What secret ingredient did KKR’s celebrity chef add to the Kolkata Biryani specially for Rahmanullah Gurbaz?
Kolkata Knight Riders are on a festivities spree. After posting pictures of a yummy Gudi Padwa spread with Ajinkya Rahane and Chandrakant Pandit wishing fans Happy New Year, a day after saw them enter the I then for a flavorful Kolkata Biryani to celebrate Eid. The tw – the team chef added a sprinkling of Afghan crunch to celebrate with Rahmanullah Gurbaz.
The trigger was Rinku Singh staring longingly into a photo frame of Lucknowi biryani, missing some from his home. Chef Kunal Khanna hosting the show Knight Bites, would oblige stirring up Kolkata Biryani with their typical large fat potatoes, punctured and roasted with chicken in gorom mosla (garam masala) that make it different from the rest of the recipes in the Indian Biryani Grand Slam of Lucknow, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Thalaserry.
The Eid just got special! 🌙💜
First episode of Prestige presents Knight Bite is live NOW! Watch as the Biryani Bros— Rinku, Moeen & Gurbaz learn the trades of Biryani from Chef Kunal Kapur! 👨🍳🥘
Watch the full episode on our YouTube channel to find out if our boys mastered the… pic.twitter.com/7qy7gzxyqP
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) March 31, 2025
However with Gurbaz in KKR ranks, the chef would add a special ingredient, after dunking some fried onions and gently saffron-flavoured milk. The chef explained the reason for adding potatoes to Rinku (apparently potatoes were as grand and expensive as avocados in earlier times when a Nawab resing the British, got banished to Calcutta, where he made potatoes royal, and they became fancy). For Gurbaz though, the chef added ‘khubani’ – dried apricots that Afghans sprinkle their own biryani.
Gurbaz would then invite Moeen Ali to the impromptu feast, and the English-conditioned spinner, would relish the biryani talking about the non-spicy Yakhni one he liked. “I like spicy,” Rinku would say, while narrating tales of tennis ball cricket and his debut and going to Modern School where he started in the sport. He also said golgappa was his only street food favourite, as he was told about name origins of puchka and gopchop, as it’s called in Kolkata.
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The chef would toss up a bonus Afghan chutney recipe: chilli, coriander, tomato & peppers, that greatly made Rgurbaz emotional.
When he bit into some Sondesh, Rinku, who had himself carefully polished off one bite of rosgulla, gulabjamun and mishti doi in a blindfold ‘taste test’, reminded Gurbaz of the extra rounds they would need to run the next day to justify intake of calories on the show. Chandu Pandit’s comments are awaited.
