From The Royal Rasoi: How The Sawantwadi Palace Kitchen Still Echoes With Its Culinary Legacy

In the kitchens of Sawantwadi Palace, the art of royal cooking is still alive. Here, heirloom recipes are not just preserved, they are revered and passed down through handwritten scripts of love and legacy.

Chef Shraddha Lakham Sawant Bhonsle, the daughter-in-law of the Sawantwadi royal family, dons many hats. She, along with her husband, Chef Lakham Bhonsle, creates dishes that tell stories of a beautiful past and are a mix of her father-in-law's teachings as well as her knowledge. As the interview went on, I learned that the Sawantwadi Palace’s royal rasoi is a fabric that has threads from all over the Maratha lineage, weaving together Baroda, Sandur, and Thanjavur legacies with a contemporary vision. 

Here, Shraddha Bhonsle talks about her favourite dishes, her love for blending Western cooking with the revered Maratha heritage and how recipes from different royal lineages made their way into the sacred pages of Sawantwadi’s cookbooks as a result of the women who were married into the family. This transfer of heritage from one culture to another through the sanctum of marriage has stayed with me long after the interview ended. 

In conversation with ELLE Gourmet, she opens the doors to her rasoi and takes us through the dishes that make the Sawantwadi royal cuisine so special and also the recipe of Pasanda Kebab from the Sawantwadi Royal kitchen at the end.

ELLE Gourmet: Have you come across any handwritten or passed-down royal recipe books in your family archives?

Chef Shraddha Bhonsle (SB): Yes. My father-in-law, Rajasaheb Khem Sawant Bhonsle, introduced me to some of his recipes. He has handwritten books and Xeroxed books that have been passed down through generations. He has about 4,000 cookbooks that he's collected over a period, some that have been handed down from his mother and grandmother, some that have come from his paternal grandfather's side.

He’s incredibly passionate about cooking. When I married into the family, he took it upon himself to share that with me. During the pandemic, when we had so much time on our hands, he would pick a recipe, show it to me, and we’d start by doing the mise en place together. He would carefully lay out all the ingredients, especially the khada masalas, in small bowls, and then walk me through the cooking process step by step.

That's where my real learning about Indian cuisine started. I'm a trained chef, primarily in Western cuisine, and while I’ve always been interested in Asian food, my true exposure to Indian Maratha cuisine came from my father-in-law. He became my guide in the kitchen, teaching me the nuances of roasting spices to perfection and grinding them to just the right texture, whether a dish called for whole spices or a coarser blend. He helped me understand how each preparation affects the final taste. One thing I quickly learned: he’s quite secretive about his royal recipes.

ELLE Gourmet: Would you ever consider publishing a cookbook on the royal cuisine of Sawantwadi? What would be the top three dishes?

SB: Yes, but not just the royal recipes. As a young chef, it has always been an aspiration to record the things that are made. I want to document some of the most successful recipes at the hotel for future generations to know more about us.

I am best described through my food. And so, I would want future generations to learn certain things that I did—recipes I learned from my family and some that I created along the way. 

There are a few dishes I’ve grown to love that my father-in-law introduced me to.
One would be the dry mutton curry he makes. It hails from the Sandur royal family. Another dish I like comes from the Thanjavur side of the family; it’s called Sunti Gola.

And one very dear recipe to me is called Tel Komdi. It’s a dish that comes from the Baroda-Gaekwad family. My grandmother-in-law’s brother, Fateh Singh Rao Gaekwad, invented it. It’s chicken cooked entirely in oil; there’s no added water or oil during the process. He invented it because often unannounced guests would visit and stay, and while you didn’t want to serve only vegetarian food, you also didn’t have time to cook something elaborate. Tel Komdi was the solution. It can sit in your refrigerator for 10-15 days because it’s completely cooked in oil, making it almost self-preserving. My father-in-law learned the recipe from his father, who in turn learned it from his wife’s brother.

These three dishes would go into the cookbook, but I’d also like to include others that I learned from my father-in-law—a mix of legacy and modern, seen through the lens of a professional cook.

ELLE Gourmet: Are there any ingredients or preparations that were once exclusive to the royal kitchen of Sawantwadi and are now being used in your hotel today?

SB: The one technique I spoke to you about, Tel Komdi, where the meat is cooked completely in oil, is something we still use today. We even keep it in our stock and inventory at the hotel because sometimes guests want quick fixes. For example, if someone just wants a sandwich, I’ll use the Tel Komdi meat and convert it into a sandwich.

We also serve Sunti Gola and Kesari Maas at the hotel. Sunti Gola is a dish from my mother-in-law's side of the family that hails from the Thanjavur royal family. Back in the day, it was made using wild boar hunted by the family. Of course, those practices have been abolished, and we don’t hunt anymore. Today, we use mutton, which is cooked with whole spices. We then shape the meat into golas, tying them with thread. It’s one of the dishes featured in our mutton thali as well.

The other dish we do is Kesari Maas, a mutton dish that’s cooked and shredded into thin strands to resemble saffron (kesar). These are then fried and spiced with local spices and chana dal, making it a great snack too.

ELLE Gourmet: Which royal dishes continue to be a staple at family gatherings or a part of the Sawantwadi Palace Hotel’s menu?

SB: We still cook most of these dishes at family gatherings. The dry curry mutton comes from the Sandur family, and we eat it at home very often. From Baroda, we have something called the Kaada Masala Bagda, which is crab meat cooked with Baroda Kaada masala. And the Kaada masala is still made by the Rajmata of Baroda. We make a crab preparation with it.

Another dish we make at home is Kacha Masala Cha Mutton, which has come down from the Jat royal family. We have so many recipes that have been passed down through generations and have become very dear to the family.

We still cook recipes from my great-grandmother-in-law, who also came from the Baroda family. One of her signature dishes was Kaada Masala Cha Komdi, which we still make at home sometimes.

When I married into the family, I introduced them to pickles—something I grew up with in my Gujarati home. Any cuisine from a princely state is inevitably a culmination of influences often shaped by the intertwining of marriages and regional traditions.

Lunch at home was usually typical Maratha or Indian food. But dinner was always Western. One standout dish is Golden Storm, which my father-in-law makes exceptionally well. He learned it from his father. Golden Storm is mutton cooked stew-style, with tomato paste, whole spices, and eggs. It's a beautiful, hearty one-pot meal, and it’s delicious.

ELLE Gourmet: If you could go back in time and add one dish to the royal menu, what would it be?

SB: I looked at a lot of the royal menus that were printed and noticed they were very meat-heavy, with not enough focus on fish. I’d like to include more fish dishes that we serve at the palace now. One of them is a fish marinated in Malvani Khada spices, then wrapped in a turmeric leaf and pan-seared. It has such a beautiful, distinct flavour. So, if I had the chance to revisit and reimagine the royal menu, I would include more fish and pickles.

ELLE Gourmet: How are drinks typically paired with royal meals?

SB: During summer, we usually do a lot of mango-based preparations. One staple is our homemade aampanna. We use it as a base to make a refreshing cooler, mixing it with soda, a little lemon juice, and sugar. It’s simple but so effective in the heat.

For the rest of the year, we lean heavily on kokum-based drinks. When kokum comes in during summer, we dehydrate it and make a strong decoction. Even at the hotel, we serve a kokum and curry leaf drink, a blend of kokum syrup, kokum concentrate, and fresh curry leaves, blended with ice. It’s incredibly refreshing, especially considering how hot it is in India for most of the year. Kokum just goes down so well.

These two aampanna and kokum-based drinks are our staples. We also use a lot of coconut, since it’s widely grown in the region. Coconut coolers, pineapple coolers, and seasonal fruit-based drinks often make it to our menus as well. 

Here is the recipe for Pasanda Kebabs from the royal kitchen of Sawantwadi.

The Recipe for Pasanda Kebab (Awadh Style)

As the interview came to an end, I found myself transported to visions of the past, imagining royals penning down their culinary discoveries after a day of experimenting with local ingredients and unique techniques in the kitchen. The royal rasoi of Sawantwadi may be full of culinary secrets, but when you're served Tel Komdi or Kesari Maas, you can be sure you’re tasting legacy in every bite, preserved and served with love.