How chefs celebrate Diwali
Summary
Favourite mithais, visits to age-old sweet shops and heartwarming family recipes complete the festivities for chefsDiwali is one of the busiest times of the years for chefs. While most who celebrate the festival take mandatory holidays to plan festivities with their loved ones, chefs prepare grand dinners, organise catering for house parties and put together a variety of hampers for their guests.
Despite their packed schedule, they find pockets of time to make the most of the festivities with their teams and families. Infact, those in the hospitality industry treat their team like an extended family because working hours are long, and they spend close to 12-14 hours together on a daily basis. During the Diwali week, they carve out half an hour or so for a small puja and distribute sweets among the team—and there is delicious food too.
“We have a team from all corners of India who follow different customs and faith. It becomes a coming together of different rituals and foods. We distribute bonuses too which is double their salaries and makes them very happy," shares chef Divesh Aswani who runs the catering company Commis Station in Mumbai. The team works all day, and in the evening takes a quick break to change into festive clothes for a Lakshmi puja. It is one of the most auspicious times of the year, because they start a new ledger book as per the age-old Hindu tradition of beginning the financial year on Diwali day.
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While Aswani runs an independent business, those who work in hotels and corporates follow a slightly different plan. They have a quick celebration with the team before swiftly heading to their kitchens and restaurants to welcome guests for celebratory meals. The work happens in shifts and teams approach it like clockwork to give enough time to each other for time with their families. For Mumbai-based executive chefs, like Anshul Dhyani of ITC Grand Central and Vikas Singh of The Westin Mumbai Garden City, work ends around 8-9 pm on Diwali night. Despite the late hours, they make the most by doing a puja with their families and digging into their favourite foods. Dhyani hails from Dehradun. In their family, it is a tradition to have puri with a spicy and chatpata black channa preparation for Diwali dinner. His mother cooks pakoda kadi and rice for lunch. It’s a unique cherished family food tradition for a festival that brings the family together.
These family meals are special and differs for every community and home. Chef Jyoti Vishnani, culinary lead - innovation, Compass Group India in Gurugram is Sindhi. For her, Diwali means visiting her home in Mumbai and partaking in every ritual with enthusiasm. One of them is the tradition of preparing a vegetable dish known as saat bhaajyun. The name translates to seven vegetables and it’s a gravy-based dish without onion and garlic, making it sattvic. “There will be ingredients like potatoes, cauliflower, green peas, and more. The significance of this dish is to honour the onset of winter," she explains.
The festival is incomplete without sweets and faraals (snacks). Vishnani’s family visits a few age-old landmark mithai shops to stock up on Diwali goodies. She names three, Ramesh Sweets & Cakes, Shyam Sunder Sweets and Dry Fruits and Naresh’s Namkeen and Chikki, all located in Ulhasnagar in the outskirts of Mumbai. Aswani’s favourite Diwali mithai is the thick kaju katli from one of the oldest mithai shops in Mumbai named Tharu Sweets in Khar.

Singh’s favourite mithai is motichoor laddoo. A perfect one should appear like a cluster of glistening pearls, crumble at the slightest touch and their grainy texture melts in the mouth, he points out. He starts stocking up motichoor laddoos a few days before Diwali and checking out places for the best ones. If his search yields no results, the halwai (mithai maker) in his hotel whips up his favourite sweet. In ways such as these, chefs create opportunities to savour the festivities.
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