Kashmir’s 600-Year-Old Wedding Feast Is Adapting to Modern Life

For centuries, weddings in Kashmir have been accompanied by a spectacular feast known as Wazwan. But as younger generations look for different careers and lifestyles, the culinary tradition is beginning to change.

Wazwan is a multi-course feast centered around mutton. Its history in Kashmir dates back to the 14th century, when skilled cooks from Central Asia arrived in the region and helped establish a culinary tradition that has continued through generations.

The preparation remains highly traditional. Meat is pounded by hand with wooden mallets before being slowly cooked over wood fires. Large copper cooking pots are used to prepare dishes such as rista, gushtaba, rogan josh and tabak maaz.

At weddings, the feast can involve enormous quantities of food. Ghulam Nabi Baba, a 74-year-old traditional Wazwan chef, said that he learned the craft from his father after joining him at the age of 15.

Baba has now spent nearly six decades preparing wedding feasts. He remembers occasions when thousands of kilograms of meat were prepared for a single celebration.

But the profession is becoming harder to pass down to the next generation. Traditional wedding cooks often work around the clock for several days, making the job physically demanding and difficult to combine with modern family life.

Baba’s own son chose a different path. Instead of becoming a full-time wedding chef, he opened a restaurant where he can continue preparing Wazwan while working more regular hours.

For the younger generation, restaurants offer a way to preserve the recipes and techniques without following the demanding schedule traditionally associated with wedding catering.

The change does not necessarily mean that Wazwan is disappearing. Instead, parts of the tradition are moving into restaurants, where local residents and visitors can experience the cuisine outside the traditional wedding setting.

The feast remains closely connected to Kashmiri celebrations and identity. Guests traditionally share dishes from a large copper platter called a trami, turning the meal into a communal experience rather than simply a collection of individual dishes.

As modern life changes the way people work and celebrate, Wazwan is adapting with it. Younger cooks may no longer spend entire nights preparing wedding meals, but they are finding new ways to carry the centuries-old culinary tradition forward.

For families like the Babas, preserving Wazwan does not necessarily mean keeping every part of the old profession unchanged. It can also mean allowing the food, techniques and knowledge to survive in a form that fits the lives of a new generation.

Source

Reuters, September 30, 2026.