Vizo Putsure- The Food Enthusiast

Vizo Putsure

He has always been a foodie for as long as he can remember. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why his gender has never overshadowed the importance of food preparation, even as Vizo Putsure strongly advocates that ‘cooking is something we all need to know.’

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.