Jamavar’s special Diwali dinner

The Mayfair restaurant will host a candlelit six-course feast on October 15

Feasts and fireworks will shortly be in abundance from Mumbai to Mombasa to celebrate the five days of Diwali, and over in Mayfair Jamavar will mark the occasion by hosting a decadent six-course Indian feast on October 15 (£70, or £65 vegetarian).

Jamavar will be candlelit for the special Diwali feast

The menu for the candlelit Suits & Sarees dinner – the clue is in the name for guests’ suggested attire – will champion dishes from northern and southern India, and begin with tellicherry pepper and garlic soft shell crab (a recipe that has its origins on the Malabar coast of the southwest) before taking inspiration from Punjab for the achari chicken tikka with pickling spices, radish and raita.

The dishes have been specially designed by Jamavar executive chef Rohit Ghai, whose mains include butter chicken (which has its roots in Punjab cuisine) with fenugreek, and kid goat with green peppercorns and yoghurt. Each course can be paired with whiskies (£49 extra) –  a 16-year-old Lagavulin with adraki lamb chops, royal cumin, crushed onion, fennel and ginger, for example – or wines (£59 extra), and the dinner will close with a dessert that sounds as explosive as those Diwali fireworks –  a chilli chikki lava chocolate fondant, served with cinnamon kulfi and caramelised pecans.

“I wanted to bring that sense of occasion associated with Diwali and recreate it here in London,” says Jamavar co-founder Samyukta Nair. “Everybody in their finest regalia, surrounded by candlelight enjoying a spectacular feast.”