They say motherhood teaches many things. In the case of Maria Goretti it was cooking. Once a top VJ, today Maria is known for her food blog and her YouTube channel dedicated to food. Recently, she has come up with an interesting book of recipes, “From My Kitchen To Yours” (Om Books International). “It was my kids. I didn’t cook until they had to eat. Before that I never cooked. I used to make only some signature dishes of my mother like baked chicken and a certain kind of chocolate cake. That was all I knew about cooking but with kids you have to learn a lot more. I started with French toast and graduated to risotto.” It is the story of many young women today. In a way, she adds, it is a book for her actually. “As I will get all my recipes at one place and I am hoping that a lot of people also like it because it is simple home cooking.” We are at the bustling Polo Lounge of Delhi’s Hyatt Regency and we both need a cup of green tea to shake off a hectic day at work. But Maria wants to follow it up with a slice of fruit cake. Cake? More about it later….
For Maria cooking is very mood based. “I bake when I am either very upset or very happy. I am like that. I am a little volatile. I like cooking even on normal days but a trigger makes me do really interesting stuff. I started writing a blog when my maid left me. When things go wrong they go right for me.”
When she had Zene, she took a break to look after her. Once she became older she again started cooking and realised her love endures but she wanted to know more.
So in 2011, she went to Tante Marie, the culinary school in London and did a certificate course in culinary and bakery. “What that course did for me was that it made cooking simple for me. It broke down the whole process and I realised that I could actually read recipes and understand. It was like learning alphabets of culinary language.”
Language of love and care is equally important and Maria says it would not have been possible without the support of husband Arshad (Warsi). “Had he not stayed home with kids, I would not have been able to complete the course.” Arshad pitches in the kitchen as well. “He cooks really well, in fact. He used to make the most amazing food in the house for a long time and now he thinks I have taken over his kitchen. His biryani is awesome. He does more Indian stuff and I am more into experimental world food. He loves Mughlai food where I struggle. I have a section dedicated to him.”
Maria is not averse to eating junk food but likes to strike a balance. “I don’t want the kids to jump on the first burger that they see. I make really unhealthy pizzas with lots of cheese. The kids really love my chocolate pizza with nuts which I serve with ice cream. I do a very elaborate Christmas menu which I cook for over four days.” Now we know why Arshad has not been able to reduce his girth all these years. “He blames me as well!” Maria attests.
Maria experiments more than she follows. “What I do is I would make a dish in its pure form two-three times to understand the whole thing and then I play around with it. Once you get the main dish then you can do anything with it. It is like understanding the character. If you make the pasta with olive oil, butter and garlic sauce it is very tasty but if I do the same thing and use pesto sauce instead it still tastes very good. Then I can also do pasta with garlic, chillies and add vegetables and basil leaves instead of pesto sauce. The important thing is if you get your base right you can play with it.”
As for her choices, Maria swears by her mother’s prawn curry.
“It is my soul food. It is also dal-chawal, a fried piece of fish and papad and it could also be a huge bar of chocolate.” It depends on the mood? Oh, yes, Maria laughs. “I am a very mercurial person.”
Does it translate on the items in the kitchen as well? “No. When I am cooking I have to get involved in that process. So it helps when I am hassled or ecstatic.”
Cooking helped her discover herself. “I kind of figured myself. I left my kids home and studied. People do this when they are 19. It made me realise who I am. Ten years back I was searching for answers. It is not that I am not searching for answers today. It is just that I am okay with not knowing all the answers. I have to come to terms that I am a completely flawed human being. Take it or leave it.”
She agrees despite a wave of glamorous cookery shows there are stereotypes associated with women who like to spend time in the kitchen. “I myself told my mother when she made me learn cooking at a young age. I was like I am not going to spend my life in the kitchen packing dabbas. I will do it when I want to do it,” she says.
Cooking offers some crucial lessons in life. For Maria it came on the day of her final exam.
“When I was doing my final exam my exam chicken didn’t cook. And I had no idea despite the fact that baked chicken was something I was making for a long time. I was so cocksure. I sank down on the road outside the college. It made me realize that you should never be too sure about yourself. I passed with flying colours because I was consistent through the year but after that I approach everything like I am doing it for the first time and that is how we should approach life.”
Time to attack the fruit cake! She loves making desserts but here again mood plays a part. “I make Christmas cake not because I like to eat it but because the house smells well when you make it. It is more of a mood cake for me.”
She also loves making jalebis. “I make really good two-minute jalebis like a mithaiwala. The only difference is I use a cone instead of muslin cloth.” Things are getting too tempting to continue!
On the cards
An East Indian, Maria now wants to right a book on East Indian recipes. “East Indians are inhabitants of the seven islands which became Bombay. Their mother tongue is Marathi. Their food is very coastal and yet it is not Goan. A lot of people mix the two. I want to explore the recipes which my grandmother used to make. Our prawn curry is different from the Goan variant. We use something called bottle masala, which is a combination of 26 spices. I have introduced it in “From My Kitchen To Yours” but it deserves a separate book.”
