How Shaadi Food Came Home

With the big fat Indian wedding shrinking, even marriage caterers and Old Delhi’s bawarchis are getting into home delivery

- Anoothi Vishal

Hafeez Ahmed is an eighth generation Dilliwalla. A tabla artiste, whose forefathers were all musicians, Ahmed still lives in Suiwalan, a sub locality that was built as an enclave for craftsmen in the Mughal times, including the last surviving kebabchi who makes authentic gola kebab.

Nearby are other bawarchis or khansaamas — cooks tracing their lineage back seven or eight generations, whose forefathers were adept at making Mughlai dishes such as biryani, kebab and nihari as well as the lesser-known Shahjahanabad ishtew. They passed their recipes and skills to their families who have continued to cater to large functions and weddings of old Delhi.