Edible traditions

In the world where everything is instant and ersatz, tradition tends to be ignored — in cooking more than anything else.  Political integration brings with it a kind of cultural integration — chicken tikka masala may be relished in Chennai and idli dosa likewise in Ludhiana. But the haute cuisine does not travel as easily, simply because it is the pleasure of the few and the privileged.  It must be recalled that the restaurant is a western creation, in traditional times you had inns or caravanserai where travellers would break their journeys and eat, but it was only in the 20th century that restaurants came into vogue. 

In Delhi the oldest is Karims at the Jama Masjid and that was founded in 1910.  The great cuisines were served in the houses of the aristocracy and in the royal courts, and with the diminution of the aristocracy and the abolition of the privy purses, a whole lifestyle has disappeared, all within living memory. Many of the recipes were known to the khansamas, the traditional cooks, and they guarded these secrets with their life.

Fortunately, we owe the ITC Hotels and Habib Rehman, erstwhile director in charge of banquets and restaurants, a huge debt of gratitude. I recently went to the ITC Grand Central at Parel and sampled their “Dehlvi cuisine”, the chef they had brought was one Mohammed Rais, and the cuisine he showcased was extraordinary. I am not a great fan of vegetarian kababs, but the vegetarian galouti was truly extraordinary, in fact it tasted better and had a more moist texture than the mutton galouti.  It was based on raw banana and was perfectly spiced. The nehari was the lightest I had ever eaten, and the fish with fenugreek was exquisite.

However, the vegetarian selection was unusual to say the least. The mushrooms were cooked with a sandalwood paste and the bhindi with ripe mangoes was witty.  The vegetarian pulao was cooked with chillies almost mimicking a mirchi ka salan combo with a pulao. The chef Mohammed Rais is from the Qureshi clan, a nephew of the legendary Imtiaz Qureshi who Habib Rehman brought from Lucknow to Delhi when the Bukhara Restaurant was being set up at the Maurya Sheraton.  He is famous for introducing the Dum Pukht cuisine, a cuisine ahead of its time, the use of sealed containers, slow cooking with the meat broiling in its own juices with the subtle use of masalas. Mohammed Rais is in charge of banquets in Delhi — he should be having his own restaurant on the basis of what we had last week.

I am not entirely convinced that this cuisine is the genuine Delhi cuisine that I tend to associate with Karims and some of the old dhabas in the Jama Masjid area, at least the Muslim part of it.  There are, of course, the Mathur and Baniya cuisines as well.  But the Muslim cuisine is rich, meat-based and oily without the refinement of Lucknow or the subtlety and innovation of Hyderabad.  What the chef was aiming to do was to make a cuisine suitable for the modern palate.

However, unlike the new breed of Indian chefs working in London, using local ingredients and creating new dishes and benchmarks for Indian cuisine, Rais relies on tradition, the use of sandalwood paste is an example of this — the combination of this with mushrooms was truly breathtaking.  We need more of this. In the same way as in the West where old techniques and ingredients are being rediscovered, we need to do the same to add to the richness of our gastronomic cornucopia.