Chickpea curry bowl with samosas, butter chicken with naan, and veggie samosas.
That’s what the four members of American nu metal band Limp Bizkit ordered from a local restaurant after their headline performance at Ottawa Bluesfest Saturday night.
Nitin Mehra, executive chef at East India Company Restaurant, said the order came in around 7 p.m. Saturday for a 10:30 p.m. pick-up.
The restaurant has been a vendor with Ottawa Bluesfest for a few years, so the possibility of cooking for well-known artists is not unheard of. Typically, Mehra said, the headliners show up at LeBreton Flats in the late afternoon to start sound checks, usually around 2 p.m. By 7 p.m., one of the Bluesfest production team members provides the bands with a list of the festival’s food vendors and their menus and takes their order for the post-show meal.
“It’s really up to them for what they’re feeling that night,” Mehra said. “I guess (the members of Limp Bizkit) were feeling Indian that night, which was awesome.”
Once the order came in, Mehra and his team started prepping to have the food ready to go in time for the end of the Limp Bizkit set.
“Typically what we’ve done in the past is serving from our booth (at the festival), but there are a couple of special requests. Their order in particular, we made at the restaurant (on Somerset Street West) ourselves and drove it down to the site,” he said.
A big fan of the band, Mehra said he included a thank you note with the order. “I’m a big fan of Limp Bizkit, but I am also a big fan of (American rock band) Ween. On their U.S. stage tour, Limp Bizkit have done a bit of a tribute to that band. So, I wrote in there, ‘A great nod to Ween, the East India Company family thanks you so much.’ But I did not hear anything back. That would’ve been great.”
This isn’t the first time Mehra and his team have fed the rich and famous. As Bluesfest vendors, they’ve served headliners such as Foo Fighters, Weezer, Alanis Morrissette and Pink.
Still, as cool and unexpected as the most recent experience with Limp Bizkit was, Mehra said the American rockers are just normal customers.
“Everyone’s got to eat, even rock superstars,” he said. “We operate the restaurant Monday to Monday and we get to feed all the wonderful people that we see every day. Getting to feed Wes Borland or Fred Durst is no better than feeding anybody else who walks through our door.”
In a post on LinkedIn, Mehra expanded on this sentiment.
“Over the years, we’ve also had the honour of serving artists including Foo Fighters and Weezer, along with heads of state, diplomats, business leaders, visiting dignitaries, and actors. While those moments are certainly special, they all reinforce the same lesson: great hospitality is about treating every guest with the same care, professionalism, and attention to detail.
“Whether we’re serving a family celebrating a birthday, catering a wedding, feeding 20,000 people at a festival, or preparing a late-night meal for a touring band, our goal never changes.”
