Genesis of a colourful recipe

Sanjay Kapoor enters the kitchen after a long hiatus, but still manages to bake a perfect dish.

Genesis Colors managing director Sanjay Kapoor is in the kitchen on a chilly, windy winter morning in a leafy locality in New Delhi, cooking for us. He says, apron in place, "I remembered my Rochester days." Rochester, USA, being his alma mater and "the coldest place" that Kapoor has ever lived in. Rochester is where Kapoor took up cooking in a serious way. Recalling those years in the 1990s, he says, "My phone bills from the US were all about calling up my mum for recipes." And on visits to India, Kapoor would pick up spices for his Indian cooking, much to the amusement of his mother.

The guinea pig who had to suffer Kapoor's culinary experiments was his older brother (who, frighteningly, has several PhDs to his name), who was also at that time studying in the US, an hour and a half away from where Kapoor lived. He says, "Since my brother was older than me, I could bully him to try what I was cooking."

Kapoor's link with the kitchen was snapped to a certain extent on his return to India after he graduated from the management course he was doing in America. He says, "After I returned, I was living with my folks and no self-respecting Punjabi mother will let her son cook."

That was not the only reason, though, says Kapoor, for his fewer and fewer forays into the kitchen. He says, "In India everything is taken care of. At home you take things for granted." The large retinue of hired help in most urban Indian homes has meant fewer of us now cook regularly. Kapoor says, in a lighter vein, "Today when I entered the kitchen to make this dish, my cook has been looking at me strangely. He's probably wondering if I am taking over his job."

Kapoor's hiatus from cooking has been complete, though he tells us that he loves to cook when he travels abroad on holiday or has to stay away for longer periods of time. He says, "Cooking for me has to be want-based, not need-based."

For Kapoor, the one thing he isn't taking a break from is eating. He says, "Food is my biggest passion." His wife Naseeb, who wasn't a foodie when the two married, is now somewhat more interested in the whole business of eating. Kapoor's passion for fashion and luxury brands in his day job is only matched by his passion for food "" mostly eating it but sometimes also cooking it.

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Favourite Recipes

Cheese and ham savoury

6 large potatoes
3 eggs
1/3 cup butter
1 1/4 cup grated Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
200 gm ham, diced
2 green onions
1 green capsicum
2 tomatoes (one chopped and one for garnishing)
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp oil
Salt to taste
Mixed Italian herbs
Red chilli flakes

Mash the potatoes with the eggs, butter, cream, milk and herbs. Heat the oil in a pan and add the onions, capsicum, tomatoes and saute until soft. Add the ham and mix the potato mixture with the vegetables and grated cheese. Set in a greased dish and bake for 30 minutes at 120 degrees Centigrade (350 degrees Fahrenheit), until golden. Serve hot with grilled tomato halves.

Cinnamon toast

4 bread slices
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp brown sugar

Mix butter with sugar and cinnamon and apply on the bread slices. Grill till brown. Serve hot.