There are no half measures in Udayan Bose’s life, nothing half-baked, be it on the business or tableau or the culinary table. He makes his wizardly decisions with as much ease and confidence in his bright and breezy penthouse office in swanky Nariman Point as he decides with aplomb the exact quantity of mustard seeds that will go into the prawns he is cooking, in his spic and div kitchen at his plush apartment at Peddar Road. Ladies and gentlemen meet Udayan Bose, one of India’s premier investment bankers who delights in his cookery prowess. When you consider that he is Chairman of The Calcutta Stock Exchange, Thomas Cook as well as Tamara Capital, his own boutique investment-cum-consulting firm you start to wonder at the power of the kitchen and the charm of cooking that draws the kind of people it does.

“So what made you start cooking and when did you first cook?” I begin. “Oh,” booms Udayan in his powerful voice, “that was a long time ago, when my daughter was just four, in 1981, when we were literally living at Oberoi for one and a half years. Piusha my daughter, wanted to eat only home food, so I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. Converted one of the bathrooms into a kitchen and cooked khichdi. The first three attempts were bad but then I got the hang of it and was thrilled with myself. I enjoyed the act of cooking immensely, it was therapeutic, but what really motivated me was seeing the happiness on Piusha’s face, which till today is the driving force. I love to please my family with my cooking skills and fortunately they enjoy it too.”

Udayan applies himself quite fully to whatever he does, so soon after his first attempt he called his mother, who lives in Calcutta, for some family recipes and culinary advise. Among other things, he wanted to know how to curb his South Indian cook and make him go easy with the lavish manner he used kadi patta, in every dish! Mother-in-law a Pillai, also came to the rescue and although wife Usha, well-meaning and all that, is not very adept in the kitchen, has her taste-buds in complete order. She encouraged him to indulge in his hobby which later became a passion and soon her favourite question to her husband on a Sunday morning was, “So what are you cooking today, honey?”

That is now the tradition, Udayan cooks most Sundays, whether he is in Bombay or London, where he also has a beautiful house.

Going to the bazaar goes with the premise, Udayan will not leave that crucial task to his servants. “Using good ingredients is the key, as you know,” he says with complete concentration, like as if we are in his boardroom, “I go to two markets in Bombay - Grant Road and Worli, near Century Bazaar. I am good at buying fish (which Bengali isn’t?), I often get mackerel to make ayla curry. It’s a Kerala recipe, small pieces of mackerel cooked in coconut milk with no oil whatsoever. A personal favourite is pabda, a small fish with a single bone, very, very tasty. Of course there is rau and bekti and hilsa, though the hilsa comes from Gujarat and is not as good as the one from Calcutta. I love mutton but have to stay away from red meats. It’s a luxury, I indulge in only now and then.”

“And what ingredients do you like to often use?” I enquire. “Mustard, without doubt, also fresh green coriander.” Ah, the good old kothmir, I could smell it, mutton slow cooking in hara dhaniya as coriander is also known. This recipe is his mother’s creation, which Udayan has perfected.

The aroma was wafting around the whole apartment. We were sitting in the dining room and discussing bazaars and ingredients, restaurants and good food, but Udayan’s mind was in the kitchen where the prawns were steaming in mustard and he kept going in and out of the kitchen with I following him around.

Each member of the Bose family is a foodie and as such love to go eating out with great zest. They discover restaurants around the world and share that information with each other. Udayan’s favourite international cuisine is Italian, a huge weakness, he admits, adding, “ In London, there is a small Italian restaurant that I discovered some 12 years ago and since then it has become our family restaurant, we do birthdays there, anniversaries et al. It is called La Geneva, it is on North Audley Street, off Oxford Street. I am also very fond of Nobu in Berkley Street, it has great atmosphere, good food and in many ways nicer than the original Nobu and the third one that I like a lot is China Tang. It is the Chinese restaurant at the Dorcester Hotel and perhaps the best Chinese restaurant I have eaten at.” But French food is what Udayan likes, for the total experience that restaurants in France offer. “I have lived in France for a while and therefore the affinity. Very few can match what French restaurants offer. The style, the panache, the attention to detail, this aperitif, that starter, this wine, that food, the service, the knowledge, it’s the perfection, hmm… though you may be left a bit hungry after all that, it doesn’t matter, the joy is un-substitutable,” laughs Udayan. coining a new word.

Well, all his dining experiences are put to good use. With his mom now fairly old, Udayan relies on all the good food he eats around the world as well as some worthy cookery books, to cook at least one dish on the menu, for his parties at home. His friends of course love him for that, for without doubt what Udayan cooks is ‘the bestest.’

It was almost lunch time when Tushar, Udayan’s son strolled into the living room, “What’s for lunch, Dad?” he drawled, hands in the pockets of his jeans, shoulders hunched in a Polo T- shirt. Udayan turned to catch my eye and gave me a big smile, eyes twinkling. I smiled back, the happy look on his face said it all.