In a distinctive sweet tone and a gentle demeanour, he greets his guests. You start conversing with him and he will mention his father Gyani Santokh Singh with that little ache in his voice. Chef Sweety Singh owes everything to his father, because of whom he is a successful chef today. “I plunged in the world of cooking because of my father who I used to watch working round the clock,” he says.
He was just ten years old when he would spend hours observing his father who cooked and sold his food on a thela (cart) on Asaf Ali Road in the 1950s. “I was happy to see so many people waiting to be fed by him every single day. I asked him the reason why they want to have only his food. Dad replied:’because I give them simple ghar ka khana.”
Back then, Singh didn’t know that would become a tag line of his own work one day. It was ghar ka khana that laid the foundation of this child’s destiny in the professional world. “When Indian food is laden with modern fusion, I give non-fussy Punjabi food. The only special item in my preparation is my own concoction of more than 30 spices, he says.”
The menu that we tried has a number of showstopping dishes. Maachi di seekh is one of his own inventions. It’s texture is reached after a slow cooking process. Kukkad Makhan Wala is another highlight. The other well executed dishes were Lahori Paneer, Meat de Tikke, Bharwan Mirch, among others. But he takes pride in his Meat ka Halwa most.
He likes to reintroduce forgotten dishes too, Panjeeri one being one of them. On that sweet note, he runs back to the kitchen to bring more of the same ghar ka swad. Till November 25, at K3, JW Marriott New Delhi Aerocity. The author writes on food, and travel among other things.