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| The truth about Chettinad Aug 22, 10 |
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One of the few south Indian cuisines to be really exposed to us all over the country is, of course, Chettinad—or more correctly the cuisine of the Nattukotai Chettiar community of Tamil Nadu. Speak of south Indian non-vegetarian food (at least outside the four peninsular states) and nine out of ten people are likely to nod their heads in understanding and say, Chettinad chicken (CC). As far as popular tastes go, CC has, indeed, become the equivalent of the Punjabi BC (butter chicken)—standing for all the clichés that we now equate with non-tiffin south-Indian food; ‘spicy’ being the most common adjective used for it. But despite its overwhelming popularity in the foodie universe, the cuisine of the Chettiars is not really understood much. For one, it is a mistake to think of it as being simply spicy, or chilly— which is what most Indians usually mean when they call something spicy. At a unique Chettiar fund-raising dinner held at the ITC Sheraton Park hotel in Chennai recently, I got a sampling of what authentic Chettinad cuisine should really be like—and no, chicken was hardly the highlight there.
“America” Natesan is a big name in the community. As a cook of ample repute and fame, his services are hugely sought after during weddings and other festivities and, in fact, he has earned his sobriquet because of months spent in America catering to NRI weddings there during the ‘season’. But Natesan is not just a community cook; in fact, he (and there are others like him) is what you would call a wedding planner in modern day parlance. He arranges for the entire paraphernalia required for a traditional Chettiar wedding. The complete solution comes as a ‘set’—that’s what it is called. And anyone availing of an entire ‘set’, is provided ‘set soup’ complimentary during the wedding feast.
I mention this because it was Natesan and his men who had been roped in to cook that evening at the hotel—hotel chefs keenly watching them in the kitchen to learn the secrets of their masalas even as Natesan and co tried to dodge the observers adroitly; but that’s another story. Having been told by executive chef Praveen Anand, one of the great researchers in the country into south Indian cuisines, that the humble soup (just dal water, apparently) in the typical Chettiar feast was special because of the tempering (with cinnamon and pepper) best exhibiting...
Source:Financial Express
Aug 22, 2010 |
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