COOKING WITH THE MAHARAJAS

Age-old royal recipes are getting a new lease of life at Ahilya Fort Heritage Hotel in Maheshwar. AINDRILA MITRA samples a few on her visit to the spiritual town.

- AINDRILA MITRA

MADHYA PRADESH is not the first destination that comes to mind when one thinks of leisure travel. But having explored parts of the state as a university student (thanks to my BFF from Bhopal), I have always been surprised by its nuances. Heritage, wildlife, natural bounty, spirituality-there's very little that you cannot find in central India.

So, when the invite to the Ahilya Fort Heritage Hotel in Maheshwar landed in my inbox, it did not take a lot to convince me. It was a special occasion-the royal family of Holkars, led by Maharaj Kumar Richard Holkar and his son Yeshwant Rao Holkar, was going to introduce dishes from Cooking of the Maharajas: The Royal Recipes of India, a cookbook that was first published in 1975 and arguably the first-of-its-kind on royal recipes of India. Almost 50 years later, the book has now been relaunched as a limited series, and Ahilya Fort Heritage Hotel has introduced a series of 'Cooking of the Maharajas' culinary experiences.