Jagannath Rath Yatra 2023: What Goes On Inside Puri Jagannath Temple Kitchen

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Chappan Bhog or Mahaprasad is something whose recipe cant be spotted in any website in any part of the world. It has a history and mystery that is closely guarded and unrevealed.

The Puri kitchen is a place where no one is allowed an entry other than the chefs. In case there is some dosha or error in the preparation, a dog soon shows up in the kitchen and the entire food has to be buried and preparation restarted.

Chefs who cook need to be clean, fresh and chant Gods stotras while it is being prepared. 56 dishes prepared in 7 pots, in such a mysterious way, is really something beyond our imagination and it is believed that the real chef is Goddess Mahalakshmi who is present there and cooks all herself.

The food that is prepared in clay pots, at first does not have the flaour and aroma that you experience at the time of its distribution.

It is only after it reaches the lord and offered to him, that it starts tasting and smelling divine. There are many hidden secrets about the preparation of the chappan bhog and we are not aware of it.

Food is cooked using clay vessels, Indian vegetables, and the method of preparation dates back to times of yore.

Even if you are given the recipe of the varieties, of food, you can't replicate it in any way. The taste would be entirely different, when the chef in the temple cooks it. The recipes have a divine copyright that is not detachable from the recipes.

There are Sanskrit names given to every ingredient, tool and method of cooking. The kitchen fire is burning from the times of yore, like the homagni in certain temples that are still burning today.

The Akhand Mekap will keep burning the charcoals day and night like Akhand diya. Since Loes Jagannath tastes the final product before we do, it is also called Vaishnavagni..

Some people who are not allowed inside the temple kitchen for strict reasons, express objections. The food can be clean, bereft of external bacteria, and sacred only if no one apart from the cooks is there in the cooking area. This is why there has been no food poisoning cases reported here.

Even for cooks, there are plenty of rules to follow. He cant enter the kitchen unless he bathed. Cooks are only males. The cooks do not grow beards or mustaches and every one wears pristine white clothing that is never stained even after cooking for long hours.

To carry the food from one place to the other, they have to wear masks. There is no provision for smoking, chewing betel, or paan before or after entering the kitchen. They also wear masks sometimes while carrying the food from one place to another.

Needless to say, it is prohibited to smoke, chew betel or any intoxicating substance before or after entering the kitchen.

It just takes a day for the cooks to cook the Prasad for minimum1 lakh devotees in the kitchen of Jagannath Mandir. This is world famous as the worlds largest kitchen and open food court.

We, as Indians, have a culture of sharing and giving and hence it is possible to have the worlds biggest kitchen here in India.