A little bit of showing off I humbly think is in order for this article. Specially because there’s no fibbing involved and the documentary evidence I found was something that I had forgotten even myself.

As many as seven years ago, when I first had the pleasure of meeting the great, one and only Chef Imtiaz Qureshi, this is what I wrote: “Chef Imtiaz Qureshi is a legend among Indian chefs, and has to be the most highly regarded and most well known of them all. But on Saturday, June 20 (2009), I discovered that he is more than all this. He is an alchemist. He can take the humblest of ingredients — atta (wheat flour) for example — and make such a magical dough out of it using ingredients whose proportions he has mastered, then roll it and shape it and cook it in a gravy typical of a meat curry, so that when it is served you will swear that it is an escalope of mutton...”

I go on to say: “His anecdotes date back to 1962 when he cooked for over 100 guests among whom were President Zakir Hussain and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who congratulated him personally... I could go on and on but suffice to say that no single person has done as much for the cause of Indian cuisine and his lifetime achievements deserve a prestigious award. Just like the Italian government gave to Antonio Carluccio....”

I think I now have a right to give myself a pat on the back and buy myself a drink because on Republic Day, Imtiaz bhai was awarded the  Padma Shri. The very first time a chef has received the honour, although Tarla Dalal, more well-known as an author of books on food than a professional chef for the better part of a lifetime, did receive the honour in 2007, in the “Others” category. With Qureshi Sa’ab, it is specifically for what he has done with his wok, and even here there is a twist because he has been the first to establish that his heritage as an ambassador of Awadhi cuisine from Lucknow succeeds best in copper vessels, as does the very style — going back a very long way in Awadh — that  he has popularised, that of dum pukht, or very slow cooking in airtight vessels. There are specific dishes on which he has put his signature, the most well-known, internationally, being Dum Pukht Biryani (Basmati rice simmered with lamb in mace, ittar and kewra, finished in a sealed handi).

As Grand Master Chef of the ITC Hotels for decades, a chain which in my opinion has always had culinary quality as a priority, he has made such a mark on the chain’s Dum Pukht brand. Obviously, the event that we are so proud about has attracted a lot of media attention. One report I thoroughly agreed with, in The Economic Times, as I recall, said, “What India has finally officially recognised is that what our great chefs have mastered is on par with any other fine and performing art”. Touche!

At a recent event at a city hotel the theme was not about pairing wine and food, but pairing food and music. There are amazing things in common between being a cook or a musician or a dancer, a painter, an actor.... The years it takes, the hard work and learning experiences involved, especially when we are offstage and rehearsing or when we are in the kitchen figuring things out, away from the limelight, the “paying your dues”.

Qureshi Sa’ab started in his teens, when just a boy, obviously not as a chef but as an apprentice peeling potatoes (figurative), and one of the things he has said is, “It’s the engineer who gets the credit for constructing a building, but not the worker who mixes the cement”. He has surely been through the mill and trust me, he is all the happier and greater for it. We get along like a house on fire but no more showing off.

Master Chef is a son of the soil; he is salt of the earth.There is never a hint of patronisingness, ego, or any of that stuff. He is humble and matter of fact, and speaks with authority and confidence about things within his ken.

One last thing that must be said. All said and done, there is an X-factor involved. Naturally and cosmically gifted is a thing that depends on the stars, the will of the universal force that keeps us all going, Qureshi Sa’ab is cosmically gifted. I salute you sir.

Pictures: Rashbehari Das