Speaking about going Vocal About Local, the ITC way, Chef Parul Kapoor, executive chef, ITC Rajputana, expresses right from the spices to the main ingredient, they ensure that when they are making something local, they go completely local
Your insights on Vocal about Local
For ITC Hotels, the concept of Vocal about Local is not a new thing, but we have been following it from past couple of years. We have been curating menus; coming up with section dedicated for the local specialties fo the city, be it Rajasthan, Mumbai or Bengaluru. Each city hotel would have a local section in their menus.
Curating menus at your hotel using local ingredients
All the ITC Hotels have this dedicated section which is called the ‘Local Love’. This section showcases the local cuisine of that city where the hotel is located. For example – we at ITC Rajputana have a Local Love in which we have mentioned the Kachoris, Dal Baati Churma. Those are the local specialties of our city. So when a guest comes to visit us, we make sure that they experience the local food as well. Also, within ITC Hotels, we source all our ingredients from local vendors which in a way provides more local touch to the dish and furthermore reduces the carbon footprint. We also encourage the local farmers for our farm to plate concept.
Also, we present a typical Rajasthani Thaali, both in vegetarian and non-vegetarian variants. It comprises of Gatta Curry, Ker Sangri, Laal Maans, and Murg Jodhpuri, etc. All of these are local dishes. Ker Sangri is a very local dish of Rajashtan not found anywhere else. We ensure that, all our dishes, if we are promoting them as local, then it has to be actually local. It helps in bringing up our local farmers and vendors instead of importing the stuff.
Our signature dish is the Junglee Maans. Also, in Rajashtan you get the best mutton. Apparently, all the mutton usually travels from Rajashtan to other parts of the country.
The one local ingredient your kitchen cannot do without
I would say the chillies. We have a local chilli know as Mathania Chilli. It gives a beautiful colour and also has a very nice taste to it. The Laal Maans and other local dishes need to have the local ingredients to have the exact taste of the dish. Right from the spices to the main ingredient, we ensure that when we are making something local, we go completely local!
