Off the Beaten Track: Destination Dining at Amaya

Joy. Celebration. Togetherness. A dham is a lavish feast steeped in the history and oral traditions of a myriad Himachali communities. Every dham dish is integrated within its local context, and every district in Himachal Pradesh features its own variations on the tradition. Ours is no different: each of the eight to ten courses in the Amaya dham is locally sourced, farm fresh, modern in culinary sensibility, and utterly delicious.

No two dhams are the same. To share a dham with others is to immerse yourself in centuries-old local culinary customs – to forge new connections with the flavours and stories and lives of the surrounding towns and villages. At Amaya, we believe that food can be so much more than just a meal – it should be a journey, an escape, a sublime memory as vivid and potent for our guests as any of our landscape views.

Guests journey to Amaya in search of a sanctuary where they can pause, unwind, and immerse themselves in the beauty that surrounds them. Dining with us, too, is an exercise in slowing down, in taking the time to appreciate the harmony between food and nature in the most satisfying possible way. Each local, seasonal menu we prepare is a tribute to the earth’s bounty, carefully curated and revised throughout the year to reflect the array of produce grown in the space we inhabit. Our reputation as a culinary retreat continues to grow.

There’s a magic to enjoying food within the warm embrace of the environment that nurtured all its elements. Picture a foraging trip with our expert horticulturist, picking out the choicest clusters of plump berries glistening like jewels, or the most crisp pea shoots, impossibly sweet, bursting with fresh flavour. Then, original dishes prepared for you with these very same ingredients at a quiet, exclusive poolside dinner, with candle lights flickering on our pool’s mirror-smooth surface, while the first of a million twinkling stars begin to appear against the western sky. It’s a magic that cannot be captured anywhere else.

For the best illustration of this hyperlocal approach to fine dining, consider a dessert that we like to serve as a memento of the pine forest: hand-churned pine nut ice cream, drizzled with a generous helping of pinecone syrup. It’s a favourite of our guests; a pure reflection of Amaya’s commitment to crafting complex flavours from the natural abundance around us. Developed with precision by the chefs in Amaya Labs, its aromatic profile is unique to the pines gracing our 25 acre sanctuary. It quite literally captures the essence of the land itself. Our pinecone syrup brings a delicate, resinous sweetness, like a whisper from the forest floor. It’s playful, it’s unexpected, and it represents our culinary philosophy in exquisite microcosmic form.

The dining programme at Amaya is an invitation to savour each moment fully, beyond just the flavours on the plate. It’s about nurturing and restoring the senses. It’s about being gently enveloped in the serenity of the landscape, and tasting the love and care in all our homegrown and locally sourced ingredients. It’s about disconnecting from the hurried pace of city life and reconnecting with the meaning of truly fine dining: refined local dishes crafted with precision, thoughtfulness and passion.