Are your eating habits distinctly Parsi?
Meaning, do I like food? Yes, I like good food, but I�m not a hog. I have three meals a day and nothing in between except tea at 5.30 with biscuits. Breakfast is fruits and dry-fruits, and a cocktail of juices. Banana with orange, banana with carrot, it tastes yum, the banana is consistent. Lunch is outside, I don�t like the hassle of bringing a dabba to work and eating out of it like a refugee, I must eat with grace! It is a simple lunch, nothing in particular, and every afternoon it is somewhere else. The idea is to get outside the office for half an hour or so. Dinner is always at home, it is Parsi food, and there is fish most of the time.
Lunch always out, you must have favourite restaurants?
There are so many, Indigo is one, Wasabi is another, I also like the thali at Chetana, and Paradise in Colaba is also damn nice. I like good food without formalities. A nice, decent meal that can be done with in 20 minutes. And I have no favourite cuisine, I don�t hop from restaurant to restaurant in search of the perfect meal, as long as I am assured of clean and decent food � I am satisfied.
What�s your favouirte food, then?
Home food, and dal-chawal is my favourite meal, I prefer it to anything from outside.
Can you cook such a meal yourself?
If I have to survive, then yes. In my student years in New York, I used to cook my own meals. But it was a mix of everything together! Fried eggs and vegetables, yes, and dal-chawal with chicken. It tasted quite good!
Are smoking and drinking habits with you?
Nah, but once upon a time, I drank everything. I used to visit the Aunties�
Bars during college days when there was prohibition.
Have you designed restaurants?
I am involved in designing food courts for large IT complexes. Restaurants are elitist, I am more into designing for large corporate houses, for the masses, I like doing good quality work for exclusive residential and office buildings. Like the ITC Grand Central Sheraton & Towers and the Hyatt Regency. People may say these are for the uppercrust, but this kind of uppercrust is for everyone.
Hafeez Contractor of the blue-and-white striped shirts and black trousers fashion, is among India�s leading architects. His international fame rests lightly on broad shoulders. His tastes are eclectic. He loves good food, but not the pomp and ceremony that it comes with, and if he has to survive � then he can cook as well. Dinner he particularly has at home, but lunch is outside, far away from work, and if it is a good and decent meal� then it doesn�t matter where he has it.
