Priyanka Das
The kitchen and I have never been the best of buddies. Nor do we have any inclination ever to be.
The kitchens of our clan have had the men ruling the roost as far as I can remember. Infact, to be precise from the days of my grandparents. The helpers in the kitchen since those days have often been men with one or two exceptions.
Even now when we’ve immediate family get-togethers (of course, pre-Covid phase), it’s my brothers and my husband who take charge of every nitty-gritty. The help-in maids only do the inconsequential stuff. And, the women – my Maa, my sister in-law and myself aren’t anywhere near where the actual action is taking place.
How much weird it might sound, we surface only at the dinning table to serve when the food is ready to be gobbled down!
We as a family in a get-together often prefer home-cooked food hence the preparation is way extensive. If it’s a very well-planned and not last-minute get-together, than the three men take their individual turns in the kitchen making their stuff at their own pace. Each makes his own signature dish, the one which gets an unanimous go-ahead from all involved.
Cooking has been a regular feature for men if their schedules aren’t hectic, so handling the kitchen has never been a big deal for any of them. They frequent it way too much so they know where what is kept just like the women.
There isn’t any compulsion, but their sincere love, innate curiosity, and a burning desire to make ‘that perfect dish’ that draws them to the zone in the first place. Even they have their own separate WhatsApp groups with their menfolk where food and the kitchen are the most talked about. And, where the uploads of mouth-watering pics is a regular feature amongst them by them rules…and rocks!
Image Courtesy: unsplash.com