After spending four decades in the hotel industry, Anil Bhandari has come up with a book on long lost recipes from across the country. He tells Shrabasti Mallik that it is the first step in documenting the unique food traditions of India
Going around the world and tasting food, flavours and cuisine from every country is what Anil Bhandari lives for. In over 46 years as a hotelier, he has accumulated knowledge on food from every corner of the world. His first cook book Top Chefs Top Recipes, launched recently at Ashoka Hotel, reveals some secrets and facts that he accumulated. “I am a connoisseur of good food.
I have travelled extensively and have developed an appreciation for food from all corners of the globe. This book is a compilation of recipes with a view to share the knowledge on the process of converting ingredients into appetising and delicious dishes,” said Bhandari, the chairman of AB Smart Concepts.
lack of well-documented book on Indian cuisine inspired him to put the book together. He shared that India does not have a definitive compendium of recipes like the legendary Frenchman Georges Auguste Escoffie’s le Guide Cilinaire published in 1903. “That book continues to be used as major reference, both as a cookbook and as a textbook on cooking all across the world,” he added.
In his long career, the self-proclaimed foodie has witnessed a change in the fine-dining industry. He shared that during the Asian Games, he along with his fellow chefs created a different menu to compete with one of the coffee shops at a five star hotel (Machan at Hotel Taj Mansingh).
The menu that they created had honey bunch, which was strawberry milkshake, sweetened with honey. He recalled, “We also created fruit delight, a concoction of juices and fruits and also pussycat, a colourful layered drink prepared with Rooh Afza, mango juice, pineapple juice and an aerated drink.”
The Nawab kebab, a specialseekh kebab served on a bed of rice with mutton curry gravy, is a common delicacy now but it was created by Bhandari and chefs at different Ashoka Hotels to experiment with popular dishes and present something new.
He shared, “We also took the initiative and introduced combo meals such asNawab kebab,rajma rice and vegetable au-gratin with rice cooked in curry sauce.” Not many would know that he is also the brain behind the popular dessert ice cream sandwich. With the book, Bhaduri wants to reach out to people with diverse flavours and unique cooking techniques of India.
All recipes in the book are easy to cook. Most of the recipes, Bhaduri mentioned, are those that were served to prime ministers and presidents at the state banquets held at the Hyderabad House. “We served traditional Indian cuisine to visiting foreign dignitaries. I remember serving Prince Charles, too,” reminisced Bhaduri who believes that a large number of Indian dishes are yet to be documented and they remain confined to remote pockets across the country. “This is only a drop from the culinary ocean that is India. This was all I could fit into this book and it took me about a year to put everything together. I will start on another book shortly,” he concluded.