Simple curd rice, specialty of 50 year old Sangam Hotels chain

What? Simple curd rice has been one of the hotel chain’s specialties for the past five decades!!!?

Yes!

Not only curd rice, which is a staple in most of Tamil  Nadu’s homes but also about 40 other dishes dished out for the last 50 years, said R. Arockiasamy, the 48-year-old Executive Sous Chef at the Sangam Hotels in Thanjavur.

Curd rice is a common comfort food in Tamil Nadu. And if a 50-year hotel chain claims that as one of its several specialities then there has to be something special with that chain.

 “Many would describe curd rice as a well-cooked or mushy rice mixed with curd. Some temper it with mustard seeds, curry leaves. But for us, making the curd rice is an elaborate process that involves adding milk, and butter and using ghee for tempering,” Arockiasamy.

 “Similarly our Bisi Bela Bath will be different from others. While others will have some vegetables, we will offer our flavourful dish with drumstick extracts as one of the ingredients,” Arockiasamy added.

The Sangam Hotels, Thanjavur is part of the Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) based Rs.150 crore turnover Sangu Chakra Hotels Private Ltd.

The company set up the first of the Sangam Hotels in Trichy, mainly catering to foreign tourists with 28 rooms.

“The hotel was catering to the foreign tourists who were visiting the Big Temple in Thanjavur and other places. We served good continental items,” V. Vasudevan, Managing Director said.

Initially, the property faced problems as the foreign tourists were there only for six months and the remaining six months were a very lean period.

But in the mid 1980s the trend changed with domestic tourism picking up and the local population too started frequenting the restaurant. With an increase in guests, the property was expanded in phases to touch 95 rooms in 2008.

The group’s first major expansion came in 1995 with Sangam Hotels, in Thanjavur when the World Tamil Conference was held there. In 2002, the group entered Madurai city by taking over an ITDC property. Later in 2008, the group restored a palatial Chettinad house-Chidambara Vilas in Kadiyapatti village in the Karaikkudi region.

The Trichy and Madurai hotels now operate under the Courtyard by Marriott brand.

Meanwhile, Sangu Chakra Hotels is now celebrating its Golden Jubilee at Courtyard By Marriott Tiruchirappalli

Apart from several events as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations, the hotel will also serve many of the Sangam Hotels’ popular dishes.

“Sangam Hotel, Trichy had developed several signature dishes. Some of them have been included in the menu card of the property after its relaunch under Marriott management,” C.Murali Krishnan, Executive Director, Sangu Chakra Hotels said.

“Umm.. this is flavourful. Though I prefer plain curd rice, this is well made and I will go for a second round,” a guest when asked her feedback about the curd rice said.

According to Krishnan, between 4-26 of January 2025, the Trichy Hotel will offer most of the signature dishes offered by the erstwhile Sangam Hotel.

This will be an opportunity for the old and new timers of Trichy to taste some of the popular dishes of earlier decades and go down memory lane.

“Apart from our signature rice dishes like curd rice and others, we will be offering Dosa Cassata – like the cassata ice cream, the dosa will have three different coloured layers- as part of the 50 years of Sangam Hotel celebrations,” Krishnan said.

According to Arockiasamy, the signature dishes have been documented and it is not dependent on any particular chef as chefs may come and chefs may go, but the kitchen goes on forever.

He said there are signature starters, main course, and desserts and they will be offered as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations.

Arockiasamy also said guests will also be given the recipe of our signature dishes as part of the celebrations.

Speaking about the trend, Arockiasamy said the food habits of the people have changed and nowadays South Indians prefer more North Indian dishes.

People have also become health conscious and properties also offer healthy food as part of the buffet offering. And those counters also get crowded, Arockiasamy said.

Continuing further he said guests are now going to extra lengths to show that they are very health conscious. Some of the guest instructions will make us in the kitchen laugh.

“For instance the instruction `poori with less oil’ made us laugh in the kitchen,” Arockiasamy remarked.

After working in Saudi Arabia, Arockiasamy came back to India to be with his family.

“Money is not everything. A successful man balances both professional and family lives. Many in this industry have been successful professionally but a failure in their personal life. I don’t want to be one of them,” Arockiasamy said.

He said gone are the days when a chef has to focus on whipping out great dishes and not look at business.

“Today a chef should have acute business sense. He should look at food cost, storage, raw material quality which would result in good yield, preparation, portion control, pilferage, and others to keep the food cost at the optimum level,” Arockiasamy said.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at venkatacharijagannathan@gmail.com)