Maami Magic in the Kitchen

Which South Indian wouldn’t love those sumptuous puliogare, aavakkai oorugaai, morkali, araichuvitta sambar, vathakozhambu, keerai masiyal, thakkaali-inji rasam, saepankizhangu podimaas and beans usili, so on — that too when these are served devoid of garlic and heavy masala?

Deccan Plaza’s Mylai Maami Samayal is back with Kumbakonam-based Prema maami preparing a range of authentic and lipsmacking dishes.

As soon as we enter the Olive Hall, we see the 50-year-old madisaar-clad maami making appam and serving people, adjusting her glasses. The queue of foodies waiting for the ‘appam’ was no less than those who wanted to get a bite of it. Many could not help but go for a second helping of the special appam and everyone wanted a tumbler of kaapi and paanagam.

Our meal kicked off with vaazhathandu saaru. The starters included smoking hot crispy kaara appams and sweet appams. The main course included pudhina saadham and moong dal combination combining pumpkin. And not to forget the mind-blowing eggless cakes! Burp.

Ask her how she’s able to do more than 25 dishes in a span of 3 to 5 hours, and maami says, she has a handful of chefs assisting her in the morning. “Right from chopping vegetables to arranging vessels, they help me. But otherwise, I cook them myself, including the sambar and rasam podi,” says Prema maami.

Also, we see her husband-chef Nambiraja helping her out. Having worked as a chef in Muscat, New Jersey and Dubai, Prema maami was introduced to cooking when she was 10. “I used to spend hours in the kitchen. I would experiment with dishes till I got them right. The GM of the hotel is my family friend and he invited me to participate in the fest,” adds maami.

“With the advent of fast food, there has been a rise in health complications among people. There are so many varieties of traditional foods which have been forgotten and this is an attempt to bring them back to the public,” says R Gowri Shankar, general manager of Hotel Deccan Plaza.

The invigorating filter coffee was the perfect coda to a delightful meal.

Priced at Rs 525 per person, the food festival is on till February 22.

(The piece was originally written for The New Indian Express)