With his delicious recipes served alongside tongue-in-cheek jokes and ‘namak, swaad anusaar’, for nearly two decades, Sanjeev Kapoor’s iconic show Khana Khazana brought him into the homes (and plates) of many Indian families. “When you do something, you don’t know where you will reach. You just keep on doing your best and if your effort is there, rewards will come,” says Kapoor, who was in Bengaluru recently. Fondly recalling a time when he used to savour Bengaluru’s dosae, he laughs, saying, “I used to definitely enjoy that, though it was always full of butter and ghee.”
Coming from someone who has taught at least two generations to cook everything from dabelis to sandwiches to parathas and his signature ‘shaam savera’, it’s not entirely surprising when Kapoor refuses to name a favourite dish. “I eat anything and get excited with everything whether it is a dosa or a pani puri or curd rice – I enjoy it. I don’t find fault in food unless I’m professionally paid to do so. But sometimes I think it’s a problem,” he jokes. It is perhaps this excitement and curiosity about new foods that explains the prolific nature of his food tutorials and recipes. “I don’t like to cook a dish twice, it’s boring,” explains Kapoor, adding, “As a creative person, you always want to do something new. So when you are cooking, [what’s important is] not what you like to cook but who you are cooking for and what that person would like.”
Commenting on India’s changing culinary landscape in his time as a chef, Kapoor notes, “There is more availability, especially in terms of ingredients. People outside India are open to more styles from India, and that is because knowledge has become easy and people have started to travel more,” he says, adding, “One of the busiest places in Mumbai for dosa sells the Bengaluru style. Earlier we would have to come to Vidyarthi Bhavan or CTR for it but now in Bandra, there are 10 places selling that kind of a dosa. Once, you had to go to one place, now those places are coming to you.”
While most people may know Kapoor from his iconic cooking show or his stint on Masterchef, he has expanded beyond that image, with entrepreneurial ventures like Yellow Chilli, and adapting to social media – delivering much-loved recipe content. “You have to understand, the screen is in your hand now and that’s the way content is consumed. We saw that much before anyone else. So we have a large presence on all the digital platforms, not just YouTube, we were probably one of the first to power Microsoft’s food content and today, if you ask Alexa for a recipe, chances are it’s powered by us,” he explains. With this, a return to TV shows does not seem to be on Kapoor’s radar, as he says, “It’s not about doing what you were doing – you keep on looking at what you can do next.”
After a long career such as his, one may wonder if the man ever felt plagued by doubt. But for Kapoor, the key is to ‘not over intellectualise’. At HomeStop to conduct a masterclass for his home appliance brand, he says, “I am a teacher at heart. When, with knowledge and information, you can make so many lives better, why would you not do it? When you get this unconditional love, there’s no way you can be down – you’re always motivated and raring to go.”