Many hands make light work, never mind the cook!

FOODIE

Vijay Arora's Italian spread is a well-choreographed team effort.

Half an hour late, Vijay Arora rushes into our meeting-place, the flagship outlet of the Gelato Vittorio chain of gelaterias at Delhi's East of Kailash community centre, in a flurry of apologies.

"The morning meeting started late, continued for too long... and one thing led to another," says the gelato enterpreneur, fashion designer and self-confessed gourmand, dressed for a spot of cooking in jeans and a white shirt.

We troop into the kitchen upstairs, passing the parlour where the air is heady with the smell of mangoes. This "kitchen" is actually a four-burner hob with a granite work-top alongside, which take up one corner of a side room; other corners hold a washing square and a cupboard piled high with plastic cups and boxes for storing gelato.

Arora bustles into this room, apologising still, this time for choosing this workmanlike venue. "My kids and wife are away in Mumbai and the servants have also gone on chhutti, so there's no one to help."

Interspersed with this explanation are directions and no-nonsense questions to the men in white aprons milling around "" "Where's the white sauce?" "Did you get the tomato puree?" "Did you grind the walnuts with the basil?"

"Today I'm going to make pasta in pesto sauce, and a lasagne with zucchini and mushrooms," Arora announces as he whips out a shallow pan, pops in dollops of butter and proceeds to saute finely chopped garlic. That done, he checks on the chopped vegetables and the white sauce, arranges the lasagne sheets in the baking dish, the shredded parmesan and mozarella "" all of which his staff has kept ready. Which is good, because as it turns out the puree is missing and the tomato used up. "Oh never mind, I'll make it in white sauce instead."

The garlic's nicely done by this time, and Arora switches on the second burner to start off on the pasta even as he directs someone to get the bread ready for the garlic bread. "I'm multi-tasking all the time. I started out with real estate, and then ventured into fashion, food."

Why the interest in food? And can he do Indian as well? "I was at Cornell when I really got cooking. Friends would troop down and I'd turn out regular meals of dal, chicken, the works. I was specialising in restaurant management and hotel operations and had to do duty in the kitchens, which is where I picked up tips."

The hands, Arora's and those of the milling staff, are flying as he speaks "" stirring, grinding, pouring, layering. And between them, the meal is ready in no time at all.

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FAVOURITE RECIPES

Lasagne in white sauce
1 medium-size bowl of diced zucchini, mushrooms
2 tbsp garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp butter
A pinch of rosemary
1 small bowl of shredded parmesan and mozzarella
Ground pepper, salt to taste
For the white sauce:
2 tbsp butter
Maida/cornflour
Milk, a dash of nutmeg

For white sauce, heat butter in a pan, blend in the maida/corn flour and add milk, stirring constantly. Add nutmeg. Now heat the butter and saute the garlic. Put in vegetables and cook for 5-6 minutes. Sprinkle rosemary. When done, pour in white sauce. Add salt and pepper. Arrange the lasagne, cooked vegetables and parmesan in layers in a baking dish. Top with mozzarella and cook in the oven.

Penne Pesto
2 cups penne
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp parmesan cheese
Few pods of garlic, chopped
Handful of crushed walnuts
2 cups basil
2 tbsp olive oil
Chilli flakes, oregano

For pesto sauce, blend together crushed walnuts, basil, half the garlic, and olive oil. In a pan, heat butter, add the remaining garlic, a pinch of oregano, some chilli flakes. Put in the pesto and add the penne, done al dente, and cook. Pour into baking dish, and pop into the oven with some mozzarella sprinkled on top.