“I originally wanted to study medicine but my mom was encouraging me to go for hospitality. She saw an ad in the paper for a hotel management degree so she told me to go for it and I did.”, says Roopali Mohanti, author of the cookbook Servings: Simple Yet Exotic.
Her journey with food began long ago. In addi- tion to assisting her mother in preparing family meals, her exposure to diverse Indian cuisines was shaped by her upbringing in a military environment. Her formative years were marked by travelling to different regions of India, from Bombay to Cochin to Tamil Nadu and beyond.
Being a homemaker for over twenty years, Roopali claims, “my life is all about menus.” Whether its about curating a weekly menu for her household or crafting menus for the family’s guests, Roopali is adept at menu-making. Moreover, her son’s frequent calls, announcing the sudden arrival of eight friends for lunch with just half an hour’s notice, never bothered her. She explains, “that’s how my house has always been — an open kitchen.” She adds, “when I curate a meal for my guests, I always do it properly — there is always a hand- written menu.” Beyond thinking about the table set- ting details, Roopali’s menus are always compiled with regional cuisines.
Much like most people around the world, during the COVID-19 lockdown, Roopali’s kitchen remained open only to the people living at her home. Still eager to share
meals with her friends, she found herself on several group chats where the members would swap recipes and meal ideas. It was then that she decided to turn her handwritten recipes into a formalized cookbook.
Beyond recipes, she wanted to create a structure around the book for giving full assistance to readers. She also tried her hand at photography. “I didn’t want to hire a professional photographer so I learned on my own,” she laughs, “my first set of photos needed to be binned imme- diately.” She recaptured the photos and measured each ingredient to make it easy for the reader, “to leave less to chance.” With the intention of making her recipes acces- sible, Roopali admits, “I’ve used very few ingredients — everything is easily available.” Like, in the case of ghee versus butter, she uses the latter as it is more attainable all over the world, “while the true Desi ghee we make at home is inexpensive, the price of ghee elsewhere is quite expensive. I try to make [my recipes] as easy as possible.”
In an “ode to a lot of people who are home cooks like me,” she suggests that her book is “about using simple ingredients and making something exotic.” For example, her favorite recipe from the book, Tom Yum Khao Soi and Sweet Chili Prawns.
This is an exclusive excerpt from our September EZ. To read the entire article and more such pieces, follow the link here.
Words Gauri Sarin
Date September, 2023