Being a Kitchen Goddess

Being a foodie is in vogue. Lachmi D Roy tracks the changing patterns in food tastes and how one can be a kitchen goddess.
Times have really changed and cooking and appreciating food is no longer called out dated and boring. In fact being a foodie and knowing how to cook a variety of cuisines with your own innovation has become a fad. And if you can whip up a variety of cuisines you will be much in demand socially. For Indians are no longer satisfied with their boring daal, chawal and sabzi combination.
 
THINK THAT COOKING IS AN ART
Any body can be a kitchen goddess, just that we need to think that cooking is an art and whip up different individual varieties of food and just cut off the monotonous recipes and make it as innovative as possible. Everybody is trying out something new at home. Like macaroni dosa, salsa dosa or be it palak macaroni. These home grown experiments resulted in Indianisation of many dishes. “I like to travel abroad just to try out new dishes. For a recent party, I made khari biscuit lasange. Instead of putting pasta sheets I greased the baking dish and put khari biscuit with layers of cheese, pepper and corn. I also made mushroom pani-puree with a dash of tamarind sauce which was again a big hit,” says etiquette guru, Chaaya Momaya.
Treating your friends with the most innovative dishes starting from the drinks to the small eats to the main course and the sweet dishes is becoming more of an art and hosts wants to be appreciated for it. You definitely not a kitchen goddess if you serve the boring paneer malai koftas, and palak paneer and rajma for parties. You need to know how to serve panner, palak and rajma with a little twist and a little innovation like you can make a lot of difference like making paneer baby-corn stir fry, making rajma canopies with a little cheese and salsa sauce and making palak corn or chesse ball in palak gravy instead of the usual palak paneer.
 
 
MAKING VARIETY OF DISHES
Corn mushroom and broccoli curry has become so common for ghar ka khana that it is no longer considered exotic. People are willing to try out authentic food along with fusion fare when they are eating out. “Variety of food is what today’s generation wants to taste and cook and they are not scared of experimentation. This change in food habits is because they are well travelled and well read,” adds food consultant, Karen Anand.
 
 
ENJOY FOOD
To be a kitchen goddess you should not just eat to fill up your tummy, you should enjoy food and should be willing to experiment at the same time. If you do not enjoy food you won’t be able to cook. Today we are thinking, discussing, reading and watching shows on food. “We are travelling so much that we are ready for experimentation and we can differentiate a food from it’s authentic version to it’s localized version,” says freelance writer from Mumbai Suparna Sinha.
 
 
READING AND DISCUSSING FOOD
Reading about food and trying out new recipes is quite happening nowadays. Making your own blog, taking suggestions from people, exchanging recipes and sharing views with others are the norms as everyone takes turn at the stove. Food books are no longer written for just housewives by housewives. Food blogs are bubbling merrily with the enthusiastic and creative outpourings of passionate foodies. To an unacquainted foodie, they are a delicious discovery. Just a click, and any number of virtual kitchens waltz onto your screen in the form of food blogs set up by the gourmets and the gourmands of the world.
 
They seem to have a voracious appetite for food and more-memories of Mom’s scrumptious food, the generations-old coffee filter, the champagne flutes at a friend’s wedding, the whys and how about a sinking cake or a collapsing soufflé, that rare vegetable at the store, kitchen garden and potted herbs (with pets, crafts and other hobbies staying in), links to various sources that mention food, news and views on food and sometimes non-food issues small and big.
 
 
EXPERIMENTING WITH FOOD
When today’s diners speak about Asian food they don’t just mean Chinese food. They demand- Japanese, Tai, Malay and even Korean dishes. Indulging in food is no longer considered as gluttony. It has become absolutely classy to be regarded as gastronomes. People today are enjoying food as never before. They have no inhibitions in trying out new dishes. When it comes to knowing, reading and watching about food it has become quite a classy act. “In general perception, the more variety of cuisines you have tasted the more popular you get in your social circle. There is a lot more appreciation and discussion about food now than it was a few years back,” adds Chaaya Momaya.
Experimental cuisine has taken a firm grip in India as never before. The food snobbery has been cultivated to a level where experimentation is the keyword to cooking.
 
 
EATING OUT HELPS IN COOKING
Going to a restaurant is a source of entertainment. Restaurants are no more just an ordinary eating out joint as it used to be. “With the rise of the income of the middle class and families shrinking to just husbands, wives and kids, eating out in five star hotels on weekends has become a very common scene,” says food lover Kunal Vijaykar.
There is a new way in which restaurants are being treated now and it is considered as a complete source of entertainment. It is surprising that Indians who were so conservative about their food habits are coming out of their comfort zones and tasting fondues and sushi. So the more you taste food outside you want to try it out at home and be known as the kitchen goddess. It is absolutely surprising how we as a nation who were once so particular about food, are actually loving raw fish in the form of sashimi. Even beef and various other different kinds of meat like rabbit meat and frog meats are equally enjoyed.
Restaurants are evolving based purely on their food menus. And when you go out for eating you are not only consuming the food, along with the food you are also absorbing the ambience and the people.
 
 
MAKING A CULTURE STATEMENT
Food you cook for parties has become a culture statement. “Last week there was a party at my place and I wanted to serve something special. Wanting to veer away from the same old butter chicken and channa puri menu, I made shepherd pie, crab and pineapple salad and baked corns with white sauce and pasta. It was a big hit and the guests really digged in,” says Anahita Naval, a home-maker.
 
 
MAKING FOOD PRESENTABLE
To be a kitchen goddess a lot of emphasis should be laid to the presentation of the food too. “My three year old son does not want to eat food that is not served and garnished properly. Even in his snack box he wants his sandwiches to be cut in small square pieces with a small piece of cherry and pineapple attached to it with a tooth pick, says Ananya Bose, a designer by profession.
 
 
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