A t former model Shvetha Jaishankar’s workspace, I expect a closet full of chic clothes and sky-high stilettos. Instead, I walk into a peaceful little room with comfortable couches and an open kitchen.
On the counter sits a platter of salad (spring onions, capsicum, carrot, tomato, cucumber, olive oil and pomegranate) ensconced within crunchy, white vadams. It’s a mix of south Indian and Western influences — a combination that Shvetha likes to experiment with.
So, what are we doing in her kitchen, you wonder? Shvetha has just written her first book, Gorgeous. At its core, it’s a cook book that’s peppered with laughter and garnished with conversations with 25 top models from the country, who speak about their food, what they cook, what they like to eat... Some have even shared their favourite recipes.
There’s Priyanka Chopra, Malaika Arora, Madhu Sapre, Trisha Krishnan, Nina Manuel, Niketan Madhok, Fleur Xavier and Milind Soman, among others. “Some of the models are full-time moms.
Their lives are similar to most others. How do they keep up with the duality of life? The challenge is finding the balance,” adds Shvetha.
There are around 100 recipes in the book that also features Shvetha’s recipes and anecdotes from her life. Almost each one has a memory associated with it — from summer afternoons spent at a childhood friend’s place to her first Korean meal in Chennai. “You will find recipes for gojju, palak paneer, sambar, rocket leaves salad, glazed salmon...,” she adds.
People often ask Shvetha if she eats at all. A lot of models get asked that. Through this book, the 37-year-old attempts to portray the real side of a model’s life.
Not all have a great metabolism. The 176-page book also features honest dialogues about the challenges models face. In the title, the emphasis is on the word ‘gorge’, she says. “And, the real path to getting gorgeous is to eat right, be fit, get good sleep and feel good about yourself.”
Today, with so many cuisines available, food has become entertainment. “When I was a model, looking good was part of the profession. I would eat, walk around, exercise. After I quit, it wasn’t the same any more. As you grow older, life throws things at you. I was tired, wasn’t getting good sleep, my body started reacting to food that I was used to, and I had to be hospitalised a few times. I had to get back the rhythm. That’s when I realised food is essential but we tend to disregard it,” she says, and adds after a thoughtful pause: “You need to find your fit, not diet fads. Try to find a balance that works for you. For me, food, fitness and purpose are the three building blocks of a model life.”
It took Shvetha a year to complete her debut book. In between taking care of her family and her two young daughters, the last six months of the book felt like running a 100-metre dash, she says. “I had 12-hour days. Along the writing process, I kept adding and changing things, and the book is a little different from what I started out with,” says the Church Park alumna. The process also included gathering recipes, trying them out and retaining what worked.
“There is a fashion element to the food photography in Gorgeous . The food shots are by Sunder Ramu,” she adds. No wonder, her workspace has a table full of interesting kitchen artefacts-turned-production props that have been curated from Royapettah and Parrys to Turkey and Israel. Quirky photo frame platters, wall hangings as plates and a pair of geisha footwear that she was gifted during her Miss India International title in Japan... all find themselves as trendy props in the book.
(The book, published by Harper Collins, is priced at Rs. 799 and will be out by November end.
It is available on pre-order on Amazon.)
