Punjab CM dons chef's hat, cooks food for Olympians at his farmhouse

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday donned the chefs hat as he cooked food for participants from the state at the Tokyo Olympics and also for star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra from Haryana.Singh, wearing an apron to prepare sumptuous food for his guests, hosted a dinner at his farmhouse at Siswan in Mohali.Not only did he painstakingly prepare dishes for the sportspersons, he also served his special guests at the lawn of his farmhouse.I started at 11 in the morning.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday donned the chef's hat as he cooked food for participants from the state at the Tokyo Olympics and also for star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra from Haryana.

Singh, wearing an apron to prepare sumptuous food for his guests, hosted a dinner at his farmhouse at Siswan in Mohali.

Not only did he painstakingly prepare dishes for the sportspersons, he also served his special guests at the lawn of his farmhouse.

''I started at 11 in the morning. Most of it was done by around 5 pm, and then it was time for some final touches. But I loved every minute of it,'' said the CM.

''They (the sportspersons) worked so hard to win us glory, what I have done for them is nothing in comparison,'' he remarked as he greeted the guests personally, with no sign of fatigue from all those hours of cooking and supervising the arrangements.

''The food always tastes better if served directly from the cooking vessel,'' he said.

On the menu was ''mutton khara pishori'', ''laung ellachi chicken'', ''aloo korma'', ''dal masri'', ''murg korma'', ''dugani'' biryani and ''zarda rice'' (sweet dish).

Indian hockey captain Manpreet Singh said he had heard about the Maharaja's cooking but what he savoured Wednesday exceeded his expectations. His personal favourite was the ''aloo'' dish. Discus thrower from Muktsar Kamalpreet Kaur, who finished a creditable sixth in her first Olympics with a best throw of 63.70 metre, said she was truly impressed by both food and the hospitality of the chief minister. ''It was rich (quite a bit of ghee) but it was excellent food,'' said Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra.

Chopra, from Khandra village near Haryana's Panipat, produced a second-round throw of 87.58 metres in the javelin throw finals to stun the athletics world.

He became only the second Indian to win an individual gold in the Olympics, outperforming others by quite a distance to notch up the first track-and-field games medal for the country.

Besides Chopra, special guests for the evening included Olympics bronze medallist hockey players Manpreet Singh (captain), Harmanpreet Singh (vice-captain), Mandeep Singh, Hardik Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Shamsher Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Varun Kumar and Simranjit Singh.

Women hockey players Gurjit Kaur, Reena Khokhar, Krishan Bahadur Pathak and Kamalpreet Kaur were also among the guests.

Race-walker Gurpreet Singh and shooter Angadveer Singh Bajwa were also invited for the dinner.

Before the event, Neeraj Chopra was awarded Rs 2.51 crore by Sports Minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi in Chandigarh.