Around a decade ago when I began to settle into my career and had income to spare and indulge in occasional luxuries, I walked into ITC Maratha in Mumbai for a meal. I had heard about the ‘dal bukhara’ and with my love for dals not being a secret I thought of trying out what has been termed as a legendary dish. I confidently asked the concierge for the way to Bukhara - only to be told that there isn’t Bukhara, but Peshawari there. The ambience was the same as Bukhara, as was the menu, but Peshawari is Bukhara by another name. Years later I learnt that AN Haksar, the legendary former chairman of ITC had tried to replicate Bukhara globally, but it wasn’t as successful as the original in Delhi and so it was concluded that it cannot be reproduced anywhere else. There was and remains to be only one Bukhara in the world.
Bukhara first opened its gates to its patrons in 1978 and today is celebrating its 45th anniversary. Bukhara brought alive the flavours of the North West Frontier and transformed the way Indian food was perceived in the luxury dining set-up. The basic concept of Bukhara was to celebrate the rusticity and robustness of the food and ambience that it offered. The menu was limited with large pieces of succulent tandoori kebabs, dal bukhara, tandoori rotis and naans and options of just four desserts. The setting was such that one had to abandon sophistication and enjoy their food with their hands, with the famous Bukhara bibs to ensure that the spillage, if any, didn’t mar the clothes of the diner. This was atypical to what is perceived as luxurious and aspirational. Bukhara celebrated its ‘Indian-ness’ and in doing so has garnered love and fame globally.
When one plans a visit to Bukhara, they usually do not go there to experiment. They go there for consistency and to satiate cravings. For instance, my visit to Bukhara is always led by my cravings for dal bukhara and tandoori aloo, whereas for my husband it is the robust tandoori jheenga or the Sikandari raan that is a fixed order. While I was dining at Bukhara last week, I noticed how the menu has remained the same, with no changes or variations in the last 45 years. A true blue Delhi-ite, ITC’s Anil Chaddha, a chief executive today at the same company, who helmed Bukhara for close to three decades, shares, “The unchanged menu is a testament to timelessness. It has remained an everlasting favourite amongst celebrities and Heads of States showcasing nuances of the region.”
Seated next to my table was a family of three - a mother and her two young sons. I could hear the excitement in the sons’ voices when they noticed the extravagant naan bukhara approach their table. The older son who must not be older than 13 years, proclaimed that this was the best dal he had eaten and that malai chicken tikka has a tender texture - the exposure of today’s generation to food vocabulary never fails to astonish me! “I have been coming to Bukhara since I was eight. I used to come with my grandparents and parents, and today I have got my sons with me here. We are visiting from the UK and no visit to Delhi is complete without a meal here”, Alisha Sharma shares with me.
An acquaintance and Delhi resident Shalika Kharbanda noticed my stories about my meal at Bukhara and quipped about her love for the restaurant. She eagerly shared with me an anecdote about her childhood days. “We came from a humble middle class background, but my parents ensured that we saved up for special occasions. Dinners at Bukhara hold some of the fondest memories of such occasions for us. Today we are grown up working professionals, and my brother and I make sure to take my father out for special meals to Bukhara once in a while.”
Honestly, it is not like one cannot have better North West Frontier food in Delhi in any place other than Bukhara, but it is the memories and nostalgia attached to the place and its food that makes it special. “What is the need to change when we have perfected what we know best?”, asks Chef JP Singh of Bukhara, the man who helms the place and has been part of it since 1990. Talk about legacies, right?
Vernika Awal is a food writer who is known for her research-based articles through her blog ‘Delectable Reveries’