Chemistry in the kitchen

THE FOOD CLUB

Sanjeev Kapoor and his dimples may have started the trend in India, but it's clear that the men in white have a huge advantage over the rest of mankind. At least in the kitchen.

Chef Sitangsu Chakravarty attributes it to the fact that trained chefs understand the chemistry of cooking, and they understand how a recipe can be altered to suit the financial constraints of the increasing tribe of hobby cooks who may not want to scour the city looking for obscure ingredients.

His book Best of India (Pearson) proves his theory. Chakravarty has set out to showcase a sprinkling of dishes from various regions of the country. His twin objectives included encouraging people to enter the kitchen for fun and offering those recipes that were unusual, well-suited to the domestic kitchen, yet inexpensive.

Chakravarty firmly believes that the market for hobby cooks is split into several parts, from the "I can't boil water properly" kind to those who seek out rare ingredients when they travel. Best of India clearly talks to someone nearer the first kind than the second.

In fact, at the launch of the book in Kolkata and Delhi (the book is yet to be launched in other cities), volunteers from the audience were called upon stage and asked to prepare a dish using a recipe from the book.

So, if all you have is a recipe that is simple to follow and reasonably quick to cook, why do you need a chef? After all, Tarla Dalal, Nita Mehta and their ilk have become famous through their recipe books. It's probably the x-factor at work.

Says Rajdeep Kapoor, host of a popular cookery show on Channel Seven, "The chef's toque commands a certain respect that's in an altogether different league from a layman, no matter how good the latter."

Kapoor, like Chakravarty, has a public persona that is geared towards the middle-income householder. The format of the show includes entering a (pre-chosen) house each week, and then deciding the recipe according to what ingredients are on the kitchen shelves.

Naturally, the truth is probably a little more complex than what is shown on TV, but the show is a huge hit, with mothers in law and daughters in law sitting down together to watch the show and note down the recipes.

Winces Chef Kapoor, "When I go on my rounds in the hotel (Eros InterContinental, New Delhi) I am invariably mobbed by middle aged ladies begging me to come to their house for the weekend. I know they mean that they want the next episode shot in their kitchen, but anyone overhearing the conversation jumps to the wrong conclusion."

Both Kapoor and Chakravarty aver that user-friendliness rather than authenticity is their final objective. Both draw the line at bastardisation of a recipe: neither wants to wear the Tarla Dalal mantle.

Whether the consumer realises it or not, few recipe books published in India have clearly defined rules about testing out recipes before setting them on paper. On the other hand, with a chef's cookery show or recipe book, there are less likely to be surprises of the unpleasant kind.