Chefs display the buffet at an earlier food festival in Capitol Residency, Ranchi. File picture

Ranchi, Aug. 25: Gastronomic delights from across India await the jet set at the Jewels of India Food Festival at a capital hotel from August 27 to September 5.

At Capitol Residency, the state’s tribal delicacies such as khassi ka jhor will rub shoulders, er, plates, with the Kashmiri rogan josh and Bengali mustard hilsa in the pan-India buffet at the Mélange. With an all-inclusive tag of Rs 325 per head, this is pan-Indian tourism at its best.

For the first time, the hotel will place a delicious assortment of Jharkhand’s indigenous delicacies such as mahua roti (unleavened bread made from flour of mahua seeds), khassi ka jhor (mutton curry), murgi ka jhor (chicken curry), putkal ka saag (sautéed leafy vegetable), rugra (mushroom curry) as a part of the buffet.

Gastronomes will get to enjoy a special buffet dinner with an elaborate spread of soups, salads and desserts from 7:30pm to 11:00pm every day. As the hotel’s food and beverage manager G.Y. Narayana Rao said: “We will do our best to display the best of Indian food in the festival.”

Hotel chef Asit Kundu and his team have made all efforts to bring in the most popular and authentic dishes from different parts of the country.

“No effort is spared in making the tribal dishes from Jharkhand authentic. We’re consulting the well-known tribal musician Mukund Nayak to know the authentic flavours of tribal cuisine, including herbs used in cooking,” said Kundu.

And this quest for authenticity is not just limited to Jharkhand’s cuisine. Kundu and his team are preparing the list of exotic herbs used in all preparations. “We will use the herb pathak ke phool from Hyderabad and ratan jot from Kashmir which imparts colour and flavour in the mutton rogan josh preparation,” said the chef.

In fact, the buffet promises to offer mouth-watering signature dishes from all over India — Bengal’s mustard hilsa and malai chingri, Kashmir’s biryani and mutton rogan josh, Andhra Pradesh’s Hyderabadi biryani, Goa’s fish curry, to name a few. “Accompanying them will be salads, raitas, pickles and chutneys ,” added the chef.

The restaurant would don an ethnic look with props such as earthen pots, tender coconut stems, banana leaves and flowers. The staff would also sport ethnic attire.