The recently concluded Punjabi food festival at Le Meridien in Kochi stands as a testimony that when it comes to food, the average Malayali's taste is not restricted to kappa, puttu and beef curry (among other tasty treats) and are embracing other cuisines.
The Latest Recipe restaurant in Le Meridien played host to the Punjabi food festival Pawan da Dhaba for the second consecutive year. The festival, which started on April 12 and ended on April 22, displayed a variety of Punjabi dishes in the buffet dinner priced at Rs 1,470 per head.
Pawan Singh, the Executive Chef at Le Meridien, says that Punjabi food is a hit among the locals in Kochi. It is spicy like how Keralites like it. A good North Indian restaurant is difficult to find in the city, and the small eateries that offer North Indian food are always packed. That is how Chef Pawan decided to experiment, and launched the food festival.
“I'm surprised by how popular it is among locals,” Chef Pawan says. “It was just an experiment last year. The response was phenomenal last year and we decided to make it an annual affair.”
The festival boasts of an assortment of dishes―from an amazing variety of chutney and sauces like the typical mint chutney, tomato chutney, the whimsical peanut and pineapple sauce and green apple sauce to the soft and flavourful til ke paneer, batter fried fish, creamy koftas, Bhatinda ka jeera aaloo, kheema, tangdi kebab, spicy mutton curry among other things. Not to forget the Amritsari kulcha, tandoori roti, Ajwain ki roti and many more.
For every day of the festival, the Latest Recipe restaurant has been packed with the young and old alike. About 80-90 orders are received every day, and guests in the hotel are delighted to try different varieties of food. Chef Pawan believes it is mainly because people are drawn toward home-cooked, authentic and basic recipes.
“What we have here is what you get in a home in Punjab,” the chef says and adds that Le Meridien has not tried anything like this before.
However, Chef Pawan's expertise is not limited to Punjabi food alone. He has been in Kochi for over a year now, but doesn't feel out of place. “I've always loved South Indian food!”
At the start of his career, Chef Pawan's mentor was a chef from Kozhikode. Whenever South Indian food was made, he would say that this is not the way it is made back home.
“That was stuck in my head. And all those years I wondered how it was done. So when this offer came, I didn’t even think twice before taking it.”
He says that it has been an eye-opener since he came here as he realised that what he knew about South Indian food was limited. For Punjabis, he says, Kerala food means two things: sea food and spicy food.
“People don't realise how vast Kerala cuisine is. I didn’t know that Kerala is actually divided into different cultures and cuisines,” he says and adds that he has started exploring the Syrian community’s food.
So, what Punjabi food would the chef recommend to someone who hasn't had it.
“You'll get butter chicken anywhere. So, at the festival, we have focused on food that you usually don't get like langar ki dal, which is usually served at gurudwaras, sarson ka saag, variety of rotis and kheema etc.”
Chef Pawan did his Hotel Management in Mumbai. After finishing the Oberoi Management program, he worked with Oberoi Hotels for seven years. He then moved to the United States and worked there for 10 years before joining Marriott in Pune and Radisson in Ludhiana.