Everyone has heard of the dosa, the famed south Indian rice-lentil pancake. But, at Radisson Blu, one of Ranchi’s most upscale hospitality addresses, the executive chef sometimes adds a tribal twist to the dosa for celebrities such as cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar.

To give tribal cuisine its place in the sun, Radisson Blu on Tuesday started an eight-day Jharkhand Food Festival with a full indigenous spread of dhuska, rugra, dubki, bathua bari, khassi and batak maas, mitha khaja, peetha and more on offer at the dinner buffet. For an adult, the buffet has been priced at Rs 1,099 and for a child aged 12 or below, Rs 550, taxes extra. Bestsellers will be included as regulars on the menu once the food festival is over, the hotel has promised.

Padma Shri winner Simon Oraon, known as Jharkhand’s waterman for his remarkable work on water conservation, inaugurated the tribal food festival on Tuesday in the presence of the hotel’s managing director Dilip Gupta and other guests.

Executive chef Ramchandra Oraon, who is a tribal and feels Adivasi cuisine is remarkable for combining health and taste together, said such food fests were the need of the hour. “People from all over must know tribal food is nutritious, light on oil and heavy spices, mostly steamed, roasted or shallow-fried, relies on seasonal ingredients, and in fact exactly what dieticians all over the world recommend. Food fests can help popularise tribal cuisine,” he told this paper.

He recalled an interesting anecdote. “I remember when we were hosting Team India for one of the one-dayers last year, the team dietician asked if we could serve bajra or jowar roti to the cricketers. I said, let’s try the tribal marua roti (ragi flour roti). He was so impressed that the roti became a team regular,” smiled chef Oraon.

Oraon also hit a sixer with the marua dosa. “I’ve served the marua dosa to Sunil Gavaskar,” he said with a touch of pride.

so impressed that madua roti was included in the team's regular menu,' executive chef Ramchandra Oraon informed this reporter, adding they had also served madua dosa to another cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar.

Hotel general manager Shantanu Guha Roy agreed. “That’s why we are hoping for a good response to this food fest.” “The festival is a step towards rediscovering many forgotten recipes of Jharkhand,” chef Oraon signed off.