COME INTO MY KITCHEN
 Cooking With Precision And Love
This corporate man makes the time to indulge in his passion which apart from investment banking, is cooking. UDAYAN BOSE is happy when his family is happy and they are happy when he is cooking!
 There are no half measures in Udayan Bose’s life, nothing half-baked, be it on the business 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 span 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.
|
 What’s Cookin’, Good Lookin’?
We step into the kitchen of TV star SIMONE SINGH and script writer-director husband Fahad Samar to find that they are foodies never happier than when dining at home
 "I have a general interest in food,” Simone starts, “Cooking is just one of the things. I like to read about food, keep up with food trends, sample local foods of the places we visit…” Simone talks very passionately about food. Like a typical Indian homemaker, she is very confident of her cooking and sure that her well-sourced recipes are the best. She adds a ‘Simone touch’ to every recipe. She tells us how her famous marinated mushrooms are made in balsamic and slightly sweetened with brown sugar, how most of her food has pine nuts, “Do you know there is a worldwide shortage of pine nuts and the prices have gone up to almost ten times?” When she brings out the food on the table Fahad helps her with the glasses and pours wine as Simone starts serving and we start to talk. About food, what else!
|
  Cooking ‘Designer’ Meals!
Mumbai fashion designer PALLAVI JAIKISHAN is a terrific cook. She invited UpperCrust to step into her Marine Drive apartment kitchen and then designed a gourmet meal of her choice
My way to relax after a hard and tiring day at the studio or workshop, is to come home, pour myself a glass of wine, and go into the kitchen to cook a meal. I take my glass in. I love wine, something dry and white, like a nice Chablis. Or even a glass of champagne, maybe even vodka. What I drink is not so important, but what I cook certainly is. The funny thing is that I’m a vegetarian. And I cook non-vegetarian food all the time not knowing how it will turn out. I do this by instinct and smell, not knowing what the food tastes like, what it lacks, it’s a real challenge. I am a vegetarian by choice. Of course, I’ve tasted non-vegetarian food, but it just won’t go down. My husband Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal, the music composer of Shanker-Jaikishan fame, encouraged me to try out everything. He used to love non-vegetarian food. He liked entertaining.”
|
 Chicken Hampstead In London!
VIJAYPAT SINGHANIA, Raymond’s Complete Man and Gourmet, cooks an Indian meal with great expertise
 How much chicken have you bought,” asks Vijaypat Singhania, chairman of Raymonds, the multi-crore turnover suiting company, of his Man Friday, Amarjeet Singh Mali, in the tasteful kitchen of his plush London house. “Ek kilo, Sir,” replies soft-spoken, tough looking Amarjeet. “Kilo-vilo, I don’t understand — show me!” Well. It was a vital question, for Mr Singhania was counting his onions. He was deciding the exact quantity he’d need for the Chicken Masala he was about to cook for UpperCrust. He did a marvellous job of lunch. If we didn’t actually witness it first hand we would never have believed he was so adept. We thought Vijaypat Singhania, like his heir and successor Gautam, is a hardcore vegetarian. Far from it.
|
 A Good Meal Can Even Be Bhel-puri!
MONIKA CORREA, celebrity weaver and wife of world renowned architect Charles Correa, keeps a good table at home
 Anybody looking at my size will know I love to eat! I was always like this. Even when I was young and used to potter around the kitchen at home making Peanut Brittle! We’re Mangaloreans. At least I am. Charles is a Goan. I was born and brought up in Mumbai, the sixth child in a family of eight. We had real good Mangalorean food at home. Lots of fish in coconut and lots of Mangalorean sweets for which I never cared. My father was a gourmet and he employed an excellent cook, because my mother was not fond of food and hardly ever stepped into the kitchen! I remember going to Crawford Market with my father on Sundays and being fascinated by the piles of fish! I love markets. Whenever I travel, I have to go and visit the local market.”
|
  Vangi Bhaat & Val Dal with Aamchi Hema
Trendy yet traditional, HEMA DEORA is as comfortable in her kitchen as she is in her drawing room
Hema Deora is a woman of many parts. When you consider all that she does, you wonder how she also manages to be cook and kitchen supervisor of her high profile household. Well, looking after her family’s culinary needs and general welfare is her primary role, says the lady. So here is Hema, interior designer, painter, social worker, an active bridge player, wife of many years of the indefatigable Murli Deora, minister for petroleum in the Indian government, who jets between Delhi and Mumbai. Weekends, therefore, are reserved for Murli, that’s when he is usually home and that is when Hema gets into the act - dons the chef’s hat, puts on her pretty apron and in shudh Marathi starts instructing her men in white, the kitchen aides who swarm around her, ready to carry out her every bidding.
|
 Cooking Is Therapy!
GAUTAM RAJADHYAKSHA, celebrity photographer, classical music aficionado, experimental cook with discerning tastebuds, invites UpperCrust into his kitchen and then holds court on food, cooking and his gourmet eating habits
 For me, cooking is a great therapy. I find it very peaceful and yet, it distracts me from my daily chores and problems. I’m comfortable in my kitchen. It’s very basic and functional, extremely hygienic and neat. I know my way about. Though my cook, Seema Tandel, doesn’t like me entering it! I have all the regular appliances in my kitchen, but they’re traditional. I have an oven, not a microwave, and a sigdi on which using coal and grass I smoke fish. It tastes awesome! The days I am working from my studio at home, I don’t like to cook, nor have lunch. I shoot either pre-lunch or post-lunch. If it’s a full day shoot, then I eat, and depending on who I am shooting, the food either comes from out or from my kitchen. The stars love ghar ka khana. Rekha loved and expected my grated corn and poha dish! Madhuri was fond of eating vegetables made in white sauce with French bread...”
|
|
