The place, a tropical paradise two hours from Goa, lies in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg, known for its Konkani and Malvani culinary traditions, tropical climate and a thousand sacred groves.
A report by Deepanwita Gita Niyogi
A glimpse through the coconut trees reveals the facade of Sawantwadi. Built by Khem Sawant III, a royal of the Sawant Bhonsle family during his reign from 1755 to 1803, the palace’s colonial-style architecture makes use of red laterite, a regional building material.
The place, a tropical paradise two hours from Goa, lies in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg, known for its Konkani and Malvani culinary traditions, tropical climate and a thousand sacred groves. There are also two beaches within 30 km, Shiroda and Vengurla, along the Arabian Sea.
Though the palace’s museum and Darbar Hall had drawn history buffs over the years, it is now a gourmet destination. This became possible when the 19th generation royal couple, Prince Lakham Bhonsle and his wife Shraddha, turned it into the Sawantwadi Palace Boutique Art Hotel two years ago.
Lakham and Shraddha knew each other in New York where they both trained at the Culinary Institute of America. But the couple’s love story hit off in Mumbai, Theirs was a romance where two hearts met and hands were held, but the taste buds accomplished the rest. For two professional chefs, it could not have been a more perfect walk down the aisle.
“As our vision for the future matched, we fell in love. Our passion for food played a part in bringing us together. Initially, the plan was to settle down either in Mumbai or Goa and run a restaurant. But then the idea of converting the palace into a hotel crossed our minds,” Prince Lakham shared over a phone conversation.
A gourmet destination
Today, the royal family’s labour-intensive and flavourful recipes are no more limited to its kitchen. Food connoisseurs get to taste the delicate Sunti Gola, a dish of boneless mutton meatballs, and the Kesari Maas, a delicacy in which the mutton is shredded into thin strands similar to saffron, after touring the 6.5-acre palace.
Apart from two of these Sawantwadi’s royal dishes, a few recipes also travelled from Baroda’s Gaikwad family as a result of marital alliances in the past. One such import is the Bagra Kadha Masala used to cook crabs, said Shraddha, who is from a business family in Mumbai, and moved in to Sawantwadi after marriage.
