THE star cast was as mixed and interesting as the meal. The cream of Bombay�s theatre world in a casting coup of sorts. All crammed for a standing-room-only kind of scene in Farzana Contractor�s kitchen, discussing their life�s work and everybody else�s. And talking animatedly about food. Unrehearsed, without direction. All it took to bring together four generations of veterans of the stage was a slap-up meal. And the foodie stepped out of the actor, the gourmet separated from the director.

Sabira Merchant, the grande dame of Bombay�s English stage, shrugged elegant shoulders and rolled expressive eyes heavenwards while describing her favourite dish. �A Goan fish curry and rice, I can�t see beyond that,� she said, sniffing dismissively at the Mutton Biryani that fellow heavyweight Hosi Vasunia was piling on for the third time on his plate. While he, eager to share the credits, did a soft-shoe shuffle in the tiny kitchen stage, and said, �Give me a good Parsi Dhan Dhar Patia any day!�

It was that kind of meal. And the guests, as used to taking seconds as they are to encores, gave of their best. There were Avantika Akerkar and Quasar Padamsee, the babes of the stage, making a cosy twosome. She (like Red Riding Hood, looking good enough to eat!), fond of designer meals, and he of the desi variety. And Dolly Thakore and Sharon Prabhakar, talking about the awesome Dal Gosht the former cooks and the Shalate Rice the latter does and which is named after her daughter.

Vijay Crishna, debonair and dapper, dressed in his Sunday best, talked about being a Dal-Chawal man. While pink and chubby-cheeked Feroze Khan, a carnivore in a vegetarian household, admitted to being crazy about seafood. Advertising and theatre biggie Bharat Dabholkar, looking like WWF muscleman Vin Diesel on a slam morning, flexed his biceps and said menacingly he ate everything edible! And then promptly turned his attention to Farzana�s parrot Jimmy Boy who was being uncharacteristically quiet in his cage.

Rahul da Cunha, bursting out of a black shirt, and minus his Utterly Butterly girl, feasted on the Mutton Biryani. �For my last meal on earth, God, give me a great biryani,� he said, as if this was the Last Supper. And Farid Currim, beard trimmed close like India�s former Mughal rulers, poked at the Khichda and said what he really relished was Haleem. Lilette Dubey, looking dishy, said she was a major fish freak. And Raell Padamsee talked about growing up in a home which was accustomed to feeding entire casts!

Ordinarily too, Farzana Contractor�s kitchen is a theatre of good cooking. On this Sunday when the drama in the kitchen was provided by its celebrity guests, the food was catered by good friends Jafferbhai Mansuri of Delhi Darbar and Rumi Ranji and Zia Eshraghi of Golden Star Thali. Sabira Merchant and Vijay Crishna, who started supper theatre in Bombay in the 1970s with Duet For One, reminisced how a decline in theatre was arrested by getting Taj Mahal Hotel to make an evening of the play and throw dinner in. �Otherwise the production costs were killing us,� she said. �There�s really no money in theatre, you know.�

And it is true, you are in theatre because you love theatre, and not to try and make money. Actors are not paid much, Rs. 500 for a performance only, after two months of solid rehearsals. And then there�s no telling how many shows the play will have because it is not guaranteed a successful run.

And over the good-natured ribbing (Sabira to Farid and Rahul coming in late, �The actors are here, now the stars arrive!�), the bitching (�What�s Sharon showing? What�s she not showing!�) and leg-pulling, and the slick one-liners (�Bharat�s got a captive audience here, more than he�s had in any of his plays!�), there was talk about food and drink. And Bombay�s all-theatre guest list talked about their being gourmets and gourmands, their favourite foods, the dish they found most irresistible, their cooking abilities or lack of them, and the fact that this was the first time they were really socialising together!

Avantika, who was asked by a leering Hosi about her role in the Vagina Monologues, said she was never shy about eating. Poker-faced, she told Hosi, �I look, smell, and if it appeals, I eat!� And he remembered that his very first line in a play, in 1971, was �Chicken, top chicken!� Said Hosi, �It was for Gieve Patel�s Princes which Pearl Padamsee directed. Oh God, talk about chicken, and I can walk a mile for a Chicken Farcha!� Sabira, with her Swiss Neuchatel school training in French cuisine, was the most qualified foodie at the table. �I learnt to cook French food when I was 18, but I�m most comfortable doing ghar ka khana,� she revealed.

Dolly (�Hello Dolly�, somebody sang like Louis Armstrong) loves food, but won�t cook it anymore, she has an excellent chef at home whom everybody swears by. �It�s an open house, people join our theatre company because of Raju�s cooking,� she laughed goodnaturedly. Her son Quasar, peering earnestly through the glasses, said five-star food was wasted on him. �I�m a foodie but of the trashy kind,� he said. And Vijay, claiming to be the opposite of a foodie, added that he enjoyed good food and appreciated a presentation that excited the eye.

Feroze, Rahul and Farid hogged a corner of the table, passing the conversation and the Khichda and Mutton Biryani between them. Rahul: �I love food, but none of that intellectual, pseudo nonsense about food. I�m a simple guy. Give me a Biryani with lots of boneless mutton!� Farid: �Absolutely, I�m fed up with this antiseptic five-star fare, if given the choice, I�d go to these small holes-in-the-wall.� Feroze: �Yaar, I love seafood, the crab, squid, the teesriyo, but not at home. We are vegetarian at home!�

Bharat, meanwhile, also reiterated the lack of genuiness of any cuisine in the five stars. �I love the roadside bhel-puris and pav-bhajis, certain foods are meant to be eaten in certain places,� he said. And Raell, who grew up on Goan Sorpatels, Vindaloos and Xacutis, is now strangely eating only stir-fried foods with absolutely no oil! �I�ve got an ulcer so now it�s non-spicy food for me,� she grimaced. Sharon eats scientifically, not spontaneously, �and as raw as possible�. Whereas Lilette rued the fact that her work did not allow her to seriously explore restaurants as a great religion. �I have eclectic tastes and I love eating, but not to the point of gluttony,� she said.

Cooking, that was another subject under discussion. Avantika admitted to being able to do functional, tasty and nourishing food. And Sabira, to �comfort Khoja cooking�. Raell could not cook to save her life! Sharon could do steaks, Chinese food, and other things her daughter liked. Lilette said she was good at cooking, �out of the box, no recipes, I concoct stuff when the spirit moves me�. As for the men, Vijay could fry eggs, Hosi could scramble eggs, while Feroze, Bharat, Farid, Rahul and Quasar could not even light the gas at home!

They talked about seeking artistic presentation in food to satisfy the creative urge in them. �An aesthetically presented meal appeals to the eye,� said Avantika. And Sabira said she liked to present her food with a flourish! �A flower nestling in the Smoked Salmon,� she explained. Not Dolly, however, �I don�t like to be innovative,� she confessed. Vijay said that more than the presentation, he looked at what was there in his plate. �I avoid bhendis and karela,� he grinned. Hosi could feel sick if the food was not presented properly. Feroze was too hardcore a foodie to consider aesthetics in food. Likewise Bharat, �How it looks, smells doesn�t matter, how it tastes does,� he said. Raell said she loved exotically presented desserts. Rahul said nouvelle cuisine bothered him. �Where�s the food, man! All I see is two small pieces of fish with decoration. But yes, in a sense, presentation is better than sloppiness. Quasar agreed, �Presentation makes a huge difference.� But Farid put it best when he said presentation was like building up atmosphere on stage!