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."
