I AM writing this for all Indian chefs who are under the impression that Sanjeev Kapoor, the celebrated TV chef, cannot cook. He can. And damn well, too. I know, I had lunch with him one Sunday afternoon at his breezy apartment in suburban Bombay�s Juhu Vile Parle Development Scheme. If Hollywood has its Beverly Hills, then Bollywood has the JVPD Scheme. Amitabh Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan live here. And now, Sanjeev Kapoor. He lives in JVPD and works there too. A little distance away from his home, is his new corporate office, Khana Khazana India. �It is in front of Dev Anand�s bungalow,� he tells me helpfully, and points out the general direction of the office from his living room window.

Lunch is late in the afternoon, and Sanjeev is busy in his open show kitchen preparing it when I arrive. Actually, it is not so much a show kitchen as a vaastu kitchen that faces the east. �I don�t believe in vaastu shastra and feng shui,� says Sanjeev. �The kitchen was already facing the east when I moved in.� I watch him work, and I take in the aromas of whatever is sizzling on the gas. �Aren�t you wearing an apron,� I ask in surprise, for Sanjeev is cooking dressed up in his Sunday best. �Apron,� he inquires in surprise. �What for? I don�t intend getting my clothes messy!� But he nevertheless wraps one around his waist and grins at me. He whizzes about the small space comfortably, swinging open the door of a huge 700 litre Daewoo refrigerator to pull out something, then snapping shut the glass door of a BPL-Sanyo microwave after popping that something in. I recognise the confidence of a man who has done this before a hundred times... probably blindfolded.

�What�s for lunch,� I ask. And Sanjeev smirks. �There is Stuffed Chicken Dum ka Murgh,� he begins with the air of Escoffier about to reveal the name of his latest masterpiece. �And Prawn Pulao, Fish Chops with Raisin and Fresh Mustard Sauce, Paneer Tamatar Ka Khut, and Orange and Ginger Kulfi for dessert.� He is pouring out tall glasses of chilled, delicious-looking Thandai. It is bright yellow in colour and, yes, home-made too. I did not expect to be offered a glass of wine, or even beer, in Sanjeev�s house, because it is known that he does not drink alcohol and does not offer it at home too. The Thandai is just what I want. It hits the right spot and I close my eyes as I drain the glass. Sanjeev is watching my expression, waiting to see whether I approve of the Thandai or not.

His comely and beautiful wife Alyona, and daughters Rachita and Kriti enter at that moment. Sunday is Alyona�s day off. Sanjeev does the cooking at home. �He cooks whenever he has time,� Alyona tells me. �He likes to cook. And if he�s trying out some new dish, or we have people coming over, then he�s always in the kitchen. Sometimes the kids ask him to make some of their favourite dishes and he is happy to indulge them.� The Kapoors entertain often, and it is on occasions such as these that Sanjeev is at his best. Alyona says that he does the bazaar too, he knows what is best, and the vendors don�t try and cheat him. Of course, he is recognised in the bazaar. Almost everybody in India has a television nowadays and everybody watches Sanjeev Kapoor�s Khana Khazana on Zee TV. �Aap bhi jaate hai sabzi kharid ne,� the vendors tell Sanjeev. And then there is a clamour to get the celebrity chef to buy his fish, meat, and vegetables from their stalls.

Sanjeev is expertly whipping up caramelised sugar now to create a thin sugary web that he says must go as decoration on the dessert. I am impressed by him already, and now watching the dexterity of his hands, I add more brownie points to the score. He is selecting plates from his treasured collection to match the food. And this I realise is the fetish of a gourmet who knows that food must first be a visual treat, that�s why presentation is so important. He rattles the crockery in making his selection and decides finally on what he wants. Minutes later, lunch is being served, and I am getting my first taste of Sanjeev Kapoor�s khaas khana. I bite into the Fish Chops and pause. �Anything wrong,� asks Sanjeev nonchalantly. There isn�t, because the food is just fine. I went expecting a great meal from India�s most recognised chef. That is what I am getting.

He appears astonished at my surprise to know that he actually cooks. �I remain a chef,� Sanjeev explains. �Earlier, I cooked for a hotel. Now I cook for myself. I provide a chef�s services for my company which offers it to restaurants, food companies, publishers, content websites, TV channels.� �But are you actually cooking for them,� I inquire. �Why, yes,� Sanjeev replies. �And I do more cooking every day than any executive chef of a hotel. The executive chefs hardly cook because they have such large work forces to do the job. Besides, they are so busy with administration work, planning menus, seeing to tenders. They only cook when there is some VIP in the hotel. Whereas I am cooking when I train people, I am cooking for my television show, for my books, and also for my family... as an executive chef I never got time to do this.� The family, I can see, has forgiven Sanjeev the past, because he is there at home every day now to cook each one of his women their favourite foods. Alyona tells me proudly of her birthday which just went by. The great Sanjeev Kapoor got an induction pan on the dining table and stood there and cooked for her entire family. �All 25 guests,� she says, �and Sanjeev cooked what each one wanted without any help. He had three sauces and four different pastas, and what a ball he had! One person wanted no cheese, another wanted no garlic and yet another no chilli. He did it all.� The girls are pretending to be coy and ignore my questions. They won�t be drawn into saying who�s food is better, Sanjeev�s or Alyona�s. Instead, they concentrate on clearing what Daddy has put in their plates before them.

�The chefs of India don�t know what Sanjeev Kapoor is doing,� the big chef says regretfully now. �Unfortunately, they are limited to the gajjar-mooli in their own hotels, whereas I took my chances to be where I am today.� And where exactly is Sanjeev Kapoor today? I will tell you. He is at the top of his chosen profession. His sanjeevkapoor.com has been rated by BBC as the No. 1 food site of India. It gets five million page views per month and is only the ninth website from India. �When Times of India hadn�t yet thought of a website, sanjeevkapoor.com was up,� he says proudly. Then there is his TV cookery show Khana Khazana which started eight years ago. �It is the only programme alongwith Close-up Antakshari that has lasted so long,� the celebrated chef says. There are his cookery books, four in print, all best-sellers, the first one selling 100,000 in its first year. And his CD-Rom on food, his audio books, DVDs, the TV commercials he is making, future food shows he is planning, restaurants he is consultant to... all without getting a single grey hair in his head, for Sanjeev Kapoor is still in his late 30s only.

I ask him what kind of relationship he has with the chefs of India. �Very good,� Sanjeev says. �They treat me very well. Are they on edge when I go to their restaurants? I would not say on edge. But, yes, they are certainly under pressure. They try to make sure that everything goes well for me during my meal. I never look for faults in other chefs� cooking. Why should I? I go to a restaurant because I have heard that it serves good food. So I look at what is good.

Sometimes if the food is not upto standard, I don�t create a fuss, I am nice about it. Remember, I have worked on the other side. Things can go wrong. Not intentionally. But the wrong can always be rectified.� He likes to go eating out. �I try to eat varied food,� says Sanjeev. �The more I eat out, the more I learn. And the more I travel, the more I get to eat out. It is a learning experience. I can recreate almost 90 per cent of what I taste outside. Yes, in any cuisine. Of course, if the ingredients are unknown, this can be difficult. But cooking, creating dishes, is all the same. I do it in my head! The head is a computer. Any good chef can create a dish in his head without actually cooking, and still get the taste.�

�Aren�t you keen on starting your own restaurants,� I ask Sanjeev. �Not really,� he says. �To start with, you need lot of money to open a restaurant. In terms of my business plan, a restaurant is bad business. The effort-to-returns ratio doesn�t match. But I am very involved in doing restaurants for other people. I have done Khazana in Dubai. It serves Indian food of today and tomorrow. Food that is deliciously different. You know, dishes like chicken tikka with lemon grass, rasmalai with fresh fruit, nothing that a die-hard Indian cuisine fan would reject. I am in Dubai for a couple of days every two, three months. I am involved in the restaurant in every capacity but day to day management. I have a franchise restaurant called Yellow Chilli in Ludhiana. And another by the same name in Amritsar. I am franchising a brand, right from planning the restaurant and kitchen to selecting crockery, cutlery, designing a menu, training the staff. I don�t invest in these places. I don�t run the restaurants but show the franchises how to run them. I provide the expertise and brand. And I am doing a different kind of branding in Kolkata. This will be a top class restaurant, one of the best in India, I plan to call it Blue Cilantro.�

His plate is full, as far as I can see. But I still ask Sanjeev what his plans for the future are. �Who has time to think of the future!� he exclaims. �I have a one-point plan. To ensure that the foods of India are projected well internationally. This can be done not just through restaurants, but also through TV shows, the Internet, media, books. I myself am working on a food show called A Touch of Turmeric for an international television channel. It will be a travel and food show. Then my Khana Khazana continues on Zee. It is also done in regional languages through Alpha channel. But I still want to do an English cookery show for a big international channel. No, I don�t have the right contacts in BBC for this. If in the next 10, 15 years down the line people think of Sanjeev Kapoor anywhere in the world when they think of Indian food, then my job is done. My next seven generations are taken care of!�