food For thought

With the latest craze about various reality shows on cooking and food fests, this is indeed the best time for Indian food and cooking, and I believe this new journey that I have embarked upon will definitely help me give a new meaning to “my mid age life”. For the rest of my kitchen tales and family recipes, do visit my blog nandini.blog – Spice And Secret.

By NANDINI BHUSHAN

“Nothing brings people together like good food”

Indian stories begin from kitchen and end in kitchen. I was one such lucky person to have been born in a family of gastronauts. Our day began with food talks and ended with the same. My childhood was spent in a big joint family with 14 people living under the same roof and eating the same food. Although we had varied choices and hobbies, yet the only common interest we shared was the love for food. It was this love that gradually grew into fondness and finally passion.

Belonging to a hotelier family my friends always wondered whether we had kitchen in our house as they believed that our cooking work was taken care by the hotel kitchen. But the truth was miles away from it. Indeed we had a very exciting kitchen armoured with couple of servants under the creative guidance of my very talented chachis and mom. Every nook and corner of my kitchen had diverse stories and tales from this gastronomical world. Today,when I turn the pages of the bygone era, I realise that it was this home kitchen that laid the foundation of my culinary passion.

I’m a native of Bihar and the food cooked in our kitchen in those days was predominantly of Bihari flavour. But since my aunts and uncles were from across different Indian regions, and as they say food and love has no boundary, there was influence of almost every region in our cuisine. Besides, since my great grandfather was a Rai Bahadur, we had British officials visiting our place quite frequently, and they brought with them the English influence as well into our kitchen. Having tasted some of the best food that the world has to offer, I guess the seeds of my desire to pen down these culinary treasures stemmed from my exposure to variety of experiments being tried out every other day in our kitchen.

The nostalgia of my childhood memories is so strong and deep that I thought I have a duty to preserve every experiment tried out in the kitchen pots of my home. My kitchen has stood for over 100 years and has been witness to significant social and political upheavals as well during all these years, apart from culinary evolution going on as a silent undercurrent. It’s also my desire that the delicacies that I enjoyed in my growing up years should also be relished and enjoyed by the next generation with the same spirit and enthusiasm.

In those years, I was never into the art of cooking and dealing with various nuances and techniques involved in the process. I was rather on the other side of the kitchen counter relishing and enjoying the fruit of hard work and effort put in by by my elders and various helpers .As was customary in most Indian urban households in those days, young girls were expected to get down to cooking only for the culinary pleasure of their husband and in-laws post-marriage, and my story was no different. Just a month before my wedding day, my mother took upon herself the task to give me cooking lessons so that I can be a perfect wife after marriage. I did not leave any stone unturned to learn all the trendy and fancy food so that I could thoroughly impress my new family with my culinary skills. Thankfully, I was married into a foodie family and my first few days in the kitchen were really exciting and everyone loved all the fancy dishes I came out with every other day.

“The nostalgia of my childhood memories is so strong and deep that I thought I have a duty to preserve every experiment tried out in the kitchen pots of my home. My kitchen has stood for over 100 years and has been witness to significant social and political upheavals as well during all these years, apart from culinary evolution going on as a silent undercurrent.”

The interesting part of the pre-marriage cooking classes my mother gave was that I excelled  in all the fancy and trendy food that she expected I would be cooking, but hardly knew anything about the basic day to day cooking. And so when the euphoria of making one delicacy after the other subsided a few days after my marriage after all the guests were gone, and things came back to dal-roti kind of food, I fell flat on the ground. My first victim was none other than my poor husband who had to swallow down the world’s most deshaped rotis and pathetic dal. In such situation, my brother-in-law came to my rescue and taught me the art of cooking plain and humble rice and dal.I am till this day grateful to him for helping me learn the basic indian cooking.

My kitchen tales started after my marriage, as it was then that I realized the importance of serving delicious food as the easiest way to somebody’s heart. We had frequent guests at my new abode and cooking became an integral part of my life. Exploring new cuisine – thanks to the wonderful cooking book by masterchef Sanjeev Kapoor, cooking became my new passion. Time took its course and I was blessed with two charming boys and gradually my cooking style changed to suit the priorities and tastes of my children. It was during this long period that I realised that culinary journey is deep sea – the deeper you dive in it, the more adventurous it becomes.

My experiments of trial and error in the kitchen continued in my space with some dishes being great hits and a few misses as well. Then something changed with passing time. While I enjoyed the food from all across the globe, yet gradually I longed for the the food cooked from my mom’s kitchen. I realized that nothing could win over me but the aroma and flavour of my native home kitchen. I felt a strong urge to reconnect with the food I grew up with. I have tried my hands on a number of things to keep the flame of my mid-age creative pursuit burning but nothing has actually satisfied my creative urge as yet. I have been writing off and on for various websites on different topics ranging from travel, health, fashion and many more. And then I thought of combining the two of my greatest passions, writing and cooking to team up and kick start something new.

With this idea, the foundation of my food blog was laid, which I think came naturally to me. This blog is indeed a true reflection of me as it has become a perfect medium to share my undying love for cooking. With the latest craze about various reality shows on cooking and food fests, this is indeed the best time for Indian food and cooking, and I believe this new journey that I have embarked upon will definitely help me give a new meaning to “my mid age life”. For the rest of my kitchen tales and family recipes, do visit my blog nandini.blog – Spice And Secret.