MANALI: A chef from Manali in Himachal Pradesh served a 220-Indian dish spread to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counterparts from Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark in Sweden on April 16 and 17. Modi was on a tour to Sweden, UK and Germany from April 16.

Dheeraj Singh, a young entrepreneur from Manali, who runs Indian Street Foods & Co at Stockholm, Sweden, was asked by Sweden government to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for the occasion. Despite being in Europe, the PM was accorded a warm welcome by being served Indian cuisine.

“Modi was staying in Grand Hotel, one of the oldest hotels of Sweden. We cooked 220 Indian dishes for Modi and his counterparts from Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark at three events. While Modi was happy to have Indian dishes on the dining table, others also appreciated the Indian taste,” said, Dheeraj, who had cooked the meals.

Inspired by food vendors in the streets of the country, Dheeraj started his enterprise in Sweden with a mobile food truck in 2014. Today he owns three such food trucks, three restaurants and a catering company. “We have chefs from India, especially from Kullu-Manali. We specialize in all the Indian dishes. We served them 220 vegetarian dishes from all states of the country,” he added.

Dheeraj said no restaurant in the world can cook the meal as tasty as some of the street vendors in India serve. “I cook the same traditional meal and add some modern taste to it. The typical Indian flavour has the entire Sweden crazy about our fare. We are growing and expanding regularly. After his meal, the PM lauded me for bringing Indian taste to Sweden,” he added.