A tandoor, a family, and ten years of feeding Kalyani.

In 2014, Sukhbir & Reshma Singh moved from Amritsar to Kalyani with one stainless-steel handi, a notebook of grandmother's recipes, and an unreasonable belief that the suburbs deserved restaurant-grade food without restaurant-grade pretension.

The first tandoor was a brick-and-clay drum welded in the back lane. The first menu was 14 dishes long. The first customers were Durga Puja volunteers next door who wandered in, sniffed once, and stayed for two hours. They came back the next night with their families.

Today Royal Hut serves close to 800 covers on a busy Saturday, runs a catering kitchen for weddings across Nadia district, and trains a team of 36 — most of whom started as 18-year-olds learning to flip a roti. But the recipes haven't moved. The dal still simmers for 24 hours. The biryani still comes out of a sealed handi. The kheer still uses three litres of milk per kilo of rice.