BHUBANESWAR: A lavish spread of authentic Odia food besides pan-Indian, Chinese and continental cuisine is being laid out for Indian cricket team which will clash with West Indies for the ODI decider at Barabati Stadium at Cuttack on December 22. Hotel Mayfair where both the teams are staying has planned the menu for the five-day stay of the players as per diet charts received about two months back. Players will be first served Odia cuisine and since Captain Virat Kohli is a vegetarian, he will have traditional Odia food like the “saga bhaja,” “santula,” “dalma,” “mushroom besara” from the State’s specials.
“We also have ‘mati handi mangsa’, a State speciality, for the players from the Odia platter,” informed Corporate Chef of Mayfair Nisar Ahmed. Talking about preparations and detailing that goes into taking care of the the personal requirements of players, he said, the menu is a diet high on protein and carbohydrates as players put in long hours on the field.
“We have included soya and almond milk, multigrain buns besides fresh juices and fruits. Granola bars, gluten-free snacks and main dishes are also part of the chart,” he added. Basic and organic ingredients like bajra, jawar and other varieties of millet will be used for making Indian beads (roti) while grilled vegetables will also be part of the buffet during the three meals that the players will be taking in hotel, Ahmed said.
In every meal, the cricketers will be given a choice of dishes in each section of diet. There will be minimum two options in carbohydrate which could be brown rice/wild mix/quinoa or even khus khus while the protein platter would include dal, beans, peas and the likes in vegetarian section. Chicken, mutton or shrimp will be in nonvegetarian section, the Corporate Chef said. The West Indies players will be served more from the nonveg platter like grilled and roasted lamb, chicken, steaks besides the routine diet needs.
The Caribbeans will have a special dinner plan on Friday for which the chefs will be coordinating with the dietician and team to set the spread, Ahmed added. “For their nets sessions at Barabati, we have opened counters at the stadium and chefs will be present there to take care of their need for fresh juice, energy drinks and bars,” he said. While an entire set-up of chefs will be involved in preparing the menu at the hotel, 15 to 20 of them will be present at the stadium, said Ahmed adding 125 members will be served three meals in the hotel and on the match day, the number will go up to 400 when officials of BCCI and others senior guests will be present.