Meet Haji Bhai, Who Cooks Food On A Stone Slab And Has SRK As One Of His Biggest Fans!

There are food lovers and there are food fanatics.

The fanatics are the ones who make it possible for a chef to take risks in his profession, introduce innovation and become a legend.

One of these legends is Haji Bhai, aka Nafees Ansari who prepares all the food in his restaurant on a piping hot slab of stone, a technique 2000 years old. And all the food prepared in his kitchen has a prefix or suffix of ‘Patthar’.

For example, Patthar ka Murg, Patthar ka korma, Murg Patthar etc.

His most famous dishes might be nonvegetarian like, masala chicken tikka dabba gosht, bakra tandoor but he has also pioneered the art of cooking delectable vegetarian dishes like palak paneer and vegetable korma, even desi Chines and Jain items on his stone.

 

What more? His food his loved by the king of Bollywood himself, Shah Rukh Khan and the bubbly Juhi Chawla and has catered for their IPL parties.

Image source 1 & 2

“Shah Rukh Khan loved it,” says Haji Bhai, who can be invited to people’s houses to and prepare the food live. He normally charges Rs. 6,000 for 500 diners. “People are curious to see what the food tastes like, so my stall always has the maximum crowd at parties.”

 

The stone is big with roughly two-feet-long with a width of 2.5 feet weighing close to 50 kgs. They’re imported from Saudi Arabia because they’re probably of higher heat tolerance than Indian rocks.

He says he has tried using the desi slabs of rock but they deteriorate quickly.

“When I returned from Saudi Arabia, I thought of sourcing stones from Maharashtra to see if I could it pull off. But the stones cracked because of the heat.”

 

His dishes have a distinct taste which they probably get from the stone unlike tawa, which might rob the food of their taste.

“I first came across the stones when I went to Saudi Arabia to work as a chef in 1982. There, they mostly make lamb curries and tikkas on it.”

 

He also finds cooking on a stone slab rather easy than anything else.

“Cooking on stone is rather simple. All you have to do is heat up the lava rock by placing coal in the stand. Place your meat, fish or vegetables on top and then simply cook to your very own taste. With little or sometimes no oil at all, the health benefits are easy to see and with the purity in taste, you will enjoy each bite.”

 

Haji Bhai also makes it a point to regularly clean the stones with an iron brush but damages occur because of the travel catering requires.

“To douse the heat from the stone, we splash a lot of water on it, which ends up damaging the stone.”

While the cost of the stone is close to Rs 3,000, importing it costs him more than Rs 54,000 for each. “But it’s worth the money spent,” he smilingly says.

You can contact him on 9322343280.

H/T : Mid-Day

Cover Image Source 1 & 2

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