The begum's platter

The aristocratic Mumtaz Pasha Khan serves royal meals to the hoi polloi

The only other person we know who broke through the purdah of aristocracy as a married teenager is the queen of herbal cosmetics, Shahnaz Husain.

Mumtaz Pasha Khan may not be as well known, but the granddaughter of Shahzoor Jung "" a companion to the Nizam of Hyderabad "" is striving to keep memories of another time alive. Married at 15, ensconced in a landowning household, supervising Ramzan feasts year after year, Khan made a remarkable transition for a woman of her milieu more than three decades ago.

In 1968, prompted by her daughter's friend who loved "aunty's cooking", she decided to take cooking classes, teaching Hyderabadi delicacies to a small group. The fee was Rs 5, Khan taught from her own kitchen, and though some ladies of her extended family "" unused to dirtying their own hands "" scoffed at the new "bawarchan", she continued. "My hands would tremble each time I cut the chicken."

Today, at 70, her hands are steady. Khan is one of the biggest consultants of Hyderabadi cuisine. The classes continue "" the fees up to Rs 300 now "" with an occasional celebrity student like filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor.

But the business is expanding in a myriad of other directions, catering, for instance. Having laid out a Hyderabadi feast at Paatra, the restaurant where I am dining at Vasant Continental in Delhi, Khan is flying next to Mumbai to prepare a "yellow" pre-nuptial feast.

"Wedding ceremonies begin with the grinding of haldi and there's a 'manja' feast with dishes such as gulgule and malida in hues of yellow," she says.

Then, there's the training of restaurant staff. Namita and Camillia Panjabi, high priestesses of Indian cuisine in London, have both been to Khan for their restaurants, Chutney Mary and Veeraswamy.

But the growing market is in the US, with an emerging trend of entrepreneurs asking their Hyderabad-based parents and relatives to train and help set up restaurants abroad. "There have been at least 15-20 such people with me in the last five years."

She can't seem to escape from organising food festivals either. Khan was introduced to the festival circuit by celebrity food consultant Jiggs Kalra. Ever since, she has been organising these events from The Oberoi, Mumbai to The Park, Kolkata, charging Rs 70-80,000 per promotion.

Khan is particular about maintaining etiquette. Her 'chowki' meals are served strictly in sequence. The meal starts with lukmi, pastry square with chicken filling, meant to be so soft it can be eaten "with one's lips"; tootak, a mince patty in semonlina, a Kayastha speciality; and shikampoor kebabs.

These, along with sheermal and bakarkhani are served at room temperature. Kormas, served next, are hot, traditionally one chicken and one mutton dish before, finally, the biryani. This is eaten with tamatar ka kutt, yogurt, mirch ka salan or even dal "" but not the korma.

Nothing reveals the finesse of Khan's cuisine more than the simple khatti dal (with trademark tamarind). And what she tells me is even more delicious.

Many dals are often tempered up to seven times. Zeera, mustard, chillies, garlic, whole red chilles, kalaunji, karipatta...the smell hangs in the air. I promise to temper my next party suitably.