FROM LE MERIDIEN KOCHI, KERALA .............1

"JP DA DHABA"

“Bhai, when is the next Punjabi food festival?” J P Singh, Executive Chef of Le Meridian Kochi has heard this question many a times from the regular foodies who visit his restaurants.

In March of last year he had orchestrated one such festival and now starting 24th October 2015 “Latest Recipe’ – the local / international eatery at Le Meridian Kochi will gear up once again for a week long Punjabi Food Festival.

Not just in Kochi the Punjabi Food Festival is on almost at the same time at Westin Chennai as well. Chef Singh will kick start the festival at Kochi and then fly to Chennai to be there on October 26^th and 27^th to coordinate the loose ends.

This first generation Chef loves to travel and eating is his passion. Very passionate foodie he is. What I found proudly appealing in this food festival is that Chef Singh has cherry picked classic Punjabi dishes from the interiors of Moga, Jalandhar and small towns like Sangrur and Atari- a border village in Pakistan occupied Punjab.

The festival menu will have 17 items in the main course alone; eight live counters including Chaat, Aloo Tiki, Punjabi Lassi and Chole Bathure; sweet eat Panjeeri (very rich in ghee and dry fruits) Pinni (akin to Rava laddu) Namak Para (tea time snacks) four different types of Matti (a savoury deep fried dumpling) Sakkar Para (sweet snack) and Balu Shai (dessert). Plus ten types of homemade Punjabi pickles will make the food festival distinct.

33 year old Chef JP Singh is married to Sweena and is blessed with a three year old son - Tanveer Singh. He passed out of IIHM Kolkata and then started his career as a Management Trainee at Leela, Goa. Next stop being the Taj Residency in Kochi (presently known as Taj Gateway Hotel). Since 2007 he has been part of the Starwood family …he started with Le Meridian Ahmedabad followed by Westin Sohna, Westin Gurgaon and then finally at Le Meridian Kochi as it’s Executive Chef since Feb 2013.

From where did you get the fascination for unknown recipes from the interiors of Punjab? I asked.

"Chef Adesh is my inspiration. We were working together at Westin Sohna (2009). He had been to Pakistan and had learnt many a Punjabi dishes from the interiors of the state. Though he was my junior at that time, I learnt a lot from him" quipped JP Singh.

Interestingly JP Singh has done lot of research on the recipes from the interiors of Kerala also.

Text and Pictures: R Kesava Mallia in Kochi.