ROCKY MOHAN has about him the genial air and appearance of a bon vivant. He is a big man, a New Delhi Punjabi, bursting with his knowledge of food and drink. And with the experience of living life king-size. Plus, he is the maker of the world�s largest selling dark rum - Old Monk.

The Old Monk bit has nothing to do with Rocky�s all-consuming passion for food, because Indian food is not really complemented by liquor. Jiggs Kalra, New Delhi�s other big foodie, will argue otherwise; he will say that he knows Indian food that goes well with pink champagne. But Rocky will not be drawn into that argument. He says firmly, �At best, you can use Old Monk to make chocolates and Christmas cake. Or drink it as an aperitiff or a good after-dinner cognac.�

While almost everybody in the country has drunk Rocky�s Old Monk Rum, you have to belong to a select group of gourmets to be able to taste the food coming out of his kitchen. Yes, this liquor baron cooks. And he has authored a book on exotic Indian recipes that he painstakingly collected from around the country, and tested over the years. Critics of the book (including Jiggs Kalra) have agreed that to be invited to Rocky�s table is to have one of the most memorable meals of your lifetime.

Rocky shrugs, but he mentions casually that he has fed Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobaggo recently. The latter was a distinguished gentleman who called on him with a hungry entourage of 60 to sample authentic home-cooked Indian food!

His deep involvement in Indian cuisine came about by a combination of factors: his paternal roots in Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan) where it is traditional for the men to cook; his bachelor days in London where he yearned for home-cooked food; and a cookery book he received as a birthday present which actually triggered off his serious interest in cooking.

The women at home never did cook,� says Rocky. Whereas his grandfather, Narendra Nath Mohan, who bought over the British liquor firm Dyer Meakins and gave the country Old Monk Rum, and his father, Ved Rattan, were very accomplished in the kitchen. His own initiation into cooking was at a very early age. �I did fiddle around in the kitchen even when I was young, but it was restricted to making sandwiches and omelettes only,� reveals Rocky.

Next to food, he enjoys talking about Old Monk Rum the most. Consumption of Old Monk, he says, is five million cases a year. And it is growing at the rate of 12 per cent. Soon it could be the largest selling spirit brand in the world. Bacardi had better watch out. �Old Monk is available to everybody who wants to drink it everywhere in the country,� explains Rocky.

The key element to the brand�s success is its presence. For the CEO for whom we have created Old Monk Gold Reserve, to the truck driver who will carry a small pint of Old Monk in his pocket, we have made sure the rum is present in every quarter of India.� Old Monk is also sold in New Zealand, where it is bottled under licence, and in the USA, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, the UAE, Turkey, all the countries of the European Union except United Kingdom.

He would be over the moon, he says, the day Old Monk replaces Bacardi as the world�s number one selling spirit. �Bacardi�s arena is the world, whereas the world is Old Monk�s arena,� says Rocky. He regrets that rum drinkers everywhere started shifting from dark rum to white, and Old Monk has no white rum to match Bacardi. �Not as yet,� says Rocky, �But we are test-marketing a white rum right now.� Meanwhile, he is very happy with the dark rum.

Since Mohan Meakin Limited introduced Old Monk in 1954, the product has not changed one bit. �Women say they find the Old Monk sexy! I think women disassociate the name from the product,� he says. Rocky drinks Old Monk himself, naturally, and he has his rum with tonic water, ice and a slice of lemon. �When I want it to be peppy, I add a dash of angoustra bitters,� he reveals.

He talks about his book, Art Of Indian Cuisine, released last year by Roli Books Pvt. Ltd. of New Delhi, and selling popularly for Rs. 495 everywhere. �It is an upmarket book, none of the recipes are run-of-the-mill stuff, and my aim was to make food simple to cook. I have incorporated lucid and simple instructions to cook in varying styles, make masalas at home, how to do flavouring and smoking techniques... this is all possible with user-friendly gadgets and easy availability of ingredients.

He must cook every day, he admits. �This is an absolute must. I do one dish for dinner. I conceptualise what I am going to cook while driving home from work, then go into the kitchen and do it. Cooking is a passion, a great therapy and relaxation for me. It takes my mind off everything else,� he says.

Though he is a Cordon Bleu cook, Rocky will only cook Indian food. �Look at the wealth we have in our food,� he says, �Ours is one of the rarest cuisines in the world, there are 100 sub-cuisines to the main cuisine. Even French cooking has only three sub-cuisines.� He does not enjoy cooking international food but can still turn out a good pasta and steak, toss a salad, or mix a cocktail.

But outside home, I will not eat Indian food. I tend to get too critical and don�t enjoy the meal. I eat eclectic foods, different fusion cooking in French, Italian and Chinese styles.� And what does he drink when he goes out? �Old Monk,� says Rocky rightaway. �People who invite me home have learnt to stock it among their champagnes, wines and scotches.�