A whopping 10 crore+ biryani orders were placed on Zomato in 2023, which, according to the food delivery platform, were enough to fill up eight Qutub Minars in Delhi.
The experience of Zomato’s competitor, Swiggy, was no different. In 2023, Indians ordered 2.5 biryanis per second from Swiggy. And for every 5.5 chicken biryanis, one vegetarian biryani got sold.
Biryani has been the most ordered item on the platform for 9 consecutive years and its popularity has only been growing – as many as 2.49 million customers made their Swiggy debut with a biryani order in 2023. After cinema and cricket, a shared love for biryani seems to be the great national unifier.
This year, too, the holy month of Ramadan saw a surge in biryani orders, with close to 6 million plates being ordered during the period, which was more than 15% above the level normally reported in the other months, according to The Times of India.
When “We The Chefs” formally rolled out its Biryani Talks (@biryanitalksgurgaon)
Chicken biryani, for instance, is the most ordered biryani across the country, but at Biryani Talks, it has been given the Old Bangalore Naati twist by financial analyst-turned-home chef Kalyan Gopalakrishna.
His Chicken Naati Biryani stands apart from all its competitors – and India, as we know from Pratibha Karan, who has written the most definitive book on the subject, is the land of more than a hundred biryanis – because of the sticky short-grained rice variety ‘jeera samba’ and the chef’s bespoke masala that combines the flavours of coriander (both leaves and seeds) with spices such as the ‘Marathi moggu’ (dried buds of the silk cotton tree) and ‘patthar ke phool’ (also known as ‘kalpasi’ or stone flower).
The biryani is different from other mass-produced varieties because it is guided by the passion and vision of a home chef. As Pawan Soni, the food influencer and founder of the Facebook food group, Gurgaon Food Freak, put it, “Most head chefs don’t cook in their kitchen. Celebrity chefs also train their staff and their team follows their recipes. So why can’t it happen with the food cooked by home chefs?” In other words, a recipe is perfected by a home, who then shares his knowledge and his masalas with chefs who are trained to produce food in industrial quantities without compromising the original flavours.
In the course of a spirited discussion triggered by Soni’s comments, Rekha Rigo, a Gurgaon Food Freak group expert, noted that Karnataka biryanis are made with short-grain ‘jeera samba’, so there is “no fragrance in the rice” unlike the basmati. “All the flavour comes from the masalas used and it is definitely an acquired taste,” she wrote. It is the masala, in fact, that makes the Chicken Naati Biryani stand apart.
Rekha Rigo also pointed out that the rice is cooked in the yakhni along with the meat pieces, so the end result is “quite flavourful and piquant”. She concluded by saying that the rice “is always a little sticky, perhaps because of the starch but well absorbs the broth and remains a little wet to the touch.”
Pratibha Karan opens her book ‘Biryani’ with an effusive statement that echoes the sentiments of millions of Indians. “If there is such a thing as food of the gods, it is undoubtedly the biryani,” Karan writes. “No dish can match it in grandeur, taste, subtlety, and refinement. The magic of biryani lies in the way rice is transformed into something ambrosial – absorbing the rich flavours of meat and spice.”
Home chefs on the roster of We The Chefs (WTC) have been presenting this magnificent array of flavours and delights – from Awadhi Biryani and Calcutta Biryani to Moplah Biryani and Murshidabadi biryani – at curated events and for our customers. The vision of Biryani Talks is to present these bespoke biryanis to the bigger national market so that Indians who love biryani can have a fuller basket to choose from.
If you live in Gurgaon and have a biryani craving, you can order Chef Kalyan’s Old Bangalore Naati Biryani from Biryani Talks through either Zomato or Swiggy.