The sun has mellowed, its fire subdued though the air clings with the damp insistence of this year’s endless rains. There is a quiet shift one senses now. As one crosses the Yamuna, swollen and restless in its monsoon swell, the sight is unmistakable — the kash-phool rising tall along the floodplains as if to announce what the heart already knows: Sharodiya has arrived. The goddess is near.
It is the season when the city begins to hum with anticipation — of pandals taking shape, of familiar rituals rehearsed, of homecoming. But the goddess is welcomed not only in idols fashioned from clay, nor solely in the rhythms of aarti. She is invoked in the kitchens, too, Across Delhi, festive suppers unfurl: Pujo-special caterings, supper clubs, pop-ups tucked into homes and restaurants alike — each carrying the spirit of celebration in ladles and platters.
Recently, the spirit of Pujo found an eloquent expression at GK-2’s Mezze Mambo, where head chef Shridula Chatterjee joined hands with home-chef Toonika Guha to craft a sit-down feast like no other. A ten-course menu, each dish was conceived as a reflection of the festival’s ten days — not in rote imitation, but as reimaginings of tradition, where memory met innovation on the plate.
“Think of a dhokar dalna that arrives disguised as a dessert,” Chatterjee explains with a smile, “or a humble, timeworn recipe of kucho chingri bataa lifted from a grandmother’s kitchen and dressed anew for the present.” The menu was a dialogue between heritage and modernity, a reminder that festive food is never static, but ever-evolving — much like the celebrations themselves. “Each course,” Chatterjee reflects, “was a shade of Pujo — distilling two intertwined memories: pandal-hopping till dawn in Kolkata, and the vibrant Puja spirit of Delhi.”
In the heart of Connaught Place, the kitchens of The GT Road are set to echo with the flavours of the east, as home-chef and writer Ayandrali Dutta curates a special Feast from the East. Designed to usher in the mood of Pujo, her table carries with it the aromas of Bengal and Odisha — a gentle stirring of nostalgia before the festivities begin.
On the menu are beloved Bengali staples — aloo posto, shukto, cholar dal — but also dishes that linger more quietly in memory: doodh phulkopi, the comforting chicken dak bungalow, dal puri, makha sondesh and more. Odisha too finds its rightful place, with macha besara rich in mustard and turmeric, and ambula, the tang of dried mango that cuts through the plate with summer’s sharpness.
At the centre of it all are the bhortas — that deeply ‘opaar Bangla’ expression of resourcefulness — mashed medleys of vegetables, greens, sometimes even fish, that tell the story of a kitchen where nothing is wasted and everything is transformed with a touch of mustard oil and a sprinkle of salt. “The bhortas show the sustainability of a Bengali kitchen,” Dutta says, “they are simple yet profound, humble yet celebratory.”
Although the true heart of the Durga Puja feast does not lie within the grand pandals, but just behind them — in the makeshift kitchens where the Pujo Samitis’ bhog committees gather in spirited camaraderie. Here, amidst the clatter of ladles and the hiss of firewood, giant cauldrons of runny khichuri bubble away, the air fragrant with ghee and panch phoron. Begunis emerge crisp and golden from vats of oil, labra stews gently in earthy harmony, and a sweet, sticky chaatni glistens like autumn sunlight. All the while, chants of “Joy maa Dugga!” rise above the sizzle and steam, wrapping the air in devotion and joy.
For Chef Agnibh Mudi, corporate chef with a leading restaurant group and a lifelong member of one of Mayur Vihar’s oldest Pujos, the bhog kitchen is a sacred apprenticeship. “Though we work under tents, far removed from professional kitchens, it is the spirit of the festival — the shared laughter, the collective rhythm — that fuels us.”
For devotees, bhog is more than food — it is memory, ritual, and blessing stirred into every ladle. “The bhoge’r khichuri is not just a meal, it is a feeling,” says Koyeli Bhattacharya, a Noida resident and member of her Pujo Samiti.
Durga Puja is not only about the grandeur of pandals or the artistry of idols. Its soul is found in the kitchens — in the aroma of pujo’r bhog, the crisp bite of beguni, the comfort of maachh-bhaat, the sweetness of payesh. From playful puchka twists in restaurants to steaming cauldrons of khichuri in samiti tents, each dish is an offering, binding people in devotion and adda.