Lucknow's Dum Pukht Ustad: The life & times of culinary wizard & legendary chef Imtiaz Qureshi

The man, the myth, the legend, chef Imtiaz Qureshi breathed his last on February 16 at the age of 93. Born in Lucknow, Qureshi was renowned across the nation for reviving the heritage 'dum pukht' technique of cooking, enriching it with his magic and adding it on the global map.

In 2016, the culinary wizard also became the first chef to be conferred upon the Padma Shri. You might have also heard of his highly successful brands like Dum Pukht, Bukhara, among others. But those are just the highlights, for Chef Qureshi's life comprises so many hueful chapters that one has go deep to even scratch the surface of it.

Chef Imtiaz Qureshi belonged to the family that served as khansamas of Mughal rulers and Nawabs of yore. He embarked on his gourmet journey at merely nine years old. During the British rule, Qureshi joined his family in preparing meals for 10,000 soldiers without many facilities. He was later a part of the Krishna Caterers team who were made responsible for feeding jawaans during the 1962 Indo-China war.

At the time, the adept chef got a chance to serve the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru, who was so impressed by Qureshi's creativity that he hired Krishna Caterers for the opening of Delhi's Ashoka Hotel. Here, it was his signature dish 'Dal Bukhara' that garnered much appreciation and awe.

Not a lot of people know but, in his youth, Qureshi was a local wrestler, besides a chef, and was often referred to as 'Imtiaz Pehlwan'.

After working at a few local Lucknow restaurants, the chef was recognised and hired by the founder of ITC Hotels. It was at ITC that his usage and refinement of the 'duk pakht' cooking technique earned him well-deserved fame. Here, he was also known for popularising preparing meals in copper vessels.

“He may have been from Lucknow but the world was his oyster,” Diwan Gautam Anand, his fellow colleague and banquet manager of ITC Maurya, had said fondly of him.

Qureshi was often called an 'Ustad', the master of all chefs. He served at numerous official banquets, during which he earned praises of late President APJ Abdul Kalam and PM Lal Bahadur Shastri. It is said that Qureshi even invented a dessert called 'Lab-e-Mahshoukh' for Begum Akhtar. Some of the most indelible and popular dishes, attributed to him, are Dum Pukht Biryani, Garlic Kheer and Grand Trunk Road Tandoori Fruit Chaat.

Words fall short when it comes to describing the life of the exemplar, who passed away in Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital on Friday.

"He was a culinary genius & a man full of zeal for life!! He was also the modern day father of Awadhi Cuisine & his Biryani was legendary amongst everything else he fed the world," singer Adnan Sami shared on X.

As the news of the chef's demise reached the world, condolences and messages of grief have been pouring on the Internet. Such was a life well lived by a legendary man of the culinary arts, a chef extraordinaire.