A Tale of 10 States: A tasteful trip around the country

Garhwali, Chettinadu, Amritsari / Punjabi, Rajasthani, Hyderabadi, Maharashtrian, Awadhi, Kerala, Goan and Gujarati — these are the 10 cuisines one can expect and physically prepare for at the upcoming food festival at Sheraton’s Feast... and, as a diner, you can meet 10 different chefs who are experts on their regional cuisine.

Having organised something similar during his chefing days in Bengaluru, executive chef Amit Dash has prepped for the logistical challenges involved. This particular festival has been in the works for the past year.

He explains, “The coordination is very important where the chefs are running from morning till night because the variety of ingredients is greater. Also, convincing executive chefs to let their chefs come here took some work. I picked certain chefs on my knowledge of them, their talent and their origin; I want an Amritsari to prepare Amritsari food. Even though I am based here, I’m from Orissa so I asked a local chef who’s in-house to represent Hyderabadi food. We’re also taking it to the next level — we’ve asked the chefs coming in to wear their traditional garb while manning the live counters. You cannot miss that.” Chef Amit did meet a couple of roadblocks in terms of timing but he persevered because it was important that the festival end on Independence Day.

So how do ten chefs fit into a kitchen, man live counters and consistently produce the right amount of food on demand? Chef Amit responds simply and confidently, “Oh, I’ll make it happen.”

The chefs, who’ve come to Hyderabad this past weekend, have already explored the Simply Fresh farm outside the city, allowing them to leave with something too.

The hunt for perfection

To encompass a virtually endless menu, chef Amit has split up the menu so that the menu changes every two days, but on each day of the festival, all ten cuisines must be present. Though he must remain objective, there’s a certain cuisine chef Amit is awaiting, “I must say that I really look forward to the cheffrom Garwhal; he has worked for JW Marriott Mussoorie since the hotel’s opening. He is bringing ingredients like the dal and other things with him, because they won’t be available here. This morning he called to tell me ‘I need a sil batta (a hand-held stone grinder)’, so utensils, as well as ingredients, are important. Other instances include the Maharashtrian guy who use the goda masala. And the Awadhi chef is bringing his own masala. There are just some things we will not compromise on.”

Speaking of compromise, chef Amit says that curating the menu was all about quality and ensuring combinations of food dishes from different states that could work cohesively. “The toughest job was to narrow down 50 menus from all these chefs and mix and match everything, in terms of flavour, meats, vegetables, colour and texture and spice level. So, including our existing Feast menu, we’ll be having 121 dishes, which is probably the biggest buffet in the city and I’m obviously not counting the condiments. See, each chef will create six dishes.” Plus, on August 12 and 15, there’s a brunch available.

Expect favourites like deghi gosht from Rajasthan, mutton stew, Goan fish recheado, Chettinad kozhi milagu peratal and the locally-adored bhuna kheema. And how can one miss out on Maharashtrian vaagi batata or Kerala’s Calicut mutton biryani?

So if you’re planning on revelling this experience, strategise to go at an easy pace throughout the night, exploring the flavour spectrum.