Mayur G Hegde Culinary Specialization

My passion in culinary made me to choose Food &Beverage Production as my specialization. In the given stipulated time it is difficult to acquire the maximum amount of knowledge so I conducted a small research on the selected cuisine. Before I selected my cuisine for specialization our chef Shree Harsha briefed us on the syllabus of specialization & gave me a stipulated time to think & choose my cuisine. After thinking for a while, I decided to do my expertise in Rajasthani Cuisine. The reason behind choosing this cuisine was to try something new, explore the dishes which I am not familiar; Rajasthani cuisine was the one which I did not try practically in my culinary journey so I have to apply all my theoretical & practical knowledge in this specialization. After few days Chef Harsha took interview for specialization selection & we had to prepare 15 menus which should have starters, main course with accompaniment, dessert & innovative dish.

I started selecting dishes for the menu by doing research on many recipes. I got suggestion from Chef Aksharaj Jodha (Executive Chef ITC WINDSOR) to refer a book named “THE COOKING DELIGHTS OF MAHARAJAS by DIGVIJAY SINGH” for authentic recipes of Rajasthani cuisine. This book helped me to select some best dishes of Rajasthan like laal maas, safed maas. During this time I was in Dharwad & the advantage was I had Rajasthani family as my neighbor. Hence, they suggested some dishes like Rajasthani Dhokla (this is a spicy steamed dough made from wheat / maize flour & served with moong dal tadka), Tikkar Paratha( Here 3 types of flour is used to prepare this paratha with onion & tomato as 2 major ingredients).

Finally, I collected, 15 starters, main course with accompaniment & dessert. Next assignment was to create an innovative dish which was a difficult task. It took almost 2 weeks to prepare innovative dishes. Here I thought of using fusion cuisine by taking some of the Rajasthani & other north Indian dishes infusing them with continental cuisine. “For example” There is a dish called Safed maans (lamb/mutton chops cooked in dry fruit gravy which gives white color to the dish) here I planned to do croquettes of meat with the same ingredients which is used for Safed gravy & I named it Murgh ki Nazakath