Feeding An Empire

THE ROYALE CUISINES FOOD FESTIVAL IN BHOPAL WAS A GATEWAY INTO THE USUALLY TIGHT-LIPPED ROYAL KITCHENS OF MADHYA PRADESH, PRESENTING A DELICIOUS SLICE OF HISTORY, FINDS ANSHIKA NAGAR

- Anshika Nagar

My imagination is often a wild thing, running a hundred steps ahead of me at any given time. So, when words like royal, cuisine, and festival were spoken together, my mind went to centuries past, in the times of maharajas and nawabs. Where bright canopies would part like curtains to set the most dramatic stage: a spectacular feast decked on long tables. Bards and minstrels would tune in and out, and people like you and me would probably be absent.

But this is the 21st century, and while lavish feasts are still a norm amid royal households, the Royale Cuisines Festival of Madhya Pradesh was a comparatively humble event and open to the public. It still checked all my boxes though. Under the canopy of stars, the royals, dressed in sensible suits and elegant sarees, mingled with the people who had managed to grab the limited passes. Folk and qawwali singers provided the perfect backdrop to the sumptuous food cooked by the royalty and their personal chefs. Perhaps, my imagination was not that off the mark.

A bite of the zameen ke kabab had me digging a bit deeper. Over the next three days, my time was divided between sampling the food and talking about it.