Mid-Day Anniversary: Armaan Jain on serving Raj Kapoor’s favourite dishes with The Junglee Kitchen
31 July,2026 08:06 AM IST | Mumbai | Priyanka Sharma
Armaan Jain has turned his love for cooking into The Junglee Kitchen, a delivery venture serving the Kapoor family`s favourite recipes. Inspired by lockdown experiments, the menu features dishes loved by Raj Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan
Armaan Jain; (right) Raj Kapoor with Prithviraj Kapoor. Pics/By Special Arrangement, Instagram, Youtube
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Some will tell you ghee makes all the difference in their dishes. Others swear by garlic. For <strong>Armaan Jain, the star ingredient of his recipes is something intangible – it’s a mindset. “Kanjoosi nahin karne ka. Even if you have Rs 5 in your pocket, feed people dishes worth Rs 10.” That’s the culture Armaan, Rima Jain’s son and Raj Kapoor’s grandson, grew up imbibing. So, when he decided to turn his passion for feeding people into a business, this became the foundation for The Junglee Kitchen.
Kapoors and food is a love story as old as time. During the pandemic-induced lockdown, in the absence of cooks, Armaan thought of taking over the kitchen and experimenting with the recipes that he was raised with. He told mid-day, “I didn’t ever imagine it becoming a business. [During the lockdown] I was missing some family recipes. So, I would keep calling up my cook who was on leave. Then, I innovated those recipes. When I fed my family, they liked them.”
That’s how The Junglee Kitchen was born. With the delivery kitchen that began operations out of his home in 2021, Armaan is serving the Kapoor khandaan’s favourite dishes, particularly his legendary grandfather’s, to the city.
The family’s love for food was recently documented in Netflix’s âDining with the Kapoors’
The name isn’t exactly what you would associate with the Kapoor family. Is it an ode to his grand uncle, late Shammi Kapoor‘s hit Junglee (1961)? Not really. The name, Armaan shared, has two personal meanings attached to it. “The reason why I thought of the word âJunglee’ is because that’s my approach to cooking. I’m not a trained chef; just someone who has been exposed to food since he was five or six. Plus, our food is fiery and spicy,” he smiled, before adding, “One of our hero dishes is called Junglee Maas. It’s a dish the Kapoors have grown up devouring.”
Like Junglee Maas, each dish for Armaan is a walk down memory lane. One that evokes memories of the Kapoor family coming together, trading gossip, laughing, and bonding over food. While the entrepreneur, born in 1990, never got the opportunity to meet his grandfather, he vividly remembers the feast that his maternal grandmother, Krishna Raj Kapoor, would serve for the family. He is now serving that taste of his childhood – whether it’s the Junglee Maas that the Showman of Indian Cinema enjoyed or the dal makhani that his superstar-cousin Kareena Kapoor Khan swears by. The dishes start from Rs 250, going up to Rs 700.
“Whether it was a small get-together or big, Junglee Maas was always there. The table would always be full, with 20 dishes on it. The other fixture was dal. Then two-three sabzis and [multiple] non-veg dishes. I also have strong memories of Punjabi dahi pakoda kadhi,” recalled Armaan.
What is his favourite dish on the menu? “I am a Punjabi who loves comfort food. So, I like my dal makhani. We have always had a Punjabi smoked dal at home. I improvised into a nice slow-cooked dal makhani in the COVID-19 days.”
Going forward, The Junglee Kitchen will include âDesi Chinese‘ in the menu. That’s almost expected, given how the Kapoor family members have often expressed their love for Chinese food. Armaan added, “I love my Chinese food. The dhaba Chinese – think Chicken lollipops, Chicken Manchurian, and Chilli chicken.”
While he expanded the delivery kitchen’s service to Bengaluru in 2025, the next goal is to make it a pan-India service. He wishes to incorporate flavours of India’s different regions while keeping his family’s recipes in focus. “I have currently four or five outlets. We’re looking to scale these up to about 100 outlets in the next two years, across five-six cities. I have always had people come over to our place to eat. There would be 50 people at a time at my grandmother’s place. So, I had the confidence that I could cook,” he smiled.
Quick Five with Armaan Jain
What was Raj Kapoor’s favourite dish?
Dal. It was a fixture in every meal
What do the Kapoors end their meal with?
Gulab jamun
Who is the most fitness-conscious Kapoor?
Neetu aunty
The Kapoor who won’t stop at one dessert?
Karisma Kapoor
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mid-day anniversaryarmaan jainraj kapoorKareena Kapoorsaif ali khanrandhir kapoorneetu kapoorkarisma kapoorbollywood newsEntertainment News
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