I ENJOY entertaining at home... but only as many guests as I can comfortably seat around my marble-topped dining table. This is six. But at a squeeze, I can sit nine. Yes, I admit, 18 is a bit too much. I don't like people standing around and eating. My cook, P. A. Kumaran, who is a mad Malayali, and who has been with me for 18 years, is like a mother-in-law. He can debone a chicken, stuff it, and stitch it up again like nobody else I know. But when I have people over, I take charge from him. And Kumaran then sulks and gives me dirty looks!

I have no such thing as a favourite menu. It sounds a bit corny, but I have different foods for different moods. When I'm feeling low, I must have comfort foods like Kumaran's Lamb Stew with Potatoes or my Parsi Dhan-Dar Patia. But for sit-downs, I cook most cuisines. Indian, especially Parsi, Thai, Mexican... which I don't like... and lots of Italian. I am blessed by having friends who enjoy food. The conversation at my table always revolves around food. And among them, I am known as something of an authority on food. They call me whenever they are stuck while cooking and need help.

I do not care too much for the �foodie� label, though I must admit to being interested in food since I was a child. I grew up in the kitchen, sitting on an amma's lap while she cooked, and the last roti to be rolled out with sugar was always mine! Then when I was in college, I had the luxury of living by myself in my own apartment in Bombay. I used to cook and friends always came by to eat. It was not much. Omelettes and bhurji, that kind of thing. Maybe a biryani from the restaurant downstairs. And a drink called Moka: coffee with drinking chocolate and milk! It tasted divine.

Then when I started flying for Air-India, I really discovered food. Wherever I went, I made it a point to taste the local food. I had an adventurous palate. And I always wanted to cook what I had tasted. I was always trying to figure out how things were made. I was shameless. I'd go into kitchens and ask the chefs to show me how they cooked something I particularly liked. And most of them were happy to do so. I am that way too. I have no problems sharing my recipes with anybody. I did a lot of cooking wherever I was posted by Air-India. We air-hostesses used to stay three, four in one flat. We lived on a tight budget. Air-India used to give us an allowance of 3.25 pounds a day. And with that we had to manage rent, laundry and food. By the end of the week, we were so broke that our meals were everything I could lay my hands on and throw into a casserole. It's amazing what a little wine added to food can do. It makes the food taste better than when vinegar or some other khatta is used.

I was lucky, I married a man with a developed palate. We used to plan holidays on which we actually travelled for food. Something like 150 to 200 km a day! We did this tour gastronomic in France in which we visited several three star Michelin restaurants where the chefs proudly took us into their kitchens. My husband, Munna, was always after me �to start something�. So on his chavi, I started Le Gourmet, a catering service of which I was the sole proprietor.

I catered for friends... but did not charge! I discontinued catering when I joined the Oberoi as a banquets and sales executive and later, the Nova Scotia Bank. But I did some big orders when the bank's chairman asked me to cook for his board's lunches. And Munna's foreign contacts started asking me to cater for them as well. I used to only take on sit-down dinners in which I was present. That way I could supervise the entire meal. I used to pre-cook the meal at home and then go to the client's place and finish it. Karen Anand and I did some big functions together in this way.

I've not really had any formal training in cooking unless you count two weeks that I spent in Venice with Marchelle Hazan and Nobu Matsuhisa in a cookery and wine workshop. It was a mind-blowing experience and I wiped out my entire bank balance to do this. By 1998, I was diagnosed as having two slipped discs in the neck and was advised not to lift anything heavy that would strain the neck. I let go of the catering service and since then, I have been only cooking for family and friends. By 1997, I was writing on food for newspapers, magazines, websites with a passion, and that is what I still do. If you want to know what were my best meals, I would say those that I cooked for Munna and myself. He appreciated every single thing that I cooked and we used to have caviar and champagne in bed, and our dinners were under candle light ...starters, salads, main course and dessert. He loved Calvados and I used to make this chicken and cream dish with Calvados that he just adored. But Munna died of a brain haemorrhage in 1999... and for a long time after that, I did not cook. I couldn't. I used to eat whatever was put before me. Now it's all starting to come back. But at home, I still remain a dal-chawal, sabzi-roti person. For my dinner for 18, I planned the menu after I went to the market and saw what was available. Most of the food I cooked a day or so in advance. Some dishes I made the same day. My 16 x 30 feet kitchen is a happy place to be in, though right now it is leaking like a sieve! I have two sinks, two refrigerators, a 1983 Italian cooking range, and a large Becchi Italian oven whose door is falling apart. One fridge I use for my stocks of oils, herbs, vinegars, Japanese rice, salad dressings, mustards. And my kitchen larder is also a mess with tinned food, sauce bottles, coconut milk, tomato puree, creams, Japanese cooking sake... Oh my God, I also have five shelves of cookery books. I enjoy reading them, they make me feel like I'm travelling places!

People ask me about Catwalk Cuisine... Prasad Bidappa had this open brief from Penguin to do a book on models. Why not do a book on their eating habits, he suggested to me. But he said, �You do everything!� Prasad's contribution was his access to the models. Plus, he sat and wrote the intros to every single one of them. And also an exhaustive chapter on how to become a model. The models were most excited about the book. The recipes were done by them, not me. Milind Soman mailed me his recipes for Muga Gathi, Batatachi Bhaji, Vangyache Kap, Sol Kadhi and Payas. Meher Jesia Rampal dictated the recipes for Chilled Cucumber Soup, Steamed Fish with Spinach, Roast Chicken with Rosemary and Fruit Salad with Custard. And Madhu Sapre got onto the e-mail to give me Sabudana Vade, Green Coconut chutney, Gawarchi Bhaji, Panchamrut and Shrikhand. Of course, I tested 90 per cent of them. And the food was always delicious.