Women Who Love to Cook

Every once in a while it is so refreshing to come across someone so in love with cooking, someone so talented in the kitchen. Smita Deo is to the ladle born! Here is a woman who got some sound advise from her mother when she just entered her teens. “You can be whoever, whatever, however big in life, but at the end of the day you have to be able to cook a meal, that is vital.” So saying she promptly pointed her 13-year-old daughter towards the kitchen and directed her to cook her first meal, dal, chawal, aloo.

“I am so glad she did that,” says my exuberant cover girl, whose smile never leaves her happy face and one who dishes out the most wonderful lunch for me, one rainy afternoon.

“I can tell you,” I told my crew, as we stepped out the elevator, straight into Smita’s apartment, “the food will be awesome. I can judge by the aroma.” And it was. Rarely do I bring back something home for dinner, this time I did! The mutton chops were excellent.

Monsoons are a time when food tastes even better, for reasons not difficult to fathom. It’s cooler, nicer. And the bazaars are full of fresh, green vegetables. You feel like getting them home, going on a cooking binge. Well, some of us do.

And monsoons also arouse soup pangs. So we have for you a dozen soup recipes created exclusively for UpperCrust by Chef Rupak Debnath of The Leela Palace Udaipur. Go ahead, attempt to recreate them. You have so many to choose from; mushroom, broccoli, pumpkin and more.

Baklava is something we end up buying from shops, especially if we are visiting Turkey or Dubai or somewhere Middle Eastern, but we don’t really think of making some in our own kitchens. Too tedious, we presume. Probably right, however we have sourced a simple recipe for you if you want to have a go at it. It’s thank to being inspired by an article filed by my friend Kaveri Ponappa who came across a legendary Greek baklava maker, 95 years old but totally young at heart, who makes this delicacy in the most traditional manner. Which also means he labours in his kitchen, shirtless! That’s the norm in Crete, I am told.

Talking about Greece, which still continues to be a hot spot travel destination, I have noticed more and more Indians are opting for destinations in Africa. Safaris are a big lure. As also the resorts. These jungle retreats may appear rustic but they are far from that, where the food and facilities are concerned. Luxury redefined. In this issue we have our newest and youngest travel writer, Namrata Jaykrishna Parikh who raves about Rwanda.

Africa is also singer Anushka Jag’s numero uno destination. “Going on a safari is so exciting,” says Jag who has just returned from Masai Mara, where she went with her lovely mum and my good friend, Shobha Jagtiani.

I am glad that UpperCrust is able to bring you the best of what is going on in all the foodie cities – Metros, we call the section of India; Delhi, Bangalore, Madras, Poona, Goa, even Ahmedabad and of course Bombay. The appreciation is appreciated. I know that our feature writers in these cities work hard to sift through and bring the best to the table, so when you travel to these cities you know where to head. Thank you Marryam, Priya, Minoti, Devanshi, Nolan and Sahil.

To the reader question, why have we not included Calcutta as yet to the bouquet of metro cities. My answer is simple, we haven’t as yet found a good food writer from there, as yet. Recommendations welcome. We love Bengali food.