The part about the ‘cloud kitchens’ story that I find most exciting is that chefs are pouring their creative juices into the business. One of them is Osama Jalali, who has converted his one-acre farm at Nangli Umarpur, at Sector-62, Gurgaon, into a massive kitchen with 12 wood-fired chulhas and a collection of thick and heavy copper-bottomed deghs. Jalali has brought the tradition of cooking in deghs back into our lives with his cloud kitchen named The Village Degh.
Why the degh, I asked the flamboyant young man who must be credited with reviving popular interest in traditional recipes (our lost heritage cuisine). The degh, he said, is a good conductor of heat, so it ensures the equal distribution of heat and keeps it trapped as well. Traditionally, in fact, the carbon particles that collect at the bottom of a degh are not removed because these ensure that slow and even distribution of heat.
Apart from employing these utensils that have been in use for centuries, Jalali uses the oldfashioned hamam dasta (mortar and pestle) to crush whole spices or pulverise onions, garlic and ginger, or the silbatta (grinding stone). Jalali’s Sil Batte Ki Shaami, in fact, is my personal favourite, followed by Filmistan Hari Mirch Keema, Rampuri Chicken Kofte and Faridkot Meat Curry. I believe the Shahjahanabad Nalli Nihari is booked by Jalali’s patrons a night before it is ready to be served. Competing with it in popularity is the Kadhao Kheer, the milk for which is especially sourced from Mewat—50 kilos are reduced to 10 to make this oh-so-yummy dessert. As you must have figured out by now, the menu is limited and there’s not much to recommend to vegetarians.
For Jalali, it’s a great feeling to see that he has nothing left to sell by the time it is 4 pm. And when he sees the loyal following he has garnered among the residents of the ultra-upscale apartment blocks on Golf Course Road, he savours the fact that, unlike many other cloud kitchen operators, he has priced his food adventurously at Rs 1,295 per kilo. Good food invariably finds takers, irrespective of how it is priced