I think whole world knows Nattukottai nagarathars are famous for their big mansions and their delicious food and am not going to reiterate the same old facts again and again. Rather I would like to focus on the Chefs who make those dishes in all the nagarathar events. Nagarathar chefs are so much in demand that NRIs want to fly them in their hometowns to bring back the authentic taste. As soon as the marriage date is fixed or for that matter date is fixed for any function apart from booking the venue the second thing people do is to book chefs by giving them a token advance. On some muhurtham dates chefs get overbooked and they have multiple teams who take care of events on rotation basis. Before I move further for all those non-nagarathars reading this blog Nagarathar villages are categorized as Mela vattagai where places like Valayapatty, Venthanpatty, Vegupatty etc., comes in and Keela vattagai where places like Devakottai, Karaikudi, Aravayal comes in. Now let us do a deep dive into some of the chefs whom I either know personally or got to know from my circle.
Late Sevoor Pandi: I would like to take this blog to pay my tribute for Sevoor pandi annan ....He has brothers and his hometown is Sevoor and he passed away recently. He took care of his brothers and built a very good house for them. Now his brothers are taking care of the catering business. In Business there is something called as 'Volume' - meaning one who does business in huge volumes. Sevoor Pandi annan is one such type and he is predominantly famous on all big events in Mela vattagai area. His main USP is his team cooks Non veg very well - the multi layered parotta which is so soft like Johnson baby's cheeks which goes well with Mutton Kulambu; Whatever the crowd his team still delivers chuda chuda egg dosa which I always wonder how is it possible ? There was one function is Vegupatty and he tried a new form of Idly which needs new type of fermentation of the Idly batter and trust me that idly was just like a cotton candy. His traditional bread sweet will occupy RHS of the plantain leaves ...Kavun arisi is a pretty old and common dish but people still make mistakes but Pandi's team does one thing very well - Soaking of the water exactly for N number of hours and this is where people make mistakes either they soak too well or they soak only for few hours. Pandi annan's kavunarisi never leaves our hand just like our college days which never leaves our memory. Kummayam (Keela vattagai) and Aadi Kool (Mela vattagai) is one other dish where ghee plays role of man of the series by predominantly shining some portion of the plantain leaves. Some numbers can be staggering - on a recent Rotary conference in Mahabalipuram he was serving for 3000+ people spread across two days for six meals and he said couple of weeks back he was serving 5000+ people in the same venue. Rotary presidents give him token advance one year in advance just got to show his popularity. I spot him in Trichy rather than in Chettinadu on many occasions and that just shows his growth is not confined to Chettinadu anymore. Through his brothers they are continuing to get orders and they are still able to keep up their name and Rotary is one organization where he has made more inroads. One thing he has to work is he has to cater all areas in Chettinadu and not just Mela vattagai.
Rangiyam Madhi: Rangiyam Madhi is a soft spoken person and people from my native Kandavarayanpatty has soft corner on him since he is our cook for Thiruvizha in our native where 2000 to 2500 come and six meals is spread across two days. No body can beat his price and he is the most economical cook ....He has a good team and he can make all the chettinadu dishes with authentic taste. Off late his Ashoka halva is coming out good and recently I signed him up for my friends's marriage who had a wish of Chettinadu chef taking care of the meals for his marriage. He did a good job and charged very reasonably.
Nedungudi K Muthu: This man was at its peak form in 2000's and he was ruling the roost ....Off late health issues made him slow down but the good thing is his son is taking up the mantle. In Business if Father and son has no friction then that will not give room for a third person to grow and am very glad his son is taking charge full time. His badam halva is one of the famous items back then verkadalai mavadu inji mandi is also one item he does very well. Ilaneer payasam, Pineapple rasam, Curd rice,Kavun arisi halva are some of the famous items in his kitty. You can spot him in Mela vattagai as well as keela vattagai and he is not confined to one area.
ACN Bhalu: They say reserve the best for the last ...Man who is at peak form or in other words man of the moment ...Thiru ACN Bhalu ....Off late all the events where he was involved food was top notch. His sixers are out of the park and am a big fan of his paneer lappa ....One paneer lappa in your appetite is like Sehwag's innings against a weak Ireland bowling attack ....His Yelakka sweet rolled onto pumpkin skin is another helicopter shot .....Rather than Chicken tandoori his chicken boneless on a stick is absolutely mouth watering ....Meen kolambu with small onions, mutton chukka with green leaves dressing, chicken pepper to water your eyes and chuda chuda aavi parakka biriyani to occupy good real estate in your tummy are all specialties of this man .....Even the cocunut thuruval he makes is of good taste and at the moment he is unstoppable.
I have just listed few Chefs and there are plenty of them like American Natesan, Athangudi Perumal, Ulagampatty Chandran etc., They have taken chettinadu food on a global scale and Chettinadu food is one thing people love no matter how many times you consume. I have been to some grand receptions of Industrialists, Politicians etc., but none can match the food served on plantain leaves and that too with chettinadu items. It is pure blessing from our ancestors to leave such an everlasting menu (Vadai-chutney, vellai paniyaram-tanger, kavuni arisi, Idly, Idiyappan, Therakal, Kos malli). No matter how many times you taste you always want to keep having over and over.
End of the day no matter which Chef comes there are N number of factors which play a role in how dishes shape up - How does your idly batter ferment based on the weather, what type of tamarind you use for the sour taste, how good is the quality of the ingredients you use and how good are the resources who handle those ingredients. Sometimes a good worker can get the best out of bad ingredient and a bad worker can spoil a good ingredient. You never know what goes beyond the kitchen and one thing I learnt was never negotiate too much with chefs. Obviously you need to negotiate since negotiation skills are part of Nagarathar's DNA but the risk of negotiating too much is sometimes they bring inexperienced workers which we have absolutely no control. All we can do is sign up with a chef and pray that things should turn out well.
Food is one area which can bring accolades as well as bring chaos to the attendees of the event. If food is good then appreciation keep pouring like monsoon rain and if its the other way around people keep complaining .....Taste is a subjective one ..what taste good for me may not taste good for other person, what is sweet/spicy for me may or may not be the same for other person. There are multiple challenges associated for people in charge of food - in countries like US you get RSVP count and you can plan quantity accordingly and in India there is no way you can figure that out as some heavy muhurtham dates there is floating crowd meaning people may come either in the morning for breakfast or for Lunch. In US size of the trays like XL, Large plays a role when you communicate to catering people whereas in India if you give soda at 11.30 am after muhurtham and ask people to have food at 12pm then people are not going to enjoy the lunch as they intend to ...There is plenty of things that has to fall in place for everything to go well.
Chettinadu chefs no longer rely on nagarathars as they get orders outside chettinadu circle. They shouldn't forget their roots and rather they should continue their services in chettinadu area too. Nagarathars made them famous and there are economically backward nagarathars who rely on lot of the chettinadu chefs for their events. They can spread wings by reaching out to tamil community but they should keep chettinadu and nagarathars happy too.
Next blog: Maamannan, Politics, Philosophy and Mari selvaraj Filmography
