It was August 21, 2021. The world was still recovering from the Covid pandemic and restaurants had barely started doing regular business. So, you can imagine how surprised the staff of Asha's, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Birmingham (one of six owned by Asha Bhosle, the singing legend and passionate cook), must have been when Tom Cruise, dressed in a Henley-style round-necked, full-sleeved tee, jeans and bombardier jacket, casually walked in with his entourage, bodyguards and all, which included Mission: Impossible writer and director, Christopher McQuarrie.
Cruise was in Birmingham shooting for Dead Reckoning: Part One, the seventh installment of the multi-billion-dollar Mission: Impossible franchise, and he left the Asha's staff gobsmacked when he asked for a second Chicken Tikka Masala (CTM) after finishing the first – and he wanted the spice quotient to be amped up for this one.
“The greatest compliment,” said the chuffed restaurant in an Instagram post. The CTM was not all that Cruise loved at Asha's. He also had – and relished – the Palak Paneer, but at the Birmingham restaurant he will always be remembered as “two tikka Tom”.
No one was happier at the superstar's surprise appearance than the restaurant's owner, the singer with the jaunty voice that still gets the nation grooving and the equally accomplished cook. She took to Instagram at once and said: “I was very happy to hear that Mr Tom Cruise enjoyed his fine dining experience at Asha's (Birmingham) and I look forward to him visiting us again soon!” Cruise, meanwhile, got himself photographed outside the restaurant, its senior staff at a distance behind him out of respect for Covid social distancing norms. And that picture went viral.
A Childhood Relish
It also reminded the world about Asha Bhosle's love for cooking and eating good food, a talent she developed during her childhood spent travelling with her father Dinanath Mangeshkar's peripatetic theatre company. Her constant craving to know more about the food she ate at different places stayed with her throughout her life, getting a boost when she had to plan the meals of her son Anand, who went on to launch Asha's. It may be the reason why Asha's menu has such a pan-Indian footprint.
The restaurant, though, may not have happened, according to Farzana Contractor, founder and editor of Upper Crust, had the Emirati entrepreneur and royal, Sheikh Manna-bin-Halifa al Makhtoum, not read a Gulf News interview in which the singer who'll forever be remembered for ‘Dum Maro Dum' and ‘Mehbooba Oh Mehbooba' talked about her love for food and her dream of opening an Indian eatery. That was in 1998-99 when Asha Bhosle was visiting Dubai for concerts.
Sheikh Manna-bin-Halifa's management team contacted the singer and they got talking about the prospect of opening restaurant after her name in Dubai. Asha Bhosle could have just lent her name and go on to count her share of the earnings, but, as Contractor points out, she insisted on personally training the restaurant's opening chefs, Sachin Tilak and Salim Qureshi.
Momos, Biryani, And Everything Else
The durability of the Dubai restaurant, which opened in 2002 with Anand helming it, and the fact that it has spread its wings to other locations internationally, only goes to show the drawing power of Asha Bhosle's eclectic table, where you could have been served everything – from momos, which Mala Sinha (whose family had Nepali origins) taught the singer to make, to Raj Kapoor's favourite Peshawari biryani, to a delicious boneless chicken cooked with ginger, garlic and almonds in a coconut gravy, which she picked up from the lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri's wife (who, incidentally, had a formidable repertoire of Awadhi delicacies).
People talk about Asha Bhosle and RD Burman's partnership being one of the most enduring in Hindi cinema – and Burman, being an epicure whose favourite was the Goan prawn curry, made demands not only on his wife's exceptional singing talent, but also on her cooking skills.
Looking back at her days with him in her conversation with Contractor, Bhosle recalled how Burman, popularly known as Pancham Da, loved to entertain. “Burman saab would call and say he is bringing some people over for dinner. And 40 would arrive!” Bhosle remembered. And the guest list now reads like the who's who of Bollywood, with names like Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar, “who used to be crazy about my Kali Dal and Goan Fish Curry”, Dev Anand, Yash Chopra, “the entire Kapoor khandaan who love paya”, Jeetendra, Zeenat Aman, Rajesh Khanna and Dilip Kumar.
“Every week, twice a week, Burman saab would request me to cook for them. He used to be so proud of my cooking,” Bhosle told Contractor. “I think the greatest compliment I ever received came from Randhir Kapoor. He said, ‘Ashaji, aap gana chhod do aur khana banao (leave singing and keep cooking)'.”
Fortunately for her millions of fans, Asha Bhosle did not quit singing, but she kept cooking - and like her evergreen numbers, her culinary legacy will live beyond her in the celebrated restaurants that carry her name ever so proudly.
(Sourish Bhattacharyya is a noted New Delhi-based food columnist, author and blogger, and a print journalist with more than three decades of experience.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
