ONE of the big foodie families of Baroda is the pharmaceutical family of Chirayu and Malika Amin, the Alembic Ltd. people, makers of Zero, Glycodin and lot of othermedicines. They are the third generation and Alembic is a 100-year-old company, or it will be next year. They also are manufacturers of Yera Glassware. And they run schools, a 150-bed hospital that does open heart surgeries, all at a no-profit-no-loss basis. “We have made money from society, so we want to give some back,” says Malika simply and honestly.

This is one unusual Gujarati family in Baroda. Chirayu and Malika, and their three sons Pranav, Shaunak and Udit, eat everything that catches their fancy. From venison steaks to sushi. When Chirayu returned from London last, he carried a suitcase full of food, that was his main shopping abroad. “There was leg of ham, steak, truffle oil, mustard, pink salmon, pate de foie gras, English pork sausages, a whole lot of condiments,” says Malika.

Chirayu explains his exotic tastes, “I studied abroad, in Europe and the US, where I acquired the taste for non-vegetarian food. When I reurned to Baroda, I continued the habit. But there weren’t many restaurants here. So I learned to cook whatever I wanted to eat! I enjoy food, I am not a specialist, but I can cook almost anything. I use intuition and whatever is available. I know how to treat food. I have a great memory bank for food. I remember tips I picked up from chefs, what I saw on TV food shows, and sometimes I read cookery books. But the cooking comes out of memory.”

The Amins have a grand kitchen at home, where Chirayu has constructed a teppanyaki table, put in the Chinese hot-pot, and he stocks the kitchen on all his foreign trips
with pots and pans and other crockery, cutlery that he sources out from shops specialising in them abroad. Malika, who comes from the Mariwala family of Bombay – the Marico people, describes the Amin household meals as being made of fusion cooking. “In Baroda, there is little entertaining outside because of prohibition in Gujarat, so the big dinners are always in people’s homes. Our meals are predominantly Gujarati, we
make salads out of vegetables grown in our own garden, but we also smoke fish in wet grass, we cook
chicken in a pot with herbs, spices, vegetables, sherry and red wine, the boys do their own sushi concoctions, everybody can cook. This is a foodie family.”  

The food coming out of the
Amin kitchen is made out of fusion cooking all right, dhokla in Chinese stir-fry sauce, aubergine salad with flat noodles, Gujarati kadhi with home-made bread, matka chicken, jelebis and malpua made out of Zero (that means, zero calories!), a Zero walnut phirni with maple syrup. “Cooking is a relaxation for all of us,” says Malika. “And home entertaining is the big thing in Baroda. Earlier, people did not want to spend, and went out three times a year. Baroda had no high-end restaurants
as well. Now people’s standards of living have gone up, the restaurants have improved, and you cannot get a table on Sunday night. But the best dining is always done at home. We entertain very often. Even if we are not entertaining, whenever the family is together, we have a
superb meal.”  

The debate at home is over whois the better cook. Malika says it is Chirayu. “He can make up a meal with whatever is around,” she says fondly. “He has his own small private pantry at home and is now looking at constructing an outdoor kitchen.” Their palatial home has
the grounds for a golf course. It has no name and is located off the Baroda Racecourse Road. All of
Baroda’s society looks forward to an invitation to the Amin’s home. It is better than going to a five star speciality restaurant.