Guess who is coming to cook dinner?

Guess who is coming to cook dinner?

-          Kitchens of India

Scene at a dignitary’s house

A diplomat’s wife becomes the subject of a prank played by ITC when she hosts a dinner for a foreign delegate of senior diplomats including the heads of state.

 Munna Maharaj, (Lucky Mittal’s [the billionaire, none other] favourite chef) has been flown in from Kolkata all the way to Chennai to cook for a dinner of 1000 guests.

Where on earth is he? 

Half an hour before the guests’ arrival, a phone call from his cell informs the hostess that he is stuck in traffic and could they make some other arrangements, adding that he will do the final touches, not to worry.

A visibly shaken hostess presses the panic button and calls the master chefs from Park Sheraton on the double, promising to pay top dollar for the emergency service.

They arrive when the party is well underway and so does the Maharaj who proceeds to start his ‘cooking’. The 5-star master chefs defer to his instructions as he is much senior to them.

He instructs them to put a glass of boiling water in the wok and then follow the instructions at the back of the packets of... ITC Kitchens of India, if it’s not too much of a trouble for them? A bewildered crew of master chefs follow his instructions as they empty out truckloads of Kitchens of India packets and ‘make’ the dishes.

 Garnishing the food with freshly minced coriander, the Maharaj serves up the food piping hot.

The Maharaj then proceeds to make out a bill and serves it up to the hostess which it turns out is a princely amount considering he didn’t do much of anything.

The trickery is not lost on the hostess whose voice gets a tad shriller than what would be deemed as the hysterical at the Maharaj’s antics, all of which is recorded and uploaded on YouTube. (Good Lord!)

In the meantime, the guests express their appreciation of the “delicately cooked cuisine” to the host (What are the dishes called, again?) who enters the hostile warzone with an innocent word of appreciation of the Maharaj’s excellent culinary skills, as also his loving wife’s excellent organisation skills.

The day is saved from combusting when the Maharaj tells of his prank with the promise that her next social do would be on the house, courtesy ITC .