Lucknow promises to cook up a finger licking weekend this Saturday, when a two day exhibition called “Lucknowi Bawarchi Khane” opens in celebration of the city’s diverse culinary tradition.
On display will be the re-creation of the bustling lanes of Lucknow that are lined with street-food specialities like chaat and other delicacies including savouries and sweetmeats. Dishes that have been cherished for generations in the confines of home kitchens will make it to the table while reels will be screened to loop many personal stories, and experiences of people behind the kitchen in different homes.
For example, home chef Naaz Raza will be heard giving tips on how to whip up a delectable dish of mutton stew and a pot full of kadahi chicken. Although, Noor Khan, a trustee of Lucknow Bioscope said hari mirch ka salan is her favourite from Raza’s kitchen.
The newly opened Lucknow Bioscope is a museum of the city's culture. The museum has been documenting life in Lucknow in multiple layers for over three years.
Over this period numerous families have been visited to record their version of the Awadh region's Ganga-Jamuni-tehzeeb, and the influence of the centuries-old harmonious way of living together on the craft, food, attire, and traditions of the population.
Each family approached to contribute its respective story to the museum was only too happy to open ancient treasure chests filled with a ‘sandooqchi’ full of memories, brimming over with colourful snippets of the living history of Lucknow for documentation.
An Ode To Chef Nizamuddin
Co-author of the precious cook book “Lucknow Bawarchi Khane” with Sufia Kidwai, Noor Khan recalled memories of Nizamuddin, the chef in her parent’s home.
“A question that I’m often asked is, where did I pick up my cooking skills? I always give credit to my mother-in-law who was an excellent cook and to our ‘khaansama’ (cook) Nizamuddin who created magic with his fingers,” Khan told The Citizen.
Nizamuddin was part of her family for more than six decades. He came to her parent’s home as a young boy from their ancestral home in the suburbs of Choti Amethi, near Lucknow. Nizamuddin had initially helped in the kitchen, washing utensils, grinding spices and assisting the senior chef Syed Zamin Ali all day.
Gradually Nizamuddin picked up cooking skills in the constant company of Ali. When Ali passed away, Nizamuddin took his place in the kitchen. Khan remembers Nizamuddin as a soft spoken person who was always dressed in a white pyjama and shirt with a semi-circular hem, and a collar and cuffs. His head was always covered with a toupee.
“He knew his ‘angrezi khana’ which he had learnt from Ali who had worked in British homes in pre-Independent India,” remembered Khan. Nizamuddin’s specialities included minced meat cutlets, crumb chops, rissoles, cold cuts, baked fish and he had whipped up the most delicious meringue puddings.
On other days he would serve pulao, the most succulent seekh kababs and fragrant qormas while his halwa and kheer were outstanding.
The best part of the day, for especially the children of the family, was once all the cooking was over.
“We children would gather around him in the kitchen, sit on upturned Dalda ghee tins and Nizam would spin ‘qissas’ of exotic lands, peopled with shehzadas and shehzadis, djinns and magic, flying carpets and sorceresses.
According to Khan, Nizamuddin was a natural storyteller. He had received no formal education but could read and write Urdu, and was able to recite the holy Quran. After her parents were no more, Nizamuddin came to live with the much married Khan.
Her children had called him Baba, and they feel privileged to this day to have had Nizamuddin nourish them in their growing up years with the most magical meals and myths.
The focus of the exhibition this weekend remains on the kitchen of Lucknow residents like Khan and other home chefs, documenting their home, kitchen, and legacy as told to the camera by them.
Family recipes contributed by home chefs are shared in the exhibition as storytellers lead visitors through a cloud of exotic aromas to experience first-hand the warmth of the city’s famous feasts spread out over a snow white table called the dastarkhwan.
The Spirit Of Lakhnawiyat
The two day exhibition is billed as a fundraising event for the upkeep of Lucknow Bioscope, the city’s first cultural museum to preserve the essence of Lucknow’s unique way of life known as ‘lakhnawiyat’.
Lucknow Bioscope, the city museum of culture is dedicated to celebrating the age-old syncretic way of life of the city and is the brainchild of the Sanatkada Trust.
Since 2007, Sanatkada has been assembling together Lucknow’s rich and syncretic legacies through discussions, exhibitions, performances, recitals, seminars, and workshops, including the restoration of the tomb of the iconic ghazal singer Begum Akhtar.
For the past 17 years, Sanatkada has hosted the Mahindra Sanatkada Lucknow Festival, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the country to experience the multicultural aspects of Lucknow’s culture, including the inimitable cuisine of the city.
In the newly found museum, the effort is to capture the city’s luscious cultural legacy through tangible artefacts and intangible treasures like storytelling. Lucknow Bioscope is blossoming as a city museum dedicated to celebrating and preserving the syncretic way of life of its people for future generations.
“By fostering research, preservation, communication, and exhibition of Lucknow's unique heritage within historical and contemporary contexts, Lucknow Bioscope will serve as the first museum dedicated to the spirit of lakhnaviyat,” said founder Sanatkada, Madhavi Kuckreja.
Lunch with home chefs, is yet another effort to focus on unsung home chefs, and to preserve recipes that they have guarded over generations.
Lucknow Bioscope is a first of its kind initiative to explore, preserve and celebrate Lucknow’s rich and diverse cultural heritage.
It aims to tell the story of Lucknow grounded in both the extraordinary and every day, the past and its reflection in the present, highlighting its people, communities, lifestyles, art, architecture, music, literature, and cuisine and the contribution of each to the world art and culture.
An Online Museum
Lucknow Bioscope kicked off as an online museum before being launched as a physical space situated in the heart of the city of Lucknow.
The museum sees itself develop as an interactive physical space to feature exhibits, performances, talks, lectures, guided tours and home-cooked food, offering visitors an immersive experience of ‘lakhnaviyat’, the tangible and intangible qualities that make the spirit of the city like no other in the world.