Hotels, restaurants in Rajasthan to serve millet dishes to tourists

Hotels and restaurants in Rajasthan will now serve dishes made from coarse grains or millets to tourists and consumers.

The move comes after a delegation of the Hotel Federation of Rajasthan recently met Chief Minister (CM) Bhajanlal Sharma.

Ranvijay Singh, senior vice-president of the federation, said the CM requested the delegation to promote millets among the consumers. This could increase the use of coarse grains and benefit farmers growing millets 

Singh said that millets were gaining importance in the tourism industry of Rajasthan.

As part of rural tourism, visitors mostly get to taste traditional millet dishes. 

Ajay Aggarwal of Jaipur’s LMB Sweets and Restaurant said awareness about millets had increased among the hotel and restaurant industry. “Mostly traditional dishes made of millets are now being served. But experiments are also being done to make new dishes.”

The use of millets is increasing in Rajasthan, be it for weddings or any other function, said Bhavanishankar Mali, general secretary of All Wedding Industry Federation, Rajasthan. The traditional dishes are made of millets or coarse grains like bajra (pearl millet), maize roti, churma, khichdi, and raab.

Tourism department officials said programmes organised by the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporationhave one or two dishes of coarse grains on the menu.