Unforgettable Celebrity Bites
Celebrity Bites
Food conversations are where one's personality really comes to the fore, even celebrities. Excerpts from 20 UpperCrust interviews where celebrities share their most fun, witty, quirky, even passionate thoughts on food and wine...
1. Bijal Meswani
Q: So where should UpperCrust slot you, foodie, cook or society hostess?
A: Controlled foodie! I cannot cook to save my life, though my mother did try to inculcate that trait in me when I was 20. One full month, I was in the kitchen, but alas, no culinary awakening happened.
2. Anu Malik
Q: Do you follow any diets today? Any restrictions nearing the big 5-0?
A: Good food can never evade me. Especially after rigorous recording schedules, a nice family meal is what I crave. And of course, retreating to Dum Pukht, with a personalised spread done beautifully by Chef Shareef. For instance, the use of olive oil in my food! So while diets are out, care is taken in the form of less salt and spice. I even try to use my gym membership at JW Marriott when the time permits.
3. Shailendra Singh
Q: You include good food as part of your good life, define that.
A: Food is sexy. Desserts, my greatest weakness, are like wet dreams. Every bite of a cheesecake should be like foreplay. It should be savoured. Smelt, touched, felt. The sense of happiness should linger on the tongue. That's food ecstacy.
4. Malavika Sangghvi
Q: I believe you have a deep bond with cafes per se?
A: Oh yes, cut open my heart and you will find a poet and a cafe-gazer in me. I can stay put in a cafe all day long. A cafe, a book and a laptop and you can leave me there for months. Life should be a cafe. My favourite one is in Amsterdam. In New York I hunt for good ones and in Paris, any cafe will do!
5. Shaina NC Munot
Q: I believe you are an unbiased foodie and you simply live to eat?
A: Please donít ask! I even dream about my next meal. You can wake me up in the middle of the night and say, ëletís go eat,í and I will go along.
Q: I am told you are spotted here and there on the streets of Bombay too, not necessarily at rallies!
A: Gosh, yes. I love street food. I can eat anything, anywhere, anytime. You should see me when we are on the road for election rallies.
6. Brinda Somaya
Q: So you do visit a lot of restaurants?
A: Oh yes. Going eating out these days has changed so much. There is so much out there. I like the innovation. I also notice and appreciate how they bring out the food, serve it, the designs of the plates, the colours and presentation of the food itself. The sum total is what works with me.
7. Sushmita Sen
Q: Were you a foodie before you became Miss Universe?
A: Absolutely. But my tastes have changed since then. I used to be a dal-chawal and sabzi-roti person who was used to eating with my fingers. I had to learn to get used to seven-course meals and which fork and knife to use with which course. And how to drink wines and champagnes.
Q: Wines and champagnes?
A: Yes. I was taught to toast with champagne. I must have had a sip every day I was Miss Universe. Then Iíd put the glass down. Wines are easier. I prefer whites. I like a good Chardonnay. But Iím not picky and choosy. Iím more a Bacardi drinker. Bacardi, two cubes of ice and tonnes of Coke.
8. Sajjid Mitha
Q: What's a holiday like?
A: Typically we keep five to six weeks for holidays. They are the best. We will start with a cruise, drive through parts of Europe, which we both love to do. We may return to Bombay for two or three days and take off again to some island in Thailand.
9. Smita Thackeray
Q: Wow, candy floss! Always been a child at heart, huh?
A: Yes, and in taste, too. I still love eating all the things I did as a child.
Q: You enjoy the good life?
A: Yes, I do, and why not! I love to know more about wines, I love to travel with my family. I enjoy every moment of my life.
10. Remu Jhaveri
Q: Any memorable meals not cooked by you?
A: Has to be in Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia where I went diving. The fish swim in deep reef waters and develop unbelievable taste; sea bass, Grouper was fantastic. We had our lobster raw, with just some wasabi salt and a dash of soy sauce, unforgettable. Another one in France, where they served a piece of steak - rare, upon a perfectly cooked foie gras. They do such things only in France.
Q: You don't shy from eating unusual foods, do you?
A: Right, from sea beetles in Argentina, to snake blood in Taiwan, and in Spain, meat from a bull killed at a bullfight. Yes, I seem to have been adventurous. But thatís part of travel, you must!
Remu Jhaveri
11. Mukesh Ambani
Q: The Ambanis are said to keep a great table at home!
A: Yes, itís a home-cooked vegetarian food all the way. A Gujarati thali, made by our Saurashtra maharaj and his Nepali kitchen boy. We feed this to guests from all over the world. This is my fatherís influence. Keep the cooking simple, he always says.
Q: Do you drink?
A: A couple of sips of champagne, more as a token, if a toast is being raised.
12. Chetan Bhagat
Q: How important is food?
A: It has always featured prominently in my life and my books. Once you get married, you cannot womanise. And I don't drink excessively, smoke or do drugs. So, where does the excitement come from? Good food!
Q: Your secret indulgence?
A: Three tablespoons of condensed milk, with one tablespoon of drinking chocolate smoothened in, and cropped cashews and raisins added. Such a stress buster!
13. Maheka Mirpuri
Q: Whoa. So nothing sinful ever goes into you?
A: Desserts are a weakness, which I cheat on, sometimes, I can eat a whole slab of chocolate at a time. And I do eat two pieces of dark chocolate, every single day. I am a tea addict and drink a minimum of five cups a day! Plus, there's alcohol!
Q: Ya, I know. It's vodka. You like it so much, you even christened your first furry ball of a dog that!
A: Yes, I love vodka and I adore my Vodka! And they both help me unwind!
14. Sandip Soparrkar
Q: What food makes the dancer in you leap up, sing and dance, twirl with happiness?
A: Chocolate! And more chocolate!! Dessert for me begins and ends with chocolate. Forget strawberries, you could dip a piece of leather in chocolate and give me to eat and I might! I donít have a sweet tooth, I have a mouthful of sweet teeth.
Q: You are famous for a unique dessert, what's it?
A: Oh, my famous Milkmaid chocolate. One kilo of sugar, one of cocoa, one can of Milkmaid, mix it up, stir till your arm aches and the concoction gets goeey and you are done. Spread it on a platter, cut it up or make chocolate balls and enjoy.
15. Kapil Dev
Q: Are you hooked onto anything?
A: Blue cheese! Stronger the cheese, better I like it. I got hooked on cheese when I started playing cricket. I can enjoy a wine and soda, this drinkís called spinzer, and Iíve just started smoking cigars. I don't inhale! But smoke for the aroma, it's beautiful, and the style!
Q: What do you look for in a meal?
A: Good company! If thatís there, I can sit down and spin out a meal for over two hours. But foodwise, I would look for a hundred things. I'm quite fussy like that.
Q: You're looking terrific! What do you do?
A: Play golf thrice a week, and walk four miles each day. No energy supplements and things like that. Indian home food is healthy enough if eaten properly.
16. Penaz Masani
Q: You travel a lot for your concerts. Africa, Latin America, Korea, Vietnam, Central Asia, do you try all the exotic food that comes your way?
A: Absolutely. Organisers overseas are under a mistaken notion that all Indians like to eat Indian food when abroad, so I have to warn them beforehand to locate good local places for me to eat out.
Q: Any special experiences?
A: I was in Kyrgyztan recently, where you are served parts of the goat according to your importance. My hosts were Bedouins and I was the chief guest so I got the head. Gosh, it was too much but I managed.
17. Bina Ramani
Q: You've been different things at different times, what makes you tick?
A: Beauty. And all things beautiful. I am very motivated by anything which by nature has a potential for man to make something out of.
18. Zafar Hai
Q: Are your earliest memories of food, that of Hyderabad?
A: Absolutely! I was brought up on biryanis, khormas and pasandas with rotis and naans. The lunch was always Hyderabadi, but surprisingly, dinner was always English! Hyderabad was so British-influenced in those days, and my family had a Goan cook who made the most marvellous English dinners - Chicken Roast and Bread-and-Butter Puddings.
Q: Are you as fastidious in your eating habits as you are in your work?
A: I guess I am temperamental whether at home or work, and when I am eating, I want it just right. That way, I enjoy a meal more.
19. Alyque Padamsee
Q: You've been a teetotaler all your life, how come?
A: Not by choice, my dear, quite simply I am allergic to alcohol. Can't even have liqueur chocolates.
Q: Oh no, do you miss it?
A: Not at all. People go to parties to booze, I go to meet people, I can get high on interesting people.
Q: Really, what else turns you on?
A: Dancing. And women who can converse. I've lived with three such wonderful ones.
20. Balasaheb Thackeray
Q: You are never without a pipe or cigar...
A: Cigar, nowadays. I gave up the pipe in 1995, when I had my heart operation. But I sometimes miss smoking it. The tobaccos used to have such good aromas. I remember the brands- Marco Polo, Three Nuns, and another one called Henry the something! I had a huge collection of pipes. I even liked that municipal job of cleaning them regularly with eau de cologne!
Q: And your passion for Heineken beer?
A: That, again, started during my cartoonist days. I never looked beyond a cold drink, until an American lady told me that in her country, even children drank beer! Heineken is a good brand. But I've had all the local beers too. Yes, with the glycerine!