A champion of ‘ghar ka khana’, celebrity nutritionist and author Rujuta Diwekar feels everyone should fall in love with cooking, even if it is at least once in their lifetime. She offers an interesting reasoning on why she believes that there will be fewer wars and more love if people start doing that. Her realisation comes from her time in the kitchen, which also led her to whip up her first recipe book. However, Mitahara: Food Wisdom from My Indian Kitchen deviates from the traditional format and serves more delicious stories and less of “recipes”. With Mitahara, Diwekar travels to different parts of India and scours the kitchen for authentic and healthy recipes. A tete-a-tete with Diwekar as the book launches worldwide.
You have written over 10 books, and your last one was The Commonsense Diet. What led you to Mitahara, a recipe book?
I hardly wrote anything during Covid and this was also a bit of a book that was like unminding because I was writing about recipes and foods that are close to my heart. Further, I started cooking quite a bit and felt that cooking is like falling in love; just as everyone should be touched by love at least once in their lifetime, I think everyone should be touched by cooking. I feel there will be fewer wars and battles on earth if everyone learns to cook because then everyone will learn to give a part of themselves and experience the power of nurture and the power of sharing.
I think that’s the power of cooking: it brings us joy, keeps us straight and aligned, and tells us that it’s together that we can all go and prosper. So people who cook are always interested that everyone else at the table has gotten their share. They will almost kind of overfeed you, even if it means going hungry. I think this ability to give and to be charitable is something that is enabled by cooking. And we all need a little bit of that right now.
I’m very excited for this book because I’ve never written a recipe book before. To be honest, I’m always sceptical of recipe books because I don’t think that one’s recipes should be imposed on another, especially in a country which is known for its diversity. But during Covid, with all this cooking, I realised that you can never really impose your cooking on another. If they like it, then they can adapt and improvise and continue to explore dishes from their own heritage.
The foreword is written by Varun Dhawan, and he’s also a champion of ghar ka khana. Tell us about your association with him and his family.
His mother is one of my first clients. In fact, she has been instrumental in shaping my career because she knew me from the late 1990s. Varun was in school then and was into fitness even back then. Now that he’s an actor, it becomes all the more important for him to look a certain way. Acting is also a very physically demanding job.
The book begins in the kitchen, of course, and it talks about five signs of a beautiful kitchen. One point that stands out involves using silverware, which we generally don’t.
In Maharashtra, there is a tradition, which I think even Bengalis have. When the child turns six months, the first food, which is outside of mother’s milk, is served on silverware. Silver is believed to have antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. Prasad is also served on silverware. So that’s the whole belief system. Every Indian family, no matter how rich or poor, has some kind of silverware, which they keep in a locker. A good kitchen is a kitchen where you start using that silverware on a day-to-day basis. Even if it is just a katori, a glass or a spoon, you start using this precious metal in your daily life. Don’t wait for a special occasion.
The book advocates the importance of a balanced diet. How difficult is that now?
It is easy and difficult at the same time. It’s difficult if your senses are distracted by social media feeds. The more distracted you are, the harder it gets. And the more attentive you are to food, the easier it gets. Small things like saying a prayer or having a fixed place to eat every single day are good practices to kind of pull all of your attention towards the act of eating. So it is as difficult as your ability to pay attention, which is also why I think everyone should cook, because cooking teaches you to pay attention to the small things. Other than recognising flavours and nurturing our bodies, I really think that it helps us evolve our minds into better humans.
Only human beings cook. And because we cook, I think we’ve managed to dominate this whole animal kingdom. And the more ancient a culture is, the more sophisticated or refined your cooking practices.
Mitahara is not a typical recipe book. It’s divided into seasons and has fewer recipes and more stories.
I think food is stories. I don’t think that food is dietary information about how much carbohydrate, protein, and fat you have. Food is really about how you sit together, how you eat, the highs and lows of your life that you share. And people who can tell good stories are the ones who end up living their best lives. If you look at the way that our thali is served — what is in the centre, what’s on the left, what’s on the right… so all of that is really a presentation of a beautiful story. It also tells you that there is room for everything and everyone. You just need to follow a certain sequence. So that way, you can have the tangy and the bitter and the sweet and the salty and the pungent. So I feel that almost everything that we need to learn about life, we have received it in the form of stories.
Stories are an integral part of our lives. When we tell people our stories and we listen to their stories, we get to know each other better. And I think when we get to know each other better, we understand each other better, we understand and appreciate differences. It is also about celebrating diversity, and when we celebrate diversity, we have a happier and more peaceful world. I think that is probably the need of the hour if you look around at what is happening on a global scale. Stories and our food are one way to bring about peace. Even in a war zone, if food is not allowed, it is supposed to be a humanitarian crisis. So yes, stop war, cook food and share it with everyone.
The stories of the recipes are mostly from north India and have touched parts of western and southern India. Does that mean that the book will have a sequel, and you will soon travel to eastern India?
I really feel that what east has to offer in terms of food is really not just mind-blowing, but underappreciated. Recently, when I was in Calcutta, I ate at a friend’s place and I must confess, I have never had a better meal. The ingredients and spices, this whole panch phoran, or the number of things that can be made with rice… I would consider myself very fortunate if I ever get to write about the eastern style of cooking, the whole of Northeast, because just the number of pickles that they make is incredible. It is like the music of the region, the range of massive.
There are some recipes in your book that have caught our attention, like Date Raita and Lehsun Laddoo.
Some of my clients are from the UAE, and one of them shared her grandmother’s practice during Ramzan. If it was summer, they would break the fast with date and curd, and if it was winter, then they would break the fast with dates and sesame chutney. You don’t find those practices so prevalent now. So this stayed with me. Again, one of my clients who lives in Ahmedabad, but has a Punjabi heritage, shared this Date Raita recipe with me.
The Lehsun Laddoo belongs to one of my teammates’ grandmother. She sends it every winter, and all of us in the office enjoy it. Typically, laddoos are all sweet but this is salty. So, you could have the salty laddoo with chai or coffee.
