Monday 2 December 2013

Chef = Man?



If someone talks about a chef, the first thing which comes in your mind is a man. It’s like talking about Don in India and Shahrukh Khan or Amitabh Bachchan coming in your mind. But a Chef is a cook and Don is the devil one and as far as I know no one is a better cook than a women and a better devil than Dawood or D company.

Firstly let’s talk about who is a chef and who is a cook, only after that our confusion of chef equal to man will be cleared. Talking in simple terms, a chef is a professional cook, who holds a degree and does all the things in a more systematic and set way. A cook will be highly obliged if you will call him as a chef. Your mom at home is a cook but the one cooking at Taj Hotel is a chef.

These days the world of Chef is being dominated by men. Let’s take some examples of these, the most famous chef in India, Sanjeev Kapoor (Amitabh Bachchan of Cooking), most of the cookery shows is judged by male chefs, talking about chef, no one thinks about a woman, etc. Men are able to do the cooking in a more professional way, as required by the big restaurant that’s why they are dominating. It’s not like that women can’t do it in a professional way but for a woman it is much of a responsibility, especially in India. If a thing is done with responsibility, it comes out to be the finest outcomes. Here we can talk about two things, one is professionalism and other one is responsibility. Everyone excepts a profession to be done with responsibility but no one excepts a responsibility to be done with professionalism.

A boy or girl studying far from his home, always imagines of being in home and eating the best food in the world which mom cooks. There must be hundreds of restaurants in his/her area serving the best food but the common saying in India ‘Ghar ki baat hi kuch aur hoti hai’. Eating at a restaurant you can say ‘it’s awesome’ but eating in someone’s home, cooked by a woman, you will always say ‘bilkul ghar jaisa khana hai’.
The hours of standing, doing it in a professional way is what a man can do better, that’s why they are on the chef line. Women cook by heart and Men cook by hand. Everyone says that ‘one’s in a week we should go to restaurant’, this is because it brings some change and acts as a outing for the whole family not because the food there is better than home.

Here I want to share one of my own experiences. When I was back at home, on the occasion of Diwali, I planned to make Schezwan fired rice for everyone. While I was cooking my cousin was also standing there and noticing the way I was cooking. She told me that ‘This is the way of boys, even my bhaiya cooks that way. All you boys, take out a plate, chop tomatoes, move it aside, then chop onions, move it aside and so on with the other vegetables so that the plate looks like a colorful gathering of finely chopped vegetables while we and all other women, take out the vegetable, keeping it up on the kadhai, chop directly into it. You all pretend like a chef while cooking while we are born to cook’

So at last we come to the conclusion that Chef = Man but Chef is also a cook and women are the best cook.

Monday 28 October 2013

Street food in India

Street  food in  India is represented by chaat, pav bhaji, pani puri, dosa and many other tangy and spicy mix, ingredients of which can be quite varied. One of the most awe-inspiring view at street food stalls in India called as thela, khokhe etc is from rich to poor, blue collar persons-white collar person, women-men-kids, everyone stands mouthwatering and watching the guy spoon out the piping hot masala gravy and the peas onto the plate, wondering when it will be their turn.

Here I want to share one of my experience  of my hometown. There is a very popular somasa wala also known as Deepak Bhai, being known to whom is a very big thing because all those who know him are able to get their orders much faster and easily than others which is a very big thing in that huge crowd standing near Deepak's thela. The things for which people gather around his stall is because of the hygiene, quality, price and his service. And anyone crossing from his stall can't ignore the fabulous aroma and the huge gathering.

People say that for having the street food, you must have a strong stomach because the things which stands between taste and you in street foods in India is hygiene. You can't just go and eat at any stall anywhere in the city. Somethings must be considered in mind like
-Number of people buying from that stall- Because the more number of people will buy, the chances of food beings served fresh will be more. People think that the gathering around the stalls only depicts its popularity but it also indicates that the food being served to you will be fresh because of fast time of replenishment
-Hygiene- How the utensils are being washed, is the person making the food wearing gloves or washing hands, etc
-Service

You can also look upon for some research which has been done on the study of hygienic practices of street food vendors in India, www.shiats.edu.in/upd/af_jan_2013.pdf‎.

So by keeping somethings in minds you can taste the best food, best taste which you can't buy at any cost in a five star restaurant. So go out and try them at best.