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When Smoke Tells a Story: Chef Adil's Kebabs at Grand Hyatt There's a particular kind of culinary experience that stays with you—not because of theatrics or molecular wizardry, but because it connects you to something deeper, something ancestral. I found myself thinking about this as I sat at Maison Maiya in Grand Hyatt Gurgaon, watching the smoke rise from Chef Mohammed Adil's kebabs. You see, most people don't understand kebabs. They think it's about meat on a stick, perhaps some marinade, perhaps some fire. But that's like saying biryani is just rice and meat. The real kebab—the kind that makes you close your eyes and nod silently—is about patience, intuition, and secrets that don't translate into recipe cards. Chef Adil knows this. He comes from Sambhal, and when I say he comes from Sambhal, I don't mean he once visited or trained there. I mean his family has been making kebabs there for three generations. The kind of family where a grandson watches his grandfather's hands move over the spice blends, where marinades are prepared not by the clock but by feel, where the positioning of a skewer over the embers is guided by instinct honed over decades. The Thing About Heritage Cooking What strikes me about A Feast of Kebabs—the week-long festival running until November 25th—is its quiet confidence. There's no fusion here, no "reimagining" or "modern interpretation." This is food that doesn't need to apologize for being traditional because tradition, when executed with this level of mastery, never goes out of style. The kebabs arrive at your table still whispering of smoke. Not the aggressive char of an over-enthusiastic grill, but the gentle kiss of slow embers. This is food that has been coaxed rather than coerced into deliciousness. The spices—hand-ground, naturally—don't scream for attention. They layer themselves across your palate: first the warmth, then the depth, then those subtle notes that make you pause mid-conversation.

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This post was published on 21st November, 2025 by Rahul on his Instagram handle "@rahulprabhakar (Rahul Prabhakar)". Rahul has total 64.6K followers on Instagram and has a total of 2.4K post. Rahul receives an average engagement rate of % per post on Instagram. This post has received 64 comments which are greater than the average comments that Rahul gets. Overall the engagement rate for this post was than the average for the profile.