The chief minister, who has been rushing to the national capital far too often these days, thanks to myriad corruption allegations against him, has desired that chefs in Karnataka Bhavan here prepare food as per his taste when he visits next. To cater to his taste buds, three cooks from Karnataka Bhavan were recently sent to  his Bangalore residence for a 10-day crash course on how to prepare food according to his taste and to apprise them about his likes and dislikes.

“The Karnataka Bhavan cooks had training under three cooks working at the CM’s official residence in Bangalore. They were taught what to prepare and what not to, from three of CM’s favourite cooks – one from a private hospital in Bangalore (who is also a dietician), another from the Kumara Krupa guest house and the third being his personal cook working in his official residence.

Sources close to Yeddyurappa told Deccan Herald on Thursday that the chief minister likes onion to be used liberally in all preparations.

Dislikes? Well, he hates ginger and it is strictly barred. Through upma and onion pakodas are his pet dishes, he wants onion to be the main ingredient in both.

A pure vegetarian, Yeddyurappa likes rava idli or upma for breakfast while it is rice and sambar for lunch and chapati or rice for dinner. He likes pulses and dal in his sambar.
The idea of sending cooks from Delhi for training came from none other than his son B Y Raghavendra. It is learnt that it was Raghavendra, an MP,  noticed that his father was not comfortable with the way food was being prepared in Karnataka Bhavan.

The CM puts up at Karnataka Bhavan, the state government guest house in Delhi, during his brief visits. But he was forced to stay for more than five days in November last year as a crisis gripped his government threatening his chair after he got embroiled in land denotification controversy. During this ‘long stay’, he even skipped dinner one night as he was not comfortable with the food served to him.

Then Raghavendra, who was with the CM, immediately asked the concerned officials to ensure that food be prepared as per his father’s wishes. The officials then decided to send a team of cooks to his Bangalore residence.

A decade ago, Karnataka Bhavan had the practice of sending cooks to Bangalore for training at the residences of the CM but the practice was given up subsequently.