Curated Dining at Chak House (Awadhi-Kashmiri Cuisine)

(Kashmiri-Awadhi Cuisine) Tornos’ Home dining experience – by appointment

The Kashmiri Mohalla was a colony created in the Nawabi era when the then Nawab, Asaf ud Daula shifted his capital from Faizabad to Lucknow, bringing hundreds of Kashmiri families to live in the city. This was the largest group of Kashmiris who ever travelled out of Kashmir to settle anywhere outside Kashmir.

Kashmiris in Lucknow, just like any other community, have had their own unique history, traditions and cooking styles which blended well with the Awadhi culture, giving rise to a very distinct culinary tradition in Lucknow, known as Kashmiri-Awadhi cuisine, which was nowhere to be found other than in Lucknow.

One such family was ‘Chak’ family which made Lucknow their home and then could never leave Lucknow. This highly educated and cultured family still keeps its culinary traditions alive with their loyalty to Kashmiri-Awadhi cuisine in their daily lives, and is happy to showcase their culinary skills to discerning guests. This remarkable cuisine otherwise is unavailable anywhere outside a few Kashmiri homes in Lucknow, one of course being the Chaks, who still cook with pride these inherited Kashmiri-Awadhi recipes.

A typical evening here starts with an introduction to his family and a casual conversation over evening drinks, followed by a live cooking demonstration in the family’s kitchen, thereafter a home cooked dinner constituting dishes from family’s well guarded dining heritage follows. Tornos in an exclusive arrangements with the Chak family organises this at their Lucknow home.