QUEEN’S ROAD:Nisha Madhulika looks like the aunt whose kitchen was your favourite haunt during your holidays. Yes, the one who had a warm, kind manner and knew how to satiate your soul’s cravings with meals that you will not find in any restaurant just because no chef can cook the way she can. She is in no hurry to impress anyone in the kitchen, takes her time over the bubbling pans, kneads the dough like she is coaxing it to life and then effortlessly but with great precision, serves a perfect bhatura glistening with joy. Accompanied by rich, aromatic chholas garnished with slivered ginger.
Her success as a YouTube blogger demonstrates how just about anyone with a passion can democratise the business of food.
She is definitely not one of the dress code conscious bloggers who throng food events with expensive cameras, distract and disturb everyone with loud guffaws and behave like celebrities. She is someone who does not sell her own persona. In fact, she does not sell anything. She just cooks and is today one of the top self-made food experts in the country. And all she has invested in her cooking is a lifetime of knowledge and some equipment to make the videos look professional. Hers is a success story based on merit and she is one of the country's favourite cooks especially because she does not take short cuts. Neither does she complicate stuff.
Also check out her website (http://nishamadhulika.com/en) to recreate forgotten favourites like Achari arbi, Punjabi Masala Mathri, Patishapta Pitha, Sai Bhaji, Makhana Raita and more. She has basically taken the route away from food bloggers who flaunt their understanding of international recipes and taken us all, eyes misting with nostalgia, into the very heart of pure cooking traditions that we associate with our childhoods, with a time when food fed the soul and not an instagram album. She even has recipes in Hindi and is an inspiration to legions of home cooks who are comfortable whipping up their kind of food and speaking in their mother tongue.Master chefs may be ruling the waves but Nisha Madhulika and her ilk will rule that space where marketed ideas lose their flavour but a recipe cooked with heart and soul is an eternal memory.