Note from Editor
Good morning folks! Today, we have an essay from Meenakshi that speaks to a cooking journey, as well as a woman I’m all too familiar with—Nigella Lawson. I discovered TLC (then known as Travel & Living Channel) when I was about 14. I was captivated by Nigella’s voice and the way she described everything she was cooking, as well as the quality of the shots on her show. She became kind of a soothing cooking light for me, and it makes me happy that Meenakshi found joy and inspiration in her too. Do you have any particular culinary figures you looked upto growing up? Let us know, and enjoy the piece!
Best,
Padya
Meenakshi Bhatt
Meenakshi Bhatt lives in India. She writes a blog on Medium and reviews books online. She likes writing poetry, short stories, and essays. She has worked as part of the Carbon Almanac Network, a team of creatives and researchers that author Seth Godin created to prepare his latest almanac on environmental issues. She has written on various topics for the online magazine 'Reflections' (as part of writing competitions): lac jewellery, Arthur Ashe, the Jim Crow laws, poetry and enmeshment.
Inspired
Many years ago, I was a young mother and a young professional. As often happens in such situations, my little daughter had to be sent to daycare during my working hours. Every day, in her tiny backpack, I packed some homemade traditional Indian food like rice and dal. She sometimes ate the food and at other times, the lunch box was still full when I picked her up after work.
Once, I was chatting with an employee of the daycare centre. The topic of my daughter’s appetite came up, and the lady said something rather cruel to me.
She said, “Oh the food that you send, neither your daughter nor any of the other children want to eat it.” Though the message was rudely conveyed, it was at least partly true. I was not yet adept at making everyday food taste delicious.
It was hurtful news. However, something needed to be done about it. So, whenever I could spare some time, I started watching every available cooking show on television. That is how I came across Nigella Lawson.
I immediately fell in love with her philosophy about food. She was seldom dogmatic about cooking practices. This is in contrast to what I usually encountered in real life. I cook traditional Indian food and most families are very particular about how food is cooked. The carrots have to be chopped in a certain manner, the onions have to be sliced in different manners for different dishes, the chapatis have to be of a certain size and a certain thickness, and so on. So, I found it liberating how Nigella repeatedly advised her viewers to feel free to modify her recipes, to experiment, and to be fearless in the kitchen.
It was impressive how she briskly prepared a variety of meals, day after day, and at the same time carried out a stimulating conversation with us, her viewers. Her kitchen was brightly lit, sometimes there were twinkle lights. Her pantry was a treasure trove as was her freezer. Though these areas of her kitchen were well-stocked the ingredients were arranged in a jumbled manner. And yet she managed to conjure up dish after tasty dish from those-very ingredients.
It felt good to get a peek into her library, too. It was bursting at the seams with all manners of books. There were small piles of books on the floor. However, Nigella seemed to know exactly where each book was. During the course of her videos, she would pull out certain books and describe what she learned from each of them. What a remarkable intermingling of literature and food!
I watched her videos over and over again. As the years passed by and my children grew older, I watched the videos with them, too. Nigella’s detailed and fluent descriptions of food, her vignettes, and above all her attitude towards food were a balm at the end of tiring days.
As I mentioned, I usually cook traditional Indian food. There are few, if any, recipes of Nigella’s that I have attempted to cook. However, by watching her videos over and over again, what I have tried to imbibe is her spirit. I have tried to adopt her relaxed attitude toward cooking. I have tried to get ‘acquainted with the rhythms of the kitchen’ as Nigella says. My husband has noticed that after watching a couple of her videos, I often get inspired to cook something new or different.
I have learned from Nigella that you can be intelligent, articulate, and gifted, and yet be willing to laugh at your foibles. It is possible to have enormous amounts of culinary knowledge and still advocate flexibility rather than rigidity. It is possible to be polite, personable, and graceful and still be a force to be reckoned with.
In the kitchen, and in life, I may not follow her recipes, but I do try to follow her example.