450 rupees. That was the salary Mahabir Singh earned for around 8 years, washing dishes at a roadside dhaba in Delhi. There is a certain sense of pride that he carries as he says, “Along with the tips, I used to make 600 rupees.”
Back in the early nineties, he completed the 8th grade and boarded a bus to Delhi, hoping to fulfil his dreams of becoming a chef. But fate gave him pots and pans — not to cook, but to wash. So young Mahabir, washed, cleaned and bided his time.
35 years later, Mahabir runs Aure Heer, a legacy kitchen in Delhi’s Malaviya Nagar. As a feted chef, he traces his success back to his roots and explains why he chose to enter the food industry.
“I wanted to cook like my mother,” Singh said in an interview with THE WEEK.
Singh’s turning point was in 1996, when he shifted to Peacock Narayanam, a restaurant owned by Ghambhir Singh, where he was trained to cook.
He later returned to the old dhaba, but this time as Head Chef. Upon tasting his food from the dhaba in Shankar Road, he was offered a job at a Punjabi restaurant in Shanghai, China. He only called his mother when his flight landed in Hong Kong. “I did not tell her that I was travelling outside India”, he said. Singh worked in Shanghai for about three years before returning to India. He went on to work with several people, both within and outside India.
But even after the innumerable experiences in his life, what remains constant in his story is Jalma Devi, his mother. His menu often features dishes from his childhood, such as ’Meethi Roti’, or Indian flatbread with jaggery, which is now a restaurant favourite. His signature style is also inspired by his mother’s recipes, where he uses taro leaves and dog mustard instead of cumin.
“We should never forget our roots and heritage”, he said.
Aure Heer-Legacy Kitchen is his promise to his mother and the memories of a childhood spent with her in Tehri-Garhwal, in Uttarakhand. He recalls his childhood days with immense fondness. His village, his school tiffin box with ‘Meethi Roti’, and his dream of cooking food as good as Jalma Devi.
“In those days we used to eat on cucumber and custard apple leaves”, he remembers.
The restaurant in South Delhi is more than just his experiment or a new venture; it's a part of his journey. It's simply a conversation between a mother and son, imprinted on every wall, taste and aroma of the restaurant.
Aure Heer offers rich traditional food served with simplicity. “I don't like using too many masalas,” Singh adds, explaining how the use of excess masalas only deteriorates the experience, taste and aroma. He has his own secret flavour, mixing about thirty-six masalas, which he uses in limited quantities.
“The feedback of good food is when a customer gets a good sleep and wakes up without any complaints the next day”, he said, repeating his mother’s lines. And he still considers it the ultimate test of good food — how a customer feels the next morning.
