“Khudi ko kar buland itna ki har taqdir se pehle, khuda bande se khud puchhe bata teri raza kya hai,” recited four-year-old Azban, grandson of late grandmaster and Padma Shri recipient Imtiaz Qureshi. The young boy was sharing poems and shayaris he learnt from his grandfather at a tribute event held in memory of the culinary doyen on Thursday in Lower Parel. Chef Imtiaz Qureshi, known widely for reviving ‘dum pukht’ (a traditional slow-cooking technique), bringing Awadhi cuisine under the spotlight and establishing restaurants like Bukhara and Dum Pukht, passed away in Mumbai last month at the age of 93. The memorial, held in association with Ishaara, was organised by award-winning food writer Rashmi Uday Singh’s passion project Hospitality Hope, a free-to-use global portal for job seekers and employers in the hospitality sector. The evening saw the presence of Qureshi’s eldest son Ishtiyaque, his wife and children as well as people from the food and beverage industry. “People wrote long posts on social media about Qureshi and his legacy but didn’t speak about his son, who is Imtiaz Qureshi’s true legacy and has been cooking up the Qureshi magic for several years through his venture Kakori House,” Singh shared. Ishtiyaque shared that his father nudged him towards the hospitality industry very early on. “We studied in Delhi and it would get very hot in summer. He suggested me to come to the hotel, eat cakes at the bakery and have a good time. It seemed like a nice idea and soon I was there, spending my summer vacations and in the process spending time in every department. I have salary slips of getting a stipend of Rs 150 while I was in Class VII,” recalled his son, who launched Dum Pukht restaurant in a few cities before he decided to call it quits and follow his own path. “He was my guru,” he shared, adding that his father hasn’t left him a handful of recipes to execute but taught him the technique, which he has employed all his life, more recently for The Westin Pune Koregaon. “They have an Indian restaurant called Aafreen, they had asked me to introduce a few dishes but multiple meetings later, we ended up adding a whole new section called “Qureshi’s Dum Pukht”. It was in the making for three months and has about 30 recipes,” he shared. The idea going forward, he said, is to ensure that his father’s technique and teachings reach far and beyond. “It is important that I join hands with only those whose principles align with me and my father,” he said.
