Madras Music Mela 2001 - Features - Canteens dominated by a family

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MADRAS MUSIC MELA 2001 - FEATURES

Canteens dominated by a family

The canteen scene for the December music festival in Chennai is dominated by members of a family. Gnanambika ‘Jayaraman’ and ‘Arusuvai’ Natarajan held sway until last year. This year, their brother, N Kannan, too, has entered the fray, at the Mylapore Fine Arts festival, providing tasty, traditional dishes of the Tanjavur style.

They could be called ‘Apoorva Sahodarargal’, the trio of brothers who dominate the canteen scene of the Chennai December music festival. While ‘Arusuvai’ Natarajan and ‘Gnanambika’ Jayaraman at the Parthasarathy Swami Sabha and Narada Gana Sabha canteens are well-known, a third member of the family, N Kannan, has entered the fray this year. The Mylapore Fine Arts Club has grabbed a fine caterer who has impressed rasikas and artistes with the choicest of dishes and service. The new entrant, Kannan, the last son of late V Narayanaswami Iyer, has been running a catering service like his brothers, Natarajan and Jayaraman, in West Mambalam, Chennai, for the last 20 years under the banner of ‘Meenambika Caterers’.

However, this is his first venture for a Sabha canteen during the music season. “Jayaraman has been doing it for the Narada Gana Sabha for nearly 13 years now while Natarajan was at the Music Academy for four years. It is not that we at Meenambika did not want to run a canteen for a music Sabha. We tried several times but failed to get a contract. This year, the Mylapore Fine Arts Club was kind enough to give us an opportunity.” “From now on, we will be a regular fixture for the music season,” asserts Kannan.

	It is not as if the brothers have formed a cartel and are grabbing all the contracts for the family. In fact, it is apparent that not too much love is lost among the family members. “We are not in regular touch with Natarajan and other members of the family. Each one has got his own business to look after. I had the good fortune of my father, a great cook, staying with me until the end. He has passed on so many finer aspects of cooking that I am the luckiest of his sons,” says 60-year-old Kannan.

Narayanaswami Iyer hailed from Vikrapandiyam, in the Nannilam area of the erstwhile Tanjavur district (now in Tiruvarur district). “My father had a great style of cooking and it was terrific to even watch his work. Preparations like sambar and rasam were an art for him. In a semi-solid state, the hot ulutham paruppu, when boiled, would be tossed from one vessel to another in the nick of time before it could turn black. That was a sight to behold,” recalls Kannan, adding that the aroma would fill the air.

Kannan, on his part, serves excellent meals on the traditional banana leaf with typical side-dishes. His specialities are the tasty Mysore rasam, milagu kuzhambu (pepper sambar), pepper- tomato rasam, jeeraga rasam, and varieties of kudikkira rasam (which you can drink like soup - for instance, lime juice rasam or tomato ginger rasam).

Of his sweets, the traditional Tiruvaiyaru Ashoka Halwa stands out.


He says his other specials are Chidambaram samba rice (a bit like fried rice) with brinjal pulikothsu as side-dish, and vellai appam in Chettinad style. The lunch costs Rs 25 (the cheapest among the major canteens) and the excellent filter coffee and sweets, Rs 5 each. Savouries are priced at Rs 10, barring adai, which costs Rs 15. The vazhappu vadai and the sardar vadai are already the season’s favourite eats at the MFAC festival.

	“Feedback from customers is very good. The rasikas say they think this is the best of the canteens. It is important for us to make a mark here as word could spread about our quality,” say his sons Bhaskaran and Sriram. They are also assisted by Kannan’s son-in-law. “We serve on the traditional banana leaf placed on plates. That way, requirements of both taste and hygiene are met. Meals are served on the banana leaf. There is no equal to the vaazhai ilai (leaf),” says Kannan. The number of meals served was just 20 to begin with. But the number has grown to 200 a day.

However, Kannan believes that there is no scope for a permanent restaurant in Chennai for his catering unit. Some members of his family did make attempts but they were not successful. “First, it is difficult for us to concentrate on a single hotel when our main business is marriage contracts. We provide food for at least 60 marriage functions in a year. Secondly, our margins are better for marriage functions where we are adept at economy and quality service. Quality is something that we cannot ensure in a hotel over 20 hours a day, year-round.” The Meenambika canteen at the MFAC is by and large restricted to the rasikas of the club. “More than 99 per cent of the customers are the rasikas who come here to listen to music. The MFAC is also strict about it. Unlike in other Sabhas, they don’t want too many visitors coming in just for the canteen. We adhere to it as we are able to look after them and maintain the quality,” adds Kannan. Kannan’s canteen is a welcome addition to the Chennai December scene and could well be part of the regular music festival atmosphere. - R Rangaraj


Posted on December 31, 2001

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