Anyone can cook

I am an Engineer, 23 years of age. I want to share through here my journey of introduction to cooking.

I have always had a keen nose. Not in looks, but in function. Whenever I came home after school I could tell what was cooking in the kitchen. I always found the scents very enchanting, the strong aroma of Hing (asafoetida), mustard oil, sambhar, gobhi pakora, pudina (mint) chutney on Sil-Batta and the smell of making ghee from khoya. My sense of smell and taste matured with time, like a fine wine. And my mother is one hell of a cook but I didn't know that until I came of age and understood how complicated the broad varieties of dishes she made were. She told me once that when she was 16 she could make a meal for 30 people by herself. A veteran of Indian cuisine. Her childhood was spent in the narrow alleys of Chandni Chowk, food paradise of Delhi.

Chhole Kulche

Now my interest in food was apparent right from my childhood, but I was not really allowed to get involved in the cooking process because a kitchen is for women right? No. I started playing with the kitchen knife when my parents thought I was old enough to not harm myself unintentionally. My father didn't like it but my mother would allow me to cut vegetables occasionally. Born in a mainstream Indian family I was told and I always thought of cooking as the work of household women. But I couldn't resist my urge to bring out those flavors of food that I loved myself. So I started helping my mom in the kitchen, and I loved it. She would make dishes in authentic style from all around India. And I saw her playing with ingredients, she made it look so easy. But when I tried something in my initial phase of learning I would end up with burned spices or excessive spillage of food or undesired taste.

As time went by my tongue was as good as my nose and they worked in coordination. I started admiring the flavors. I felt weird as a child because I literally ate all the vegetables unlike others my age. When I reached class 10, I was fine in basic cooking techniques like fine chopping, making dough, sauteing, frying and stuff. I scored 96 percent in my class X and with no thought just as a patient is admitted to a hospital, I was admitted in a coaching institute where sports, games, traveling, movies and cooking, of course, was a wastage of time. Just like I loved food, I  loved science and maths. I was given a strong and high dosage of science and maths for 2 years. My interaction with television was limited to cricket matches, national geographic, discovery and food shows. I got admitted in a reputed National Institute of Technology for my graduation in engineering. So, after my 10th class, I was driven away from the kitchen before I could really enter it. I was away from home for 4 years of engineering and my only interaction with cooking was when I cooked occasionally on the heater in my hostel room or during my summer and winter breaks. I could make a lot of dishes now.

Upma

My interest in food only grew with time.

As a member of my college dramatics team, we went to Mood Indigo, the annual cultural festival of IIT Bombay. When I was walking through the campus, I came across an event called foodie and I couldn't resist participating in it. It was not about eating but cooking. Around 50 or 100 participants were given a quiz about food and all of the questions looked easy to me. Nine participants were selected. And to my surprise, I was the only male who got selected. Three teams of three members each were made and we were asked to prepare a salad, a mocktail and a dessert. It only involved some good presentation skills and not really cooking. But we won anyways. I became so passionate about food that when I went to Goa with my friends in the third year of my college, visiting the spice garden in Goa was on my to-do list along with doing water sports and watching girls in bikinis. I even had quarrels with my girlfriend because I would always criticize whatever dishes she made for me. I always felt criticism as a way of improvement. After my graduation, I polished my skills during my time home for a few months. Then I started working in Pune in an automobile company. Here for the first time, I had the opportunity to handle the kitchen all by myself. I practiced some of my skills on my friends, who reveled in the results.

Sambhar vada.

During the lows and highs of my small life I contemplated, and I realized that passion needs to be fanned and not left to itself. And during the course, I decided that I might even try to change my profession to my passion. It is worth a try. So what if I am an engineer, so what if I couldn't get it on time. Anyone can cook. Just as the best stories are often unknown and discarded in drafts, some great chefs are often found among us. These are the words which inspire me day and night and which always fuel my passion.

The right time for something is whenever you start it.