Grand Hotel: Food Beyond Time

The Grand Hotel watches a ruckus everyday from its prime location in Abids Circle — Hyderabad’s major commercial area. The constant honking of cars, the roar of motorcycles, and the din of passersby is commonplace. Inside the hotel, a similar chaos prevails, but it is welcome. As hundreds of customers flock to the eatery everyday to enjoy biryani, the Grand Hotel perseveres to deliver. As it always has.

The Grand Hotel, Hyderabad (Source: Newsmeter)

Twelve years before India received independence, 12 Iranians migrated and started the Grand Hotel. The idea behind their eatery was to sell biryani to the common folk of Hyderabad — a delicacy only found in elite weddings and palaces of the nawabs. As the foreigners made biryani for the people, the people made them their own. In a way, it is fitting for a country like India to beget a dish that combines the flavours of many cultures into one melting pot.

Biryani served by the Grand Hotel may taste bland to many since other restaurants serve biryani hot and spicy, satisfying the younger generation's desire for masala. However, biryani is not supposed to make the mouth burn. Rather, it is the underlying flavour and aroma of the spices that matters. Although India has a plethora of famed spices that can make even the tough sweat profusely, biryani is not about bringing tears to the eyes. Well, maybe it is, not because of excessive spices, but because of the memories that people have attached to it.

Jaleel Farrokh Rooz, the current owner of the Grand Hotel, has been managing the eatery for over 20 years. Although he identifies as a Hyderabadi, he is an Iranian by origin. His grandfather was an employee when the founding Iranis ran the hotel. He was able to become a shareholder in the hotel. His father followed in his grandfather’s footsteps, bought the remaining shares, and took over as the hotel owner. Jaleel adores the hotel and describes how the traditional recipes used by Iranian bawarchis or chefs were not documented or preserved. Thus, the biryani served now is made purely by memory and through hands which still preserve traditional knowledge. Although Mr Rooz tried to look for chefs, most of them, to his dismay, used soy or chilli sauces. He believes that Mughal flavours were never about sauces but rather about authentic spices and their exquisite taste.

The oldest customers of the Grand Hotel have died with the founders, but the experience is still alive for their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. These generational customers are integral in continuing the legacy of the Grand Hotel, where the taste of a bygone India remains. The eatery began serving the people when India was still in the clutches of the British Raj. Now that the country prospers in its independence, the eatery does too.

Even though many tales can be spun to talk of the grandeur of Grand Hotel’s food, the structure itself is a humble two-storied dining hall. The space on the ground floor is for a quick snack, while the upper, air-conditioned room is for eating. Such architecture makes the Grand Hotel even more relatable to India’s everyday people, to whom it is not about the grandeur of the place but the taste of its food.

Diners enjoy Mutton Nihari and Badami Mutton alongside other dishes, while Dilpasand and Dilkush are two sought-after sweet dishes. After enjoying a meal, it is almost a mandatory ritual for diners to have a quick chai. Irani chai is a traditionally strong drink that adds khoya or mawa to black tea to give a creamy texture. Its flavour is so robust that it gets bitter as the person finishes it, yet beckons one to return again.

With a reasonably-priced menu, Grand Hotel attracts customers as early as 4 AM, when they enjoy Irani Chai and Bun Maska, a simple bun coated with butter. The eatery strives till this date to deliver to its original target audience — the everyday people. Thus, the prices are seldom raised. Grand chandeliers or large dining halls, sophisticated toppings or expensive cutlery, nothing is a match for a place that speaks to the heart. The flocks of people who regularly go to the Grand Hotel are a testament to this, along with the clamour for the Mutton chops that were prepared fifty years ago during the Nawab Rule and British Raj.

In everything people do, they leave traces of themselves — even in the food they make. Over eighty years old, this hotel has somehow managed to maintain the same traditional Hyderabadi flavour. Even as the world around it picks pace, this building remains the same, as if it has overcome the transience of time. Indeed, some things are timeless, and the Grand Hotel is fortunately one of them.