The culinary world has lost its Shahenshah of Dum Pukht cuisine, a title that only a few could ever hope to embody with such authenticity and reverence as Imtiaz Qureshi did. The sad news of his departure was delivered by his son, Ishtiyaque Qureshi, a maestro of Awadhi cuisine in his own right and the visionary behind the esteemed Kakori House restaurant chain.
The message "The King is No More" was not just a notification of loss but a declaration of the end of an era in the culinary world. Despite being privy to Imtiaz's health battles, including numerous hospital admissions, intensive care unit stays, and his fight to stay off the ventilator, there remained a glimmer of hope.
His resilience was legendary, akin to his days as the champion wrestler of Lucknow, a testament to his indomitable spirit that he carried into his culinary career, making him a global ambassador for India's Dum Pukht cuisine. His demise, in the early hours of a sombre morning, was attributed to his advanced age and a series of age-related health complications.
Imtiaz's journey into the culinary limelight began in the 1990s when he launched the second outpost of his Dum Pukht restaurants at the iconic SeaRock Sheraton in Bombay (now Mumbai), under the banner of ITC Hotels. His efforts in reviving the nearly forgotten art of Awadhi cooking did not go unnoticed, earning him a coveted spot on the cover of Newsweek.
His persona, often compared to that of Santa Claus, was marked by his large frame, jolly disposition, and a distinctive twirling moustache, complemented by his silver hair and twinkling grey eyes. Imtiaz's passion for Dum Pukht food was infectious; once he began sharing tales of his culinary adventures, it was hard to part ways without feeling a deeper connection to the rich heritage of Awadhi cuisine.
Before his culinary ascendancy, Imtiaz was known in the circles of Lucknow as Imtiaz Pehelwan, a nod to his wrestling prowess. Even as age took its toll, one could still sense the strength and vitality that once defined him in his prime. His hands, particularly noted for their size, were his tools for measuring spices, a technique that lent an unparalleled authenticity to his dishes. He believed in the harmony of heart, mind, and effort in the creation of food, a philosophy that made his recipes notoriously difficult to document in traditional terms.
A Pioneering Legacy
“I belong to a family of bawarchis. My grandfather’s cousin was known by the name of Ahmad Chaapwala in the whole of Kolkata,” Qureshi had said in a 2014 interview where he also broke down how his journey is intertwined with the origin of the famous Kakori kebabs of Uttar Pradesh. Incidentally, it’s this family-kept recipe which would get him a job with the ITC Group, where he created some of his most memorable creations.
“My mother’s grandfather’s in-laws used to stay in Kakori so when he visited them, as a hobby and for a living he would make some reshmi kababs in local city melas. Within no time those mouth-watering kababs became so popular that people used to ask each other, ‘have you eaten kakori ke kabab? And later when I became a chef I made them at a party in Aurangabad where the ITC Chairman A.N. Haksar met me and later called me for an interview in Delhi,” Qureshi had said.
The most overlooked aspect of Qureshi’s legacy is his prowess with non-meat Mughlai delicacies; granted he was known best for fine-tuning dishes like the mutton paaya and Koh-e-Awadh. But one of his most memorable creations is the mahi dum pukht – a red snapper fillet cooked in an almond and brown onion sauce. Qureshi had created this dish in the 70s for the wedding of a Mumbai socialite's daughter; his mahi qaliya, is a rendition of the mahi dum pukht featuring a rohu fish in mustard oil, which was a quintessential Bengali touch, which Qureshi had incorporated when he made it for a Kolkata news baron.
The Bengali ‘Qaliya’ traces its roots to Awadh and it was brought to Calcutta by Nawab Wajid Ali Shah who was exiled in modern-day Kolkata’s Metiaburuz area for many years. The Bengali ‘maacher kaliya’ is made with an aromatic blend of mustard oil and methi (or cardamom). Very few people know that mustard oil tempered with methi was in fact a familiar cooking mode for a young Qureshi who witnessed this in the kitchens at his Lucknow home where oil would be refined in pits, for culinary uses and also for use in wrestling.
Qureshi’s Tricks Of The Trade
At the height of the 1962 Sino-Indian War, Qureshi was working at the Krishna Hotel in Lucknow, and was tasked with the challenge of single-handedly preparing an all-vegetarian menu for the residence of the then-Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Chandra Bhanu Gupta. “I was invited by C.B. Gupta to prepare a vegetarian menu for Jawaharlal Nehru who was to be accompanied by Zakir Hussain, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi. I was given ten days for the same. I improvised to use an assortment of carefully chosen vegetables for the preparations in place of meat,” Qureshi had revealed in an interview.
Qureshi had planned a culinary gimmick for this illustrious dinner. Soon after dinner was served, Qureshi was summoned by Nehru, who was surprised to find Fish Musallam and Chicken Musallam at the table which notably had a vegetarian Shastri (also Nehru’s successor) as a guest. Everyone broke out in glee, however, when it turned out that the ‘fish’ in the musallam was actually ‘lauki’ or bottle gourd, and the ‘chicken’ was jackfruit. Quresh had even made ‘shammi’ kebabs with lotus stems and made it look like a meaty kebab!
Another of Qureshi’s meatless gems would be the badin jaan, which remains a widely appreciated signature at ITC’s diners. Diwan Gautam Anand, who was banquet manager at Delhi’s Maurya Sheratan where he Qureishi spent his peak years, once recalled that it was suring a dinner he had curated for the Afghan ambassador, that he discovered the brinjal dish known as 'badin jaan'.
Qureshi, being the innovator he was, recreated it overnight for Dum Pukht, the diner at the Maurya Sheraton. Dum Pukht's Badin Jaan consists of wheels of smoked and skewered brinjal topped with spiced tomato and spiced yoghurt.
Celebrity chef Ranveer Brar mentioned the ‘folklore’ or Qureshi’s legacy that he grew up with, in his social media post honouring the late chef. “It was around 1998-1999 when I was working as a trainee chef at the Taj Palace in Delhi. I remember once taking the Rs. 612/- I had earned to ITC Maurya next door and having only the Galouti Kebab at Dum Pukht. The fact that I was eating @LegendOfImtiaz Qureshi’s food in an ITC hotel was life changing for me,” Brar shared.
“Not only had he pulled the dum pukht technique out of Lucknow, he had given it a personality, an unmistakable refinement. RIP chef, your legacy lives on forever…” he added.
As the culinary world mourns the loss of such an illustrious figure, the legacy of Imtiaz Qureshi lives on, not just in his recipes but in the countless lives he touched with his generosity, spirit, and unparalleled culinary skill. The gates of paradise are surely open wide, in anticipation of its first Dum Pukht restaurant, where Imtiaz's soulful cooking will undoubtedly continue to bring joy and satisfaction.