Eating out in India is often to celebrate, which is why most of the restaurants are focused on bringing the richest and most exquisite of the cuisine to our tables. While this is true for almost all regional cuisines, from Khasi to Kodava to Dogri, no other cuisine has faced this more than Awadhi cuisine.
Sadly, for most, North Indian restaurants are all about Dal Makhni, a few chicken or paneer preps and Naans. And if you do move past this blatant misrepresentation, land at the doorstep of a speciality restaurant, odds are, you’ll land into kebabs and dum biryani. If you manage to dig just a bit deeper, Awadhi will surprise you with the bounty of flavours it has to offer.
Having flourished under the patronage of the Nawabs of Awadh, most notably Nawab Asaf-Ud-Daula, Awadhi cuisine is a beautiful blend of refined flavours and royal grandeur. There’s for sure influence of Persian, Central Asian, and thereafter Mughal courts, but the soul of the Awadhi cuisine is the fresh local produce from the Gangetic plains. In a cuisine that prizes patience, and for the inexperienced, tests it too, a baingan ka bharta is as delightful as a nihari. The delicate flavours, slow cooked, and made with love are a treat. Have been in the royal courts, and are on a day to day basis, even today. While Khubani ka Meetha still flavours our summer evenings, winter afternoons in present day UP households are reserved for Tehri.
The legacy of Awadhi cuisine
Royal chefs are often men, and the court of the Nawabs of Awadh was no different. Awadhi royal chefs, or rakabdars, as they were called, were the pioneers of the cuisine. From innovating techniques like galawat with pineapple, to extremely skillfully mastering Warqi paranthas, the rakabdars were culinary artists in every sense possible.
But as the era of the royal courts started fazing out, the real torchbearers of the culinary legacy appeared to be the womenfolk at home. Flavours carried over, with just a bit of andaaza, love, and oral recipes. Whether it was spice mixes perfected to the taste of the family, festive sweets that signified the celebration more than the rituals themselves, or quick homely iterations of the most exquisite of dishes, mothers and grandmothers in Awadh became the backbone of the legacy of the Awadhi cuisine.
Well, you might not know how your next door family plans to celebrate Eid, but you know you’ll be treated to Sheermal soon. Or you might not celebrate Holi, but you know it’s right around the corner because the aunty next door is already making khoya for gujhiya, and tens of other namkeen accompaniments are about to follow.
Chef Sheeba Iqbal, who is bringing Awadhi cuisine to Mumbai at Waarsa, also talked about how it's the simplest of fare, enjoyed with love, that ends up being a celebration of the community and local culinary traditions. “On the menu, we definitely have dal gosht there. Again, for me, it is a very comfortable food. Jab ghar mein kuch nahin samajh mein aata tha toh gosht baghara, dal daali, aur usko paka liya. Barabar mein hamare ek nanbai hai, uske yahaan se khameeri roti aa gya, aur jo hai, geele chawal ke sath kha liya. Hum Lucknow wale bahaut naazuk-mizaaj hote hain, agar dal aur chawal mila ke kha rhe hain to ya to bahaut hi pharere aur mulayalam chawal hone chahiye ya geele chawal hone chahiye jo hum log aasaani se kha lein. To hamare khano mein ye saari nafasatein bahaut hoti hain.”
If you're not from the region, let us explain this a bit. Nanbai is a local baker, who often specialises in regional breads that use tandoor. Nan or naan is a common example of this, hence the name nanbai. Gosht bagharna is tempering the mutton or in some cases lamb with cumin, dry coriander, garam masala, and ginger garlic paste. Geele chawal is generally smaller varieties of rice, cooked a little more than usual. Unlike what you might see in pilaaf or pulao, geele chawal breaks easier, and hence mixes with dal better. Pharere and mulayam chawal is exactly opposite of previous one. Lighter, with each grain separated, and fluffy, this kind of rice is also loved in the region. The preference for the type of rice is quite personal really. Some like it sticky, some like it fluffed, but pairing it with comfort dal dishes is the uniting factor.
Celebrating Awadhi cuisine
For the longest time, Indian fine dining has leaned on the loudest parts of the cuisine. For Awadhi, that has been rich gravies, kababs, and generally Instagrammable spreads. But industry recognition is subtly shifting, with chefs, experts, and restaurateurs spotlighting the softer, more nuanced takes on the cuisine. With this comes the appreciation for the simplicity that is Awadhi kitchens. Not that they ever went asking for it, but the everyday masterpieces deserve all the praises they’ve been getting.
In Mumbai, this month, Awadhi restaurant Waarsa, led by Chefs Rahul Akerkar and Mukhtar Qureshi is hosting a pop-up. What’s on the menu? A spread designed by Chef Sheeba Iqbal. Heading Niamat Khana, where she serves age-old family recipes, hosted in her ancestral haveli, Chef Iqbal is bringing the flavours of Lakhnawi kitchens to Mumbai.
In the second section of Waarsa’s Women of Awadh series, she brings in the magic of heirloom recipes to fine dining - vegetarian, non vegetarian, anf Jain.
This follows the first section hosted earlier this month with celebrated food writer and curator Anubhuti Krishna. Running from 2nd to 10th of August, this section featured an Awadhi Vegetarian Thaali Menu, with dishes straight from the grandmother’s kitchen. Rich, decadent, and every bit adorned with the Lakhnawi nafasat and nazaakat.
Talking about how Awadhi cuisine is often misunderstood, Chef Iqbal pointed out how it is so much more than its famous dishes. “You know Awadhi cuisine is just not limited to, again, you know, kebabs, kormas and koftas and keemas. Awadhi cuisine has a very big part where there is a vegetarian section definitely. So, you know people think that people who are from Awadh and if they are muslims, then they’re eating just non veg food. No it is not like that. And we cook meat with all seasonal dishes. There might be a difference. Maybe the Nawabs, the rich families would eat meaty food. I’ve seen amongst my friends who belong to business class families. Their food is always kebab hai, korma hai, pulav hai, khade masale ka gosht hai, lekin jo, where humility comes, then there was meat and vegetables were cooked together. Less was more by adding vegetables, and believe me, all vegetables are added to meat and made gravies, or you know, latapate saalan, and more. So yes, people don’t know much about this and at least even dals are added to that so we are bringing dal gosht and bhindi gosht to Waarsa.”
Chef Sheeba Iqbal and Lucknow
Chef Iqbal’s spread takes it a notch higher with dishes often overlooked, for example, Sagpiata Dal and Ande Ka Halwa. Talking about the evolution of the cuisine, she also highlighted how Mahindra Sanatkada Lucknow Festival, launched in 2010 to bring the city’s heritage to the forefront has had a massive role to play. “Initially, before that, whatever was cooked in a home was kept in a home, or maybe you know certain people would be invited for daawats and they would savour that. But this organisation asked women to bring their food outside their homes, and we put up a food festival on a Sunday of February, where that food was laid.”
What seemed an odd concept then, selling homecooked food, has in the past few years grown into a food festival that has who’s who lining up for the tickets. “Initially when we started, there were just 4 or 5 women doing this, but now we have 40. And people come from all over the country at least to be there.”
Preserving the culinary heritage is what Chef Iqbal calls her passion, but points out that it cannot be all there it is to it. She talks about how the labour of love that homecooked food is, has often been taken for granted. While women have been at the centre of it for generations, Chef Iqbal talks about how cooking is a life skill, and not a gender skill. More people need to learn how to cook, and more women, if they’re going to take up cooking, should consider doing it professionally.