In the age of fusion menus, staying true to a cuisine and preserving age-old recipes can be hard. But here is 74-year-old Dilnaz Baig, a connoisseur of authentic Hyderabad Nizami cuisine, who has been winning hearts with her food and putting the long-forgotten dishes back on menus.
For someone who finds happiness in feeding people, Dilnaz has come a long way from barely finding her way through the kitchen to curating the Nizami food festival, Masnad-Pe-Dawat, at Hyatt Place. Her association with the cuisine goes back to her childhood days. “I was blessed to be born in a house where everyone loved food. We used to have rich food. After I got married, I started to cook food for my family; and this was difficult for me as I used to not cook regularly. But somehow, whenever we had guests, they loved my food. That’s how it all started,” she says.
Speaking of the Nizami cusine, it is incomplete without the Khatti Dal. In fact, this preparation is a household staple till date. Dilnaz tells us how the dish came to be. “It was started by the Qutub Shahis, who were Irani. They were strongly linked with the Vijaynagar dynasty as one of their princes had married the princess. That’s how the sour element was introduced to the cuisine. Not that Iranis do not have sour food in their cuisine, but this evolved thanks to the link with Vijaynagar. Today, it is an integral part of Hyderabadi food,” she explains.
When the Nizams came into the picture, they brought along Mughlai, which is a very rich cuisine and has a Turkish influence. “So, what we know today as Hyderabadi food, has evolved over the years, with Irani and Turkish influence. For instance, in the olden days, biryani was called pulao,” she says.
The knowledge bank that she has grown to be, when it comes to the cuisine, meeting and dining with prominent personalities soon became commonplace for Dilnaz. She also makes it a point to travel extensively to learn about other cuisines. The connoisseur has been to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Singapore, China, Russia, Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Uzbekistan, and the US.
But, of these all, she loves Iranian food. “I like French food too; when I was in Brussels, I had turkey for eight days straight. I made kebabs out of it too. I also like the Thai and Turkish food. But, there is nothing like our food,” she says.
Her experience and love for Nizami cuisine drew the general manager of Hyatt Place, Animesh Barat, to her home. “He visited me, loved my food and requested me to cook for the food festival. I could not say no,” she says.
Ask her about the growing number of food start-ups in Hyderabad, Dilnaz has some wise words for them: “Whatever you serve, serve it with love and know your customers’ taste. That is how you can get them to like your food.”