Food -an escape from life

Close your eyes.

Now think of the time you went outside and a sudden waft of sizzling kung pao chicken hit you in the face. No? What about the time you could not stop eating your pani poori even though you were burning; head to foot? Hey..You’ve surely started on a tub of ice cream, cleverly scraping off bits from the top, not yet realizing that soon, the bowl was going to be empty, and you were going to be caught red-handed?

When I was seven, we had this food day at our school. It was like a Teletubbies potluck you know? Our parents were asked to prepare our favorite food in large quantities and we were asked to cutely come with it to school. When I got to my yellow walled class, I saw people putting up plates of chicken legs and tuna sandwiches and things that I’d barely known, moreover tasted. Scared, shaking, I took out my huge Tupperware of mangoes that were cut into small shreds, ornate with salt and chilly powder. I’m not exaggerating when I say this, but it became the biggest hit in the class! I vividly remember my teacher telling me it tasted like ‘love’.

What was the point of this anticlimactic story?

Your food does not have to be from a high-end restaurant. Or the waiter does not have to use the terms ‘basted’ and ‘Sautéd’ for your food to be ‘WAH’ content. It just has to be made out of love..ah and of course good oil. Most of the time, you know how your food is going to taste when you smell it, or look at it, or hear that crunch. KRRR. Did I nail it, no. But sometimes, your food doesn't look that appetizing, but it’d probably be the best thing you’ve eaten in your life. Now don’t get me wrong, things can go horribly wrong as well.

Whenever I think about mangoes, amongst the various memories that pass through me, I am reminded of my grandad, those yellow walls, big Tupperwares, tuna sandwiches, and love. Food is a connection. It’s the wire that can clarify all your doubts. It’s the rope that links all those random topics together. Who knew you could connect mangoes with yellow walls?

Food serves as a reminder that love exists. It’s up there with music and books; you can turn to it whenever you're feeling down. It can be merged with other food to form better food. You can personalize it. You can explore with it. You can burn down your kitchen with it! The point is, food is a lot of calories; one bite of that truffle and all that week’s workout gone to waste. But beyond that, food is also love. It can remind you of someone, somewhere, something. It can remind you of how happy you were, how happy you can be! It can give you really bad cravings, it can give you a reason to work hard. That cheat day is going to be the only thing on your lazy mind when you get up at 5 to work out those abs. But they still remind you. Food is universal. You cannot tell me you’ve never had good food. It can be your mom’s dosa or your grandmother’s pickle or your dad's half-burnt cake, but it's still food! So learn to love it.

Now, on this note we have the host of MasterChef India, celebrity chef- Mr. Ajay Chopra!

He'll be sharing his journey with cooking for our next episode! So go give it a listen now!