Latest news with #ITCMaurya
Time of India
24-07-2025
- Climate
- Time of India
A season of comfort: Monsoon menus get a conscious makeover
'It's a time when people often find joy in the culinary rituals' A rainy day calls for chai, pakoras, and indulgences that are warm and comforting. While pakoras and masala chai remain timeless, foodies are now also moving towards health-conscious comfort foods and healthier adaptations. Though nothing can beat a hot samosa chaat with masala chai on a rainy day, ramen bowls, Thai curries, dim sums, fusion dishes like miso khichdi, kimchi, and homemade pickles have found their way into monsoon menus. 'The monsoon season invites a kind of slow, sensory indulgence that's both nostalgic and comforting' Monsoon calls for indulgences that are warm, comforting, and full of flavor, says Chef Ravi Kant, Executive Chef from The LaLiT, New Delhi. 'We celebrate the season with our 'Hi-Chai' experience - a nostalgic yet luxe tea-time spread featuring crispy pakoras, soulful sandwiches, and aromatic teas - the perfect monsoon pairing. For something unique and indulgent, our signature ramen bowls at OKO are a must-try, offering a wholesome, umami-packed experience that feels like a warm hug on a rainy day,' shares the chef. 'It's a time when people often find joy in the culinary rituals - savoring hot chai with pakoras by a rainy window, roasting corn over an open flame, or devouring pungent and tart chaats,' adds Shivneet Pohoja, Executive Chef, ITC Maurya. 'Warm, spiced broths like rasam or light soups are not just meals but a way to feel grounded and cozy during the damp, overcast days,' shares Shivneet. At hotels, experiences are also curated to celebrate the season with culinary delights. 'From piping hot masala chai with assorted pakoras to seasonal treats like bhutta, spicy chaats, and even indulgent regional dishes like Maharashtrian misal pav or Bengali khichuri with begun bhaja, guests often enjoy these with a view of the rain-soaked gardens or from our cozy lounge overlooking the city,' points out Chef Rakesh Sethi, Corporate Executive Chef, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group. 'There's been a marked evolution in preferences - from indulgent, fried comfort food to more mindful, balanced meals' Chefs share that they have seen a shift towards health-conscious comfort foods during monsoon. 'Today's diners are more discerning and informed than ever before. There's been a marked evolution in preferences - from indulgent, fried comfort food to more mindful, balanced meals. Diners now gravitate towards cuisines that offer both bold flavour profiles and health-forward ingredients. This has made Southeast Asian cuisine increasingly popular, thanks to its use of fresh herbs, lean proteins, minimal oil, and naturally gluten-free elements like rice noodles and broths. The modern palate is adventurous, seeking authenticity with a contemporary twist,' explains Chef Shekhar Kiroula, Executive Sous Chef, Le Meridien, New Delhi. While the essence of monsoon cravings remains the same - warm, spicy, and soothing - there's been a noticeable shift toward more mindful indulgences, points out Chef Rakesh Sethi. 'Guests today look for cleaner ingredients, regional twists, and sometimes even vegan or gluten-free options. For example, instead of deep-fried fritters, we now also offer air-fried jackfruit bites or millet tikkis with mint chutney. The focus has evolved from just comfort to comfort with consciousness,' he adds. "Air-fried versions of traditional snacks, fusion dishes like miso khichdi or ramen with Indian spices, and a rising preference for seasonal, gut-friendly preparations like kombucha, kimchi, and homemade pickles have found their way into monsoon menus," says Shivneet Pohoja, Executive Chef, ITC Maurya. Need a comforting monsoon recipe? For a quick and comforting monsoon recipe, a Thai-style stir-fry makes for a brilliant choice Simply heat sesame oil in a wok, add chopped garlic, red chili, and Thai basil, and toss in your preferred protein or vegetables Season with light soy sauce and a splash of tamarind or lime juice for that signature tang Serve it hot over jasmine rice or rice noodles. It's hearty, vibrant, and ready in under 15 minutes - a perfect balance of speed, flavour, and soul. - Chef Shekhar Kiroula Add seasonal immunity-boosting ingredients like ginger, turmeric & garlic in your recipes Seasonal immunity-boosting ingredients like ginger, turmeric, garlic, and citrus are essential during monsoon. They pair beautifully with broths. 'We incorporate fresh Asian greens, mushrooms, and spices to create comforting bowls like ramen, making it a must-try indulgence for this season,' shares Chef Ravi Kant. Monsoon calls for ingredients that are warming yet easy on the digestive system. 'Ginger and turmeric, with their anti-inflammatory properties, are ideal for daily use, whether in teas, dals, or soups. Garlic, cumin, and black pepper not only add flavor but also aid digestion and help the body cope with increased humidity. Tulsi is a wonderful, soothing herb especially when brewed into tea. Millets or moong dal provide comfort in the form of warm, easy-to-digest meals like porridges,' advises Shivneet Pohoja, Executive Chef. "Seasonal fruits like jamun, papaya, and lychee are excellent, and herbs like ajwain and jeera can be added to warm teas or infused water to aid digestion," shares Chef Rakesh Sethi. Avni Tripathi, CMO, Aahana Resort, says, "Monsoon at Aahana is a celebration of harvest. It's the season of mangoes from nearby farms, water apples picked fresh from our trees, and garden herbs like mint and chillies that thrive in the rain. We grow a variety of vegetables during this time - bitter gourd, beetroot, okra, amaranth, and tomatoes. Our kitchen leans into these flavours to craft deeply comforting dishes. Think bhindi do pyaza made with just-harvested okra, beetroot burgers with mint chutney, or a warm bowl of kaddu sabzi served with amaranth rotis. These seasonal touches add a quiet richness to every meal, reminding guests that nature sets the menu. Our kitchen shifts with the season, focusing on ingredients that naturally support digestion and immunity. Staples like Jakhiya (cleome seeds), Madua (finger millet), Bhatt ki dal (black soybean), Buransh (rhododendron), Pahadi Lahsun (mountain garlic), and Jhangora (barnyard millet) are thoughtfully used across dishes."
Time of India
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Band, bajaa, record: Artist Krishen Khanna marks a century on canvas
Krishen Khanna For a glimpse of the work of one of India's most eminent painters, you don't have to visit a gallery or museum - a hotel will do. At Delhi's ITC Maurya, which has an art collection that would be the envy of any aficionado, the showstopper is a glowing mural by Krishen Khanna in the lobby. Titled 'The Great Procession', the mural is in the elite environs of one of the city's plushest hotels, but it captures the pulse of India's street life: women doing gupshup, a pickpocket at work, a man dozing under a tree, and a roadside dhaba where you can spot writer Khushwant Singh. It's only fitting that this very hotel will host Khanna's 100th birthday celebration on July 5. Later in Nov, the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai is holding a retrospective of his work. Krishen Khanna's 'The Great Procession' The last surviving member of the iconic Progressive artists group, which included artists such as M F Husain, F N Souza, S H Raza and Tyeb Mehta, is still sketching and drawing at 100. 'He can't stand for too long, but he doesn't stop working,' says his son, photographer Karan Khanna. With his pucca English baritone and even more pucca Punjabi sensibility, the handsome Krishen Khanna has always stood apart. His arresting tableaux of ordinary Indians and New Testament scenes may not have seduced the auctioneer's hammer in quite the same way as the other Progressives, but their prices have been on a steady march like the bandwallas he so loves to paint. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You to Read In 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo His personal auction record was set last year at an AstaGuru sale, where one of his bandwalla paintings fetched over Rs 9 crore. 'Except Husain, most of the other Progressives didn't see much financial success in their lifetimes, so it's good to see Khanna getting his due,' says Dinesh Vazirani, co-founder of auction house Saffronart. Not that Khanna, who quit a plum banking job to become a painter, ever begrudged the success of his fellow Progressives who were also his closest friends. 'Auction prices are not really the measure of the artistic worth of a work. In fact, some of my pieces have gone for more than they deserve,' a candid Khanna told me some years ago during an interview at his Gurugram bungalow, whose walls were lined with works by his contemporaries. His first sale - bought by the eminent nuclear scientist Homi Bhabha for the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research more than six decades ago - went for the then eye-watering sum of Rs 200. 'Husain sold it for me and the long telegram he sent telling me about it probably cost more than what the painting fetched,' he laughed. Khanna, too, owns a Husain canvas that he bought for a mere Rs 60. 'He gifted it to me because he borrowed a book from me and lost it. '' It was Husain who brought Khanna into the Bombay Progressive Art Group, the influential artists' collective that pioneered Independent India's modernist movement in the forties, taking visual art in a new direction and helping local artists discover their own painterly idiom. Khanna's tryst with the limelight occurred in 1949 when painter and professor S B Palsikar took a small canvas of his which depicted crowds poring over the newspaper after Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, and put it up in a Bombay Art Society show alongside works by V S Gaitonde, Souza and Raza. 'I thought my canvas might be rejected,' recalled Khanna, 'but there it hung, right in the middle.' From friends like Tyeb came much-needed words of encouragement. 'Chaar linein lag jaayen par hon aisi (Let it be just four lines, but let the lines be like these),'' said Mehta, perceptively commenting on the bold lines that are a hallmark of Khanna's style. A raconteur who peppers his conversation with anecdotes, Khanna is just as skilled at storytelling with his brush. He ploughs a few thematic furrows but uncovers fresh ground each time. And whether it is powerful depictions of biblical scenes, urchins devouring slices of watermelon or the portraits of truck drivers, the essence of India vibrates in every hue and stroke. 'The mundane fascinates him, and he always draws from his surroundings,' says Karan. 'For instance, his paintings of migrant workers were inspired by what he saw when we lived in Jangpura - trucks packed with labourers, their bodies slathered with red brick and white cement dust. Even his Christ was based on the fakirs he spotted around Hazrat Nizamuddin.' His aim was never just to depict the common man, but to do so with empathy. In one painting from 2002 titled 'Problems of Bandwallas', he captures the quiet fatigue of musicians playing the same tune at one wedding after another. And his Draupadi, as Kishore Singh of DAG observed in a curatorial note, is painted from a female perspective for, it focuses not on her disrobing but her public humiliation. His Pieta - very different from Michelangelo's classic marble statue of Mary cradling the broken body of her son - has a Punjabi woman so devastated by loss that she is yelling her head off and slapping her head with her hand. 'Christ carrying the Cross' is a work full of tension, starkly reminiscent of a skeletal rickshaw-puller straining up a slope. 'Last Bite' is his cheeky version of The Last Supper (of which he has painted many versions since age seven when his father first brought home a print of Leonardo Da Vinci's famous work). It portrays Husain as the figure of Christ with the Progressive artists grouped around him in a dhaba. So where does the fascination with Christian themes spring from? 'Some things just insist on being painted, like the Pieta,' Khanna told me. 'I have painted Arjun on the battlefield and Draupadi too. I don't consciously decide I am going to do a series, but certain subjects haunt me.'' If the Bible and Mahabharata are central to his work, so are memories of Partition. His family moved from Lahore to Shimla when he was in his twenties - a relocation that left a lasting imprint. In a painting titled 'Refugee', he returns to the trauma of those years. 'I draw my impression of those days in the same way that others write about them,' he said. 'An artist can't change things, much as he might want to but his work can stand as a witness. ' Set to mark his centenary, the self-taught artist has no regrets about quitting a 13-year career in banking to pursue what he calls a 'compulsive itch', an itch that has given Indian art some of its most evocative images of everyday life.
India Gazette
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- India Gazette
ITC Maurya: A home to iconic work of legendary artist Krishen Khanna
New Delhi [India], July 4 (ANI): Besides warm hospitality, ITC Hotels are known for their fascinating architecture. Artwork is quite integral to them. Under the aegis of WelcomArt- ITC Hotels' pan-India Responsible Luxury initiative, artwork has been showcased in various forms throughout the country. ITC Hotels has been one of the first hotel brands to identify the significance of promoting Indian art across various hotel touchpoints. Rooted in the ethos of the region, each ITC Hotel has a distinct identity, bringing alive facets of the destination through architecture, design, weaves, artefacts and art. If we speak about ITC Maurya, it is a tribute to the great Mauryan Dynasty (circa 322 to 185 BC) which gave Indian history the Golden Age of art and architecture. The theme and architectural features of the hotel dictated the choice and subjects that formed the nucleus of the major artworks at the hotel. Inspired by the universal teachings of Gautama Buddha, Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, renounced war and spread the message of peace throughout his kingdom. The ITC Maurya in New Delhi resonates with Mauryan history and art. If you stop by the lobby, you will definitely leave in awe after witnessing the huge dome, which displays 'The Great Procession', a mural by Krishen Khanna. This mural, one of ITC Maurya's first artworks, took more than four years to complete in 1979 and it is perhaps one of India's biggest artworks at any hotel. The painting is done onto the curved surface of the lobby dome with spectacular visual angles, bringing together a fusion of Mauryan past and present, still fresh and rich in cultural context. As legendary artist Krishen Khanna celebrates his centennial birthday on July 5, 2025, the ITC Maurya in New Delhi pays tribute to his legacy by highlighting one of his most iconic creations--'The Great Procession.' Amaan Kidwai, Area Manager Luxury Hotels (North) & General Manager ITC Maurya, said, 'Krishen Khanna was instrumental in engaging several distinguished artists to contribute to the Mauryan-inspired theme of ITC Maurya. We are truly honoured and delighted to celebrate Mr. Khanna's 100th birthday with him at ITC Maurya, beneath this timeless piece of art created by him nearly 5 decades ago.' He added, 'As a flagship property, ITC Maurya showcases one of the world's most beautiful collections of contemporary masterpieces of Indian art by globally renowned Indian artists.' (ANI)
Time of India
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Krishen Khanna at 100 is a testimony to time
Critic and Curator Uma Nair has been writing for the past 35 years on art and culture She has written as critic for Times of India and Economic Times. She believes that art is a progressive sojourn. She learnt by looking at the best shows in Washington D.C. and New York. As author her most important books are Reverie with Raza and Meditations on Trees by Ompal Sansanwal. LESS ... MORE Krishen Khanna who turns 100 years on 5th July 2025, has over 70 years , engaged the social, historical and political landscape of exhibition that unveils in the city of Delhi on Saturday at ITC Maurya consists of works done between 2023 to 2025. Humans as subjects Humans have been his leitmotif. His most candid and eloquent work, Refugees Train Late 16 hours, (1947) exhibited at Saffronart , is a lasting frame of India's partition. His compositional clarity of the railway platform blends into a poignant intense sadness and pathos. Inspired by Life Known for his many series, his son Karan Khanna considers the Christ, Rumi, Music and the Bandwallahs to be his finest. Reminiscing over his poignant bandwallah series, at the Kumar Gallery in 2001, Krishen said , he was moved by Chaplinesque situations which involve dual emotions. The bandwallahs for him have been a relic of the past now reduced to an anonymous appropriation. His historic Bandwallah exhibition at Grosvenor Gallery London ( 2015) , put the spotlight on individuals who contributed to society in humble ways. His use of colour and brushwork made the mundane rise to the synergy of the creative. More recently his Bandwallah sculptures have been created as monumental entities. Residue of time The residue of time remains submerged in Khanna's art and the pathos of the haunting past, pulses in his famed Music series was born in Madras when he was posted at the Grindlays bank and he listened to Carnatic concerts .Krishen the music lover told me last year he would go for western music concerts with F.N. Souza , on his travels to London. For him art is a discipline that invites chance. Between paintings and drawings, it is his passionate precision that resonates. His Mahabharata , Rumi, Truckwallahs and Music series all become pages of the past brought forward. Benediction on the Battlefield, derived from the epic Mahabharata spelt magic in 2016, one of his most epic exhibitions was held at Vadehra Art Gallery in Delhi. Voracious reader, Biblical series At the same show was his Pieta. Krishen revels in the power of the narrative .The Pieta for him was not born of realism but born of the human emotive quotient has always been the most important part of the recording of many of his series born of Biblical narratives. Krishen's most epic work is the mural The Great Procession at ITC Maurya in was created with the help of students from the Jamia Millia Islamia University. The Great Procession' a hand-painted marvel, was created in the 1980s, and it took nearly four years to complete and was designed in the form of a Buddhist rock-cut cave with multiple perspectives. Krishen's mural is a fusion of the Mauryan past with the period of the 1980s – its freshness and richness of Indian cultural roots, stands testimony to his aesthetic and his appetite for creating a work of depth and originality. It also has famous people from Delhi one of them being the author Khuhswant Singh. One of his closest friends, the artist Jagdish Swaminathan penned the pulse of Krishen Khanna best : ' From the series on the truck — the ramshackle juggernaut hurtling into space piled up with construction materials and brutalised labour, to the generals and politicians negotiating peace around the table with the skeleton of humanity lying under it, to Jesus and his betrayal, to the cacophonic irrelevance of the marching band, Krishen has been preoccupied in his work with the state and fate of man in our times.' In his larger quest, politics and identity remain fluid. His paintings constitute a powerful psychological engagement, a document of the passage of time in modern India. Biblical themes have been a part of his repertoire because he loved reading the Bible. His Last Supper, Garden at Gethsemane, Betrayal, Christ's Descent from the Cross, Pieta, Emmaus and The Raising of Lazarus are all his love for a universal idiom of peace. Krishen the wordsmith , has written many essays on his friends. Tyeb Mehta's first catalog essay was written by him. Krishen has also written about his friend Jagdish Swaminathan for the Lalit Kala Akadami journal. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Hindustan Times
25-06-2025
- Hindustan Times
Bored of plain old boiled eggs? These Korean Mayak 'drug' eggs will revamp your protein game in a delicious way!
ITC Maurya offers a luxurious dining experience with diverse restaurants like Avartana, Fabelle, Bukhara, and Ottimo. Focusing on seasonal ingredients, heritage flavors, and innovative culinary techniques, the hotel provides gourmet options ranging from South Indian-inspired menus to international cuisines.
