My introduction to the kitchen was very dramatic. I wasn’t attracted to cooking and neither was it any special recipe which inspired me to get started (I was actually too young to know salt from sugar). On the contrary, it was sheer attraction towards a unique utensil (a flat ladle with a looonnngggg handle and a small end) which made me enter my Granny’s kitchen every now and then. My Granny probably foresaw the talent and steered my way in to the kitchen.
I learned early on that I enjoy good food and also that there was nothing that would make me more happy than the compliments I got on serving good food. There were no culinary schools, no cooking classes, and no fancy kitchens. Cook books were confusing most of the time (bear in mind that there was no Google to help me then). Sanjeev Kapoor’s Khana Khazana was an inspiration once in a while, though there were times when some common things were not available in my hometown (Jamshedpur) and I had to figure out the substitutes.
Things changed after moving to Bangalore. Almost everything is readily available here. But then you really can’t nurture your cooking skills when in a hostel. So since then I was waiting to have a place of my own, my own kitchen, and the freedom to experiment.
Things have not changed much from my first cooking experience. I still get attracted to new cooking or serving dishes first and then think of the recipe which would be best cooked or served in it.
Like they say; old habits die hard.
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