Vizo Putsure |
He started
experimenting with this art ever since he was a small kid, drawing inspiration
from his mother. He also watched a lot of television to enhance his own passion
for cooking. Actually, the love for food, ‘Good Food’ to be precise, seemingly
runs in the family as he grew up in an environment that recognizes ‘quality’ as
an essential ingredient of food.
Yet, for the
fact that mothers naturally come to mind at the mention of our kitchens, he
still feels that men are the greater cooks in all our bigger events like
weddings for instance. But, of course, agreeing to how the society tends to
automatically relate women to kitchen, he reflectively says that “our mothers
have taken care of the kids too well”, towards which end, he also recalls
moving out to the cities for further studies, and learning that it’s not been
an easy job to manage a kitchen all by oneself. ‘It’s only through hard work we
can understand’, he expresses.
Interestingly,
his mom is from Sikkim, which has naturally given him the opportunity to
explore another unique culture other than the Naga Tradition that he is already
so familiar with.
By all standards
he is an Entrepreneur, and a Graduate of Christ College, Bangalore, after
which, he has been into Business in Network Marketing for the last 3 years. But
food, clearly is his favourite subject as he shares his future plans and dreams
which include deep interest in the mixed culture that is found in the North
Eastern States.
Before looking
farther beyond, he emphasizes on “sharing culture” within the North East. For
him, the emphasis is on food, which, he feels can be shared within the sister
states as part of an exchange of culture blending Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim
etc.
It is with this
vision in mind that he had developed the concept of running a restaurant during
the weeklong Hornbill Festival at Kisama, which he had already tried last year
and found it compelling. This year, he is back with a team of eight Private
Cooks from Kalimpong, who, he came in contact with when his maternal Great
Grandmother expired at the age of 105 a few years back as was the family
tradition for chefs to come and cook during such a time.
These Veteran
Cooks have been in the profession for decades and have interestingly, cooked
for Dalai Lama on several occasions. The same team has seemingly enjoyed the
rich heritage of Nagaland during their brief visits to the state consistently
for the last 10-15 years and also noticed that Naga People are becoming more
conscious about food and taste, towards which end, they also wish to
proactively work with the youth in this regard.
While talking
about the team of cooks for his restaurant tenderly named “Vileme Mhachaki”
meaning “Hot and Warm Kitchen”~ A Family Restaurant, and placed near Bamboo
Hall, that stands left from or below SBI ATM at Kisama at the ongoing Hornbill
Festival, he further enlightens on the menu that caters to a range of food
including Special Noodles, Thukpa, Chinese Sausages, Mandarin Fish, Chinese
Pork Soup, Black Pork Curry, Cashew Chicken, Momos, Shafali, Crispy Chew, Matar
Paneer, Pillay, Chicken Roast, Shapta, Fish Bowl Soup, Phing Mushroom Soup, and
of course, local Naga delights of Pork with bambooshoot, fish cooked in bamboo
etc. The special ingredients have been procured from outside such as noodles
made and brought from Kalinpong, Sauce, Tomato, & Chilly from Calcutta,
including some flavours from the USA.
Also serving as
a part time employment avenue for local youths, besides the Cook Team of eight
from Sikkim, the rest are local people, finding good opportunity to learn the
skills as well as earn something out of it.
Over the years,
Vizo Putsure has been part of the Trade Fairs held in Calcutta, Delhi, and Agri
Expo in Dimapur. His ongoing venture blending Naga with Sikkim Cuisine, Tibetan
and Chinese as an exchange of good things also caters to some of the
significant events at Kisama such as the Hornbill Ball, World War II Vintage
Rally, etc.
His personal
favourites are Chinese Pork Sausages, Fish Bowl Soup, and Shafala. When it
comes to Naga, nothing seems to beat dried pork with axone. A little note on
the Chinese Food, and he simply stated that “Chinese Food is popular all over
the world, and I think it’s because it’s got all the ingredients…you can get
everything in one plate, and it’s reasonable.”
While on the
other side of it, he likes music, traveling, reading and is a bit conscious
about dressing up well, which definitely explains why, next to his passion for
cooking comes clothes.
It is his plan
and dream to bring in more variety of dishes to the Naga taste while not
deviating from the quality of food, on how it should be made, the elements of
minute ingredients, and small things for better quality food. “Taste is
changing and people are becoming more demanding” is what the Network Social
Entrepreneur has to say.
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