Saturday, March 22, 2014

Cooking - A Passion


Cooking has always been my passion. When I was a little boy I loved to cook, spending hours in the kitchen with my mother, making a mess but learning delicious traditional Indian recipes, using authentic, fresh ingredients and preparing everything from scratch. Today, I am still that same little boy playing in the kitchen; I like to experiment with different tastes and textures, tingeing from the Indian culinary culture to create my own personal recipes. However, I try to remain faithful to the authentic Indian traditions, flavors, and ingredients. There is a saying that “A tavola non si invecchia” (one does not grow old at the table); the pleasure of good food, wine, and company is such that the passage of time is suspended. Food is not only nourishing but also comforting, loving, fun, pleasurable, stimulating. My true inspiration is the people who will enjoy my food. Beside loving food and loving to cook I consider it a gift and an honor to see the look of pure joy when they have tasted something that came from my heart with love. Cooking feeds the soul, both the cook and the people who are eating. Don't get me wrong people can like what you cook but to get that look of pure joy is something that you have to work hard for, it is also rare. I often eat out at a really good restaurant with good food, so I "know" what a dish is supposed to taste like. I then go home and master the same recipe and usually add my very own touches, to the dish. There is no question that cooking and a love of food, the sights, the sounds and the smells from a bustling kitchen all stem from an early memory, perhaps as far back as our childhood. Whether it was the warmth and comfort from a grandmother’s kitchen, that intoxicating smell of freshly baked bread straight from the bakers oven, or the sizzling sounds of sharp onion rings hitting a hot pan, it crept under our skin, started a fire in our souls and created a yearning in our hearts, that was here to stay forever. 
"I strongly believe strongly that food prepared with love has the ability to pass that love along. I try never to cook while angry and always try to add a dash of love for those I’m cooking for."