It’s human tendency to search for something new, fresh and different. One of the major components in which Hyderabadis seek variety is food as they feel the constant need to experiment. This has prompted the conception of Kitchen Off Kuchipudi, a south Indian restaurant.
Started after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, Kitchen Off Kuchipudi in Madhapur in Hyderabad, offers food from both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and brings forth all the flavours from the Telugu cuisine. “It offers a variety of Telugu food. It is a place which thrives on constant experimentation. We come up with new dishes every now and then, and that’s how we keep the menu dynamic. There are some restaurants which have the same menu for the last 15-20 years. We want to be different from such places,” explains Venkat Kuchipudi, founder of the restaurant.
Emphasising on their desire to keep the menu different, Venkat reiterates that while popular items remain on the menu, the rest constantly keeps changing. “Every month we can see two or three new dishes coming up. If they catch the fancy of the public, we retain it, or else remove it and come up with something else,” he says. One of the dishes, which is a favourite with people, is the gold chicken pulao.
People in the city of Nawabs love royalty, especially when it comes to food. Most of the popular dishes such as double ka meetha, or any type of barfi or even the gulkand-laden paan, have a silver warq on it. Kitchen Off Kuchipudi takes it up a notch higher and serves chicken pulao with gold warq.
“The latest biryani or pulao has gold leaves on it. The idea is to give diners the luxury of eating gold. It is a rich food—metals are good for the body and gold is a premium metal, and you don’t get to eat gold everyday. We present diners with an opportunity to eat like how kings used to do,” says Venkat, a filmmaker turned restaurateur.
“Anywhere you go, people want something new to happen. But when it comes to food, there is not much happening as far as new things are concerned. In all aspects of life, people seek joy in finding new things,” says Venkat. “You buy new clothes, watch a new movie, buy a new book. But when it comes to food, you usually end up eating the same stuff everyday. Even at home, unless there is somebody creative and experimental. You don’t get to eat new food all the time. So I thought it’s the requirement of the people to have something new, which is why I started this.”
Conceding that biryani still very much remains the most popular dish, Venkat—who also owns 7 Biriyanis, another food joint in Hyderabad—explains that they serve biryani with a bit of more variety than what one normally expects from the traditional Hyderabadi biryani.
“Other than the regular dum biryani, we have different varieties of pulao with meat and we use different rice textures and make sure we have a lot of options. Not many are aware, but there are many different ways to make a biryani like avaakaya biryani, ulavacharu biryani, etc. On a regular day, you can choose from 10 to 12 varieties of pulao at our restaurant,” says he.
Pointing out that special dishes from both the Telugu states are available at the restaurant, Venkat reveals that it is a huge hit with non-locals residing in Hyderabad. “Kitchen Off Kuchipudi is a marriage of the cultures of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and includes a few specialties from each. Some of the popular dishes include pedamma mamsam pulao, which is a Telangana dish and then there is this mamsam pappuchaaru which is a fusion of Telangana and Andhra recipe,” he says.