'The first-ever kitchen museum has been set up at Rashtrapati Bhavan to
showcase artefacts from the collection of the president's household,' a
press release from the presidential palace said.
‘‘The President is a very creative man. When he saw these items lying
unattended, he decided to put them together as a museum for public
viewing,’’ says a Bhavan official. Incidentally, Dr Kalam is the first
President to dine from the common kitchen at the Bhavan, unlike his
predecessors who had an exclusive Presidential kitchen.
Inaugurated recently, the museum is located near the children’s gallery
(also a Kalam initiative in 2003) and the marble museum, right below the
dome of the Bhavan. The basement, say Bhavan officials, was a storehouse
before Dr Kalam converted it into a museum — with a ‘‘little help from
the School of Planning and Architecture.’’
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=190874
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"I have spent the last two years in the basement retrieving objects and
classifying them," says K.T. Ravindran, designer of the Kitchen Museum,
also professor and head of Urban Design at the School of Planning and
Architecture, New Delhi. After being selected by Ravindran, the brass
and copper vessels were tinned, silver polished and the crystal brought
to sparkle before being put on display.
....
Sadly, the men who served in the viceregal kitchens—the insiders, who
can chronicle the undersides of history—are missing . They include
abdar, or barman Aley Ali Khan who joined service here under Lord
Mountbatten. In Dome over India, he says, "we used to do a double salaam
to the Lord sahib. I have not seen this anywhere else. The English were
very strict—we used to call it 'kaidkhana' jail. Our working hours
improved only after Independence. Earlier, we used to serve all three
meals, now we work eight hour shifts." Now retired, it is people like
Aley Ali who would make the best guides to this Kitchen Museum. Call
011-23015321 to fix a visit, and you too can savour his masala morsels
of history.
cont'd....
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060710&fname=Prez+Kitchen+(F)&sid=1