Hemamalini Kalyana Mandapam in Royapettah is frantic with activity and blanketed in the scent of molten sugar. Sales counters, stacked with boxes of sweets and savouries, are busy as staff take orders from customers, ticking items off a printed list. As customers enter the hall, they are handed a list of the many sweets and savouries available in an attempt to streamline the process. Despite the business-like efficiency, the space is festive and welcoming. While customers wait to collect their boxes of neatly packaged goodies, they are served samples of everything being prepared in the kitchen. There’s also filter coffee on offer, and hot khichdi in case you’re hungry. All for free.
CHENNAI: 01-11-2018-- Home made Deepavali Sweets on sale at Triplicane, Sweets Rs. 500.00 and Mixture Rs. 450.00 per kg. Photo: K.V. Srinivasan/The Hindu
Behind a curtain, there’s a staging area where staff bustle through with trays groaning under the weight of laddoos . Inside the huge, busy but surprisingly orderly kitchen, chefs and masters make batch after batch of Mysore pak , jangri , gulab jamun and maa ladu . In a corridor on the side, well -muscled men wield huge ladles, frying ribbon pakoda and oma podi to a perfectly crisp texture.
CHENNAI: 02-11-2018-- Home made Deepavali Sweets preperation at Pattappa Caterers in Chennai. Photo: K.V. Srinivasan/The Hindu
Between checking on the consistency of a warm tray of Mysore pak and helping a staffer achieve perfect curls on a jangri as he pipes it into a sizzling pan, 70-year-old LV Pattappa explains his annual routine. “For the past 15 years, I have been setting up a Deepavali counter in this venue. I bring in 180 cooks, most of whom work with me full-time. I also bring in another 20 people to help with packing the food.”
A legendary wedding caterer, Pattappa hails from Ladavaram in Arcot district. He says he entered the industry at the age of 16, along with his uncle, Mukkur Sreenivasa Iyengar, who was then running a catering service in Chennai. “Those days, my wages was ₹6 for two and a half days,” says Pattappa, handing over a steel tumbler filled with fragrant, subtly-sweetened filter coffee. He continues, “Once my uncle passed away, I took over from where he left off. This was 35 years ago.”
CHENNAI: 02-11-2018-- Home made Deepavali Sweets preperation at Pattappa Caterers in Chennai. Photo: K.V. Srinivasan/The Hindu
Clearly nothing happens at the kitchen without Pattappa’s instructions. He walks around constantly: checking the consistency of the jangri batter, inspecting the boondi for ladoos and even pouring out filter coffee for visitors.
“My father revolutionised the wedding catering industry in the 90s,” says Balaji, Pattappa’s son, discussing why he started this special counter, open for just five days a year. “The idea is to make traditional sweets the traditional way,” he says, adding that their most popular items include maa laadu , nokkal , jangri and Pattappa’s signature Madras Mysorepak. The popular savouries include Madras mixture, kara sev (made without garlic) and murukku . Every year, the team introduces something new — this year it is the vella ladoo made with jaggery , as well as a mundhiri cake and chocolate cake.
In an attempt to explain the size of this endeavour, Pattappa reels out some of the quantities of ingredients used: 4,000 kilograms of gram flour, 3,000 kilograms of rice and 2,000 kilograms of moong dal flour, used for making maa ladoos . They also use about 2,000 kilograms of peanuts and 4,000 kilograms of cashews over these five days (From November 1 to 5).
“My staff and I stay at the venue for these five days,” says Pattappa, adding “I wake them up by 4 am. By the time they freshen up and come to kitchen, it will be 5 am.” He adds that each master cook has two or three assistants who keep everything required ready. “They take short breaks for breakfast, lunch and dinner and stop by 7.30 pm,” he says.
As the waiting time for packing and billing can take a while, the team serve refreshments, breakfast, lunch and dinner on all five days to all customers for free. Radha Kumar, for whom a visit to this Pattappas stall has become a Deepavali ritual, says she prefers to buy from here as the sweets are freshly made, unlike in other stores where it is all made few weeks ahead. “We also enjoy the delicious food served here. So it is an enjoyable outing for us,” she says.
For 92-year-old KV Aaravamudhan, who pops into the kitchen to say hello to Pattappa, it is his long standing association with the wedding caterter that motivates him to walk from his home nearby to shop for sweets here. “At this age, I am completely off sweets and fried items, but I come here to buy sweets for distribution in my apartment and for family members,” he chuckles. “All wedding catering in my family is by Pattappa and he is my good friend as well.”
