At Jodhpur’s Ajit Bhawan, lost royal recipes are revived by burying them underground

At India’s first heritage hotel, Ajit Bhawan in Jodhpur, chefs are reviving the palace’s recipes by slow cooking meat in the mud, sourcing ingredients from nearby villages and highlighting simple flavours — proving that true luxury lies in patience

In the moonlit gardens of a palace, I stand in a cabbage patch with a chef and a hoe.

Chef Bikram Chandra Khadka cuts through the warm earth, careful to keep his white apron pristine. There is a clang. We kneel and lift out a steamy bundle, wrapped in sackcloth and bound with wire. A little deeper, we unearth a sealed handi. The seductive scent of caramelised meat, threaded with damp earth and smoke, wraps around us.

Dinner is served.

Chefs unwrap meat that has been slow cooked underground at Ajit Bhawan | Photo Credit: Shonali Muthalaly

I am at Ajit Bhawan, built in 1927 as the residence of Maharaj Dhiraj Sir Ajit Singh, the younger brother of Maharaja Umaid Singh of Jodhpur. In the late 1970s, part of it was opened to guests by the family, introducing the romance of royal Rajasthan to the world.

Heritage hotels across Rajasthan tend to lean heavily on history, glamour and laal maas. Ajit Bhawan is breaking away from the clichés by reviving and updating lost royal recipes for a modern audience, learning from the past while building for the future.