India’s Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts joined forces with Lufthansa, the European airline offering the most flights to India, to provide authentic Indian cuisine to travelers. For the next two years, First and Business Class passengers on Lufthansa flights to and from India can have Indian cuisine prepared by two chefs of the Leela group as part of the airline’s Star Chefs program. Lufthansa passengers can dine on prawn curry masala with thalimpu sadam or lal mans, a Rajasthani meat dish, or Alleppy fish curry. For vegetarians the menus offer an appetizer of moong dal pakoda chat with Imli Chutney, followed by khade masale ka paneer (cottage cheese) with jeera rice and dal tadka, and for dessert kacha golla. With over 36 years as a chef at some of India’s finest luxury properties, Corporate Master Chef Farman Ali has distinguished himself as a pioneer in preparing fine Indian cuisine and presides over the kitchens at the group’s flagship Leela Palace Kempinski Bangalore.
One of India’s leading culinary ambassadors, Surender Mohan is Corporate Sous Chef at The Leela Kempinski Mumbai where he is at the helm of the award-winning Jamavar. He trained in the royal kitchens of one of India’s Maharajas and was a gold medal winner at the China Gourmet Expo. With 54 weekly flights during the summer, Lufthansa is the number one European carrier to India. This year the airline is celebrating 50 years of operations in the country and was voted “Best International Airline in India” at the CNBC AWAAZ Travel Awards in 2009. Lufthansa is also the largest carrier from its 21 North American gateways to India with one-stop service via Frankfurt or Munich to seven Indian destinations: Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai. Globally, Lufthansa flies to 206 destinations in 78 countries. The airline is a founding member of Star Alliance. For more information, visit www.lufthansa.com or www.theleela.com.