Kunwar Rani Kulsum Begum, niece of Salar Jung III from Hyderabad, has dished out royal recipes at the ITC Maurya. Karan Bhardwaj sampled the fare
Unlike a begum, she sat without any gaudy jewellery or traditional attire at a reserved table at The Pavilion, ITC Maurya. Her gracious smile greeted us and her simple look surprised us.
The legendary begum, known for her culinary skills, has no obsession for ostentatious jewels but what she likes probably the most is some ‘kitchen talk.’ Food has been a passion which she developed over years but realised it only after her marriage.
“I got married in a lucknow family. Soon I started missing Hyderabadi food. I would often call my nani for recipes,” said the lady who’s hosting Daawat-E-Khas, a festival that features recipes from her kitchen.
But getting on to cooking was no cakewalk for her. “First, I was never exposed to cooking. Second, royal recipes were always a closely guarded secret in royal families. In fact, food was the entertainment and a topic for gossiping for ladies at parties. Each royal gharana had a different menu which was unique. So sharing a recipe was a big deal. But I convinced my grandmother. I had to shed some tears on the phone,” she told us with a smile.
Her offerings are as simple as she is. She is particular about spices and traditional cooking methods.
“The big difference in food comes with light observations. I took years to perfect rice or a roti, which could be an easy job for any amateur cook,” said begum, whose first dish was a guava jelly.
“But it was a disaster. Somebody narrated a lengthy process for that, to boil and invert the fruit to get the liquid that drips through the container. It takes overnight to get the liquid which is further cooked with sugar and lemon. But what I did was hilarious. I got all the guavas from the garden and got them chopped. The end result was frightening. Nobody ate it and I had to throw it off,” she said.
At the festival, she has brought the regular recipes from her kitchen. The royal menu included kacche gosht ki biryani, sheekhampur, khatte baigan, ambara murgh, doli kebab, dahi ki kadi, haleem, tamatar cut and much more.
Kulsum has been with ITC for over a decade.
“Renuka Chowdhary introduced me to the hotel when I first did a food festival here. later it became a ritual. I train the staff and personally govern the kitchen during the festival,” she told us.