Celebrity couple Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant’s pre-wedding festivities featured an extensive menu between March 1 and 3. Feeding guests at what is now being referred to as Jamnagar’s Met Gala, was Chennai’s own Arusuvai Arasu Catering Services. Their counter, among 35 helmed by world-renowned chefs, was busiest between midnight and 5am, and saw Bill Gates lining up for vadas and Aishwarya Rai indulging in a rava dosa.
“We were roped in a few months ago and our team of 40 reached Jamnagar by February 29. Weeks prior to that, we had deployed a few of our chefs to serve the Ambani family members who were making arrangements over there. All raw material, equipment and groceries were provided in a restaurant-style set up, and I had to only take idli rice and idiyappam flour from Chennai,” says N Shridhar of Arusuvai Arasu Catering Services (founded by his father late N Natarajan Iyer in 1962).
Ghee Roast Dosa. Photo: Special Arrangement | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
This is not Arusuvai Arasu Catering Services’s first tango with the Ambani family. They were part of the catering team during the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations at Antilia, the family residence valued at over ₹15,000 crore. “We go as a small team and make tiffin items such as idli, dosa, idiyappam as well as snacks such as murukku and thattai,” says Sridhar.
Tiffin to the fore
This association hence secured a bustling counter at the wedding. “We were requested to make only tiffin items and avoid any rice dishes. Idli and dosa were to be made available 24/7 on all three days. So we worked and cooked in three shifts in order to prepare fresh food.” As Sridhar was requested to keep his menu list crip, he focussed on a variety of dosas and idlis. They also made pongal, upma, kesari, sakkara pongal and ashoka halwa.
At the venue. Photo: Special Arrangement | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Anant, the groom, visited almost all the food stalls as and when he had the time and when he visited South Indian by Shridhar (the name given at the venue) stopped by at several stalls including the one by Arusuvai Arasu Catering Services, requesting a pesarattu. “For Anant, his favourite is always pesarattu (An Andhra dish, a dosa made with green moong dal and rice, ginger and cumin).
I suggested that he eat it withinji thokku (ginger chutney), needless to say, that for Mukesh sir, I made his favourite sakkara pongal, payasam and sweet potato chips. Nita Ambani ate the idli with coconut chutney and sambar without any souring agent as madam avoids food with tamarind, tomato or lemon,” says Sridhar, who along with his son S. Kamesh served the international and Indian VVIPs at all the four locations at the venue where the celebrities were accomodated.
N Shridhar with Mukesh Ambani. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
When the service staff came with orders, Shridhar would ask them out of curiosity whose order it was. “These boys would run to us excitedly if any celebrities they could identify orders South Indian. Salman Khan ordered rava dosa, Amitabh Bachchan ordered the ghee podi dosa and later even medhu vada. Idlis were high on demand among most of the Hollywood celebrities. Aishwarya Rai relished Onion rava dosa, along with her daughter. We made an onion-tomato thokku for the dosas, which was appreciated,” he says.
The only challenge that Shridhar faced was when it came to a wet grinder. He says, “As we had to prepare a huge volume of idli and dosa batter, we were hoping for two huge grinders, but we ended up sharing one huge wet grinder with Italian counter. We used the grinder in the evening and let the Italian chef take over at other times.”
