Contrasting with her tiny frame and her elfin features, chef Bhakti Arora sports a pair of flowing leopard-print trousers as well as purple and blue streaks in her hair — a quirky ensemble for someone huge in Indian cuisine. But that’s exactly what she likes, she says as she sits down, adding, “I love breaking barriers and stereotypes!”
Hyderabadis watched the 33 year-old in season four of MasterChef India (where she came up as second runner-up) and the city has long been eager to take a page from her book.
Much to her delight, her first session of her Wednesdays With Chef Bhakti at The Culinary Lounge featured the king of fruit and was aptly themed ‘Mango magic.’ Dishes that made the menu included mango pani puri, Caribbean mango curry and Thai dual-mango fried rice. Recalling the session, she smiles and comments, “The main thought behind the workshop was the universal love for mango. Now, the first intention with such a fruit is to make a dessert, a cheesecake, or a custard... typically sweet dishes. We do also see them used to make aamras with puri or parathas, and the raw variety is used for cooking. So I wanted to change the way people looked at the ripe mango. So in the workshop, when the students saw me adding onion and garlic, they said ‘eewww!’ But when they smelled the aroma during cooking, they changed their minds.” And so further barriers were broken, just as she intended.
But she broke her own barriers, as she confides that not everything goes as planned, “I didn’t tell anyone this, but I didn’t try anything at home before the workshop. I didn’t have a lot of time and when I made the recipe list, I had done it based on my understanding of flavours. So next I’m at the workshop, crossing my fingers thinking ‘God, save me’ while confidently doling out these instructions and demos. But it came out very well. There was also a curry powder in one recipe, which was supposed to be the main flavouring agent, and we later found out we couldn’t source it. So I used pav bhaji masala instead and that came out better than the original recipe! I was open about that though and I showed the students that improvisation done wisely helps.”
Her own curiosity helped the students relate to her and be emboldened to try new things. She designed the course in such a way that sourcing ingredients is beyond easy; in fact, it’s all available there already! After all, why underestimate the value of the ingredients and dishes in their own kitchen? So the next workshops planned will be hosting favourite and timeless ingredients in all our kitchens, but used innovatively. Another theme will orient around high tea but in the Indian sense.
Health on her plates
As well as playing mentor, chef Bhakti will be engendering the making of meals that go without harmful additives, preservatives, artificial colourants and overwhelming cholesterol — all while keeping the food hearty and comforting. Chef Bhakti’s nose wrinkles at the mention of margarine, stating, “I’m all about being healthy at heart, and my way of cooking reflects that. When it comes to making sweet things, I really cannot condone the mass use of margarine. A cookie with margarine from, say Karachi Bakery, may taste good, — and no offence to those who make them, that’s their right — but a cookie made with butter tastes far better and is better for your health than margarine any day. I’m not one to turn cookies away entirely, as we all have cravings, but we should be aware of its ingredients. So my workshops can be a way of getting information and showing how we can benefit from knowing more.”
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