In the rabbit’s warren of streets that crowds Royapettah, the heat of Chennai’s second summer rises in waves. In this neighbourhood, peppered with small restaurants and old houses gently fraying at the edges, stands Amir Mahal, perhaps one of the last vestiges of a world long gone. The stunning red-brick and sage green Indo-Saracenic structure was built in 1798 and converted from office to home by that old India hand, Robert Chisholm. Lanterns hung on the archway swing gently in the breeze and at the end of a long drive lined with cannon stands the palace, the 14-acre residence of the titular nawabs of Arcot since 1876.
According to S Muthiah in his seminal work Madras Rediscovered, the French and the British backed rival claimants to the throne of the Carnatic. When the British triumphed in the Carnatic Wars, Muhammad Ali Wallajah became the Nawab and sought permanent residence in Madras. In 1768, Chepauk Palace with its Humayun and Khalas Mahals was built for him, a complex that undoubtedly pioneered the Indo-Saracenic style. When the Carnatic was annexed in the early 1800s, Chepauk Palace also passed into British hands. With the title changed to the Prince of Arcot, the family moved to Amir Mahal, an Italian-style villa, modelled on Osborne House in the Isle of Wight.
Arcot is still recognised by the Government of India with various privileges, including the use of royal titles. Here, at the Durbar Hall, diplomats and guests have been received and treated to glittering dinners made by their legendary bawarchis. The Nawabzada, Mohammed Asif Ali, Dewan to the Prince of Arcot, who has brought about a unique collaboration with the Radisson Blu Hotel & Suites GRT by throwing open the secrets of the royal kitchens for the Daawat-e-Arcot food festival, tells us more.
At the grand staircase leading to the Durbar Hall at Amir Mahal | Photo Credit: Johan Sathyadas
“The recipes date at least 150 years,” says the Nawabzada, as we walk up the wooden staircase to the ornate Durbar Hall, adding that there are no dog-eared, gravy-stained cookbooks harbouring these recipes between their pages. Instead, “our cooks have been from the same families for nearly seven-eight generations from our Chepauk days. The same families continue to hone their skills in making either biryanis, salans or desserts”.
The menu at The Great Kabab Factory is a mix of Arcot’s everyday food, fare served for guests, and for festivals and weddings. “The recipes are a combination of light, heavy and heaviest,” says the Nawabzada, adding that the visiting chefs had to factor in the difference in taste when accounting for numbers. “The Radisson chefs spent a day or two with our bawarchis and we even had a trial dinner.”
The challenge was also to replicate the smoky flavours associated with Arcot food. “Kholsa kebab, tender meat wrapped in silk thread, cooked on skewers laid out on a bed of coals, and biryanis made in a degcha, meat tenderised with papaya, and chugur gosht, meat flavoured with tender tamarind leaf… the methodology was tweaked wherever possible,” says the Nawabzada.
Food at The Great Kabab Factory | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
The litany of recipes includes dishes that are little known like the lal bhaingan jinga unda, a brinjal-prawn-egg delicacy, sevaiyan talko that stands out from a menu of 20 desserts made of crisp fried vermicelli, khoya and nuts, gajar gosht (carrot with meat) soyi ka saag (dill), dalcha (mutton and dal) and masala vada dunked in a curd and besan gravy. “The biryani has been mellowed by the hotel as it is heavy, even though my grandmother believed that unless the fish gravy floated in an inch of oil, the taste was compromised,” he adds, with a laugh. “At our dinners we welcome guests with sherbet, and never starters. Food is served at the table. Our ingredients have always been local, except for saffron. And out of deference to our guests, we have never served liquor, beef or pork.”
Food at The Great Kabab Factory | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
At The Great Kabab Factory, an endless parade of kebabs opens lunch, among them koh e murgh saffron (tender stuffed chicken breast) and talli machli (fish). The masalas are piquant and need to be washed down with the thandai and rose sherbet. It is evident that the meats are cooked the Arcot way – slow enough to leave them charcoal bruised and soft. The mushroom and beetroot kebabs are so pliant that they burst upon the palate like stars.
The vegetable shikampuri has more flavour than the Arcot biryani, which must be tried only if you have had a second helping of everything else. The crowning dessert is the Arcot makhan peda and ande ki mithai, a combination so perfect that although made of egg the dessert is never eggy.
Back at Amir Mahal, the Nawabzada speaks of taking these recipes beyond the confines of the palace walls to an international food festival to be held here in February 2025. “The origin of these recipes is lost to time but are drawn from Arcot, Vellore and Ambur. This year we hope to have 100 stalls. There is no greater joy than in feeding people, be it at our culture festivals or the Prince of Arcot cricket trophy.”
The Nawabzada plays on his Bechstein piano at the Durbar Hall, Amir Mahal | Photo Credit: Johan Sathyadas
As we leave, the Nawabzada, a passionate musician, plays ‘Love Story’ on his Bechstein piano, its notes echoing down the driveway. Arcot’s glory is veiled by the mists of time, yet its legacy remains — as an aura, a taste, and one man’s rendition of an old classic in a grand hall.
The Daawat-e-Arcot food festival is on till September 30 at The Great Kabab Factory, Radisson Blu Hotel & Suites GRT, St Thomas Mount. A meal for two costs approximately ₹4,910 plus taxes
Published - September 18, 2024 04:05 pm IST
