The fire just won’t come alive. In the 39 degrees Celsius heat of Virudhunagar near Madurai, a lone man battles with dying embers at a stove made of propped-up bricks. He fans them with his towel, to no avail. He then tries it with folded paper. Nothing works. After 20 minutes, he succeeds: the fire crackles to glory. T Azhagar half-laughs, half-sighs. He’s cooking mutton curry in a mammoth aluminium cauldron for guests at a temple festival.
The 55-year-old, who heads a team of 50 cooks, is sought-after in places in and around the small town for his signature mutton dishes. “Virudhunagar is known for its parotta and mutton,” he tells us, giving the simmering curry a stir with a ladle that’s almost twice as long as his hand. It’s almost 11 am and the golden-orange curry, gleaming from all the oil, has been in the making since 11 pm the previous night.
On the job Azhagar started out over three decades ago Getty images/Istock and special arrangement
Apart from two assistants who peeled the onions and garlic, Azhagar has been cooking the curry all by himself without a break — each cauldron has 35 kilograms of mutton, and he’s making four times the quantity, simmering nearby. The dish is the star attraction at lunch that day, and as the head-cook, Azhagar has to ensure that it’s top-notch.
It’s been a long night for him. But he’s used to this. He’s been cooking massive feasts for weddings, family functions, and temple festivals across Tamil Nadu for 35 years. Among the biggest feasts he’s prepared, is for a wedding party of 10,000. “The vegetables alone came up to six sacks; each sack can hold 100 kilograms,” he says. His team spent the entire night before the wedding chopping vegetables. “For weddings, we do the prep work the previous night, and wake up at 4 am to light the stove,” explains Azhagar.
Azhagar trained under his father-in-law. “I was not even in my twenties then,” he remembers. “We’d just had our first child when I first entered the kitchen.” Azhagar initially peeled onions and boiled rice: he graduated to running his own team in 15 years.
The man prefers to cook the old-fashioned way; his skill lies in setting up a stove anywhere, anytime, with just twelve bricks. Although he works at kitchens equipped with LPG stoves, he sticks to his trusty old methods for the main dish.
Azhagar scrutinises the curry with his tired, red eyes, and sprinkles some masala from a packet propped on a stool nearby. “The kozhambu has to be on dum for 30 minutes,” he says, wiping his brow with his hand towel. He’s almost done — he has cooked 140 kilograms of mutton in under 12 hours. Azhagar will not eat a drop of it, though. “I will go home and have kanji and mor (buttermilk),” he says.
His wife Nallammal will have it ready for him. “She’s the one who cooks at home,” smiles Azhagar. “She’s an expert. You know, at the feasts we cook, all the ghee and masalas we add enhance the taste. But she can make a delicious meal with the simplest of ingredients. That is real expertise.”
- Ingredients:
- Mutton: 500 grams
- Dried red chillies: 4-5
- Cumin seeds: 3 tsp
- Oil: 4 tsp
- Salt
- Method:
- Heat oil in a pan, add the cumin seeds, and broken red chillies and sauté for a few seconds. Add the mutton, salt, a little water. Cover and cook till the meat is tender. Sprinkle pepper before serving.
