CULINARY RENAISSANCE, 1978 - TANDOORI NIGHTS

ITC's Bukhara and Dum Pukht turned the world to tandoori cuisine and had an enormous impact on the F&B industry. Decades on, they are still a pit-stop for celebrities and heads of state visiting Delhi

- BY AMIT DIXIT

In 1978, within a year of its opening, ITC's Welcomgroup Maurya Sheraton hotel in Delhi executed two culinary coups. It brought tandoori food from the Northwest Frontier to a five-star hotel for the first time with the launch of 'Bukhara', which also had India's first show kitchen. ITC chairman Ajit Narain Haksar, a passionate foodie and champion of all things Indian, roped in Imtiaz Qureshi, originally from Lucknow, to purvey the refined fare of Awadh with the restaurant 'Mayur' (re-branded as 'Dum Pukht' in 1987).

Nakul Anand, former executive director, ITC Ltd, who joined their hotels division as a management trainee in 1978 and watched these innovations closely, says, “Previously, all hotels had standard gravies into which paneer, chicken, etc. would be mixed in. We got out of that and into authentic Indian food.” Qureshi introduced kormas, kalias and salans, not to mention the now ubiquitous kakori kebab.