Birth of Kitcherie

Have you ever wondered why people talk, speak, paint or sing or for that matter blog?? I believe that its an essential human need to express oneself as man is a unfortunately a social animal!
When me (pepper) and my friend (salt) started talking after a couple of drinks on one sunday night we never had really thought that this would take us up to try and create a blog of our own. Actually for all those who have read "Kitcherie"as I have always maintained that it is not always about the food and related thoughts also its not about our urge to become writers or something. Its just a canvas where we want to freely express the thoughts that pop out in our heads and in the due mean inspire ourselves and others. I do not want to be living in a perfect always, spelling and typographical mistakes are accepted.

I still remember was the fall of year 2002, I was struggling hard with our country's education system to prove my intelligence worth and on the same time trying really hard to preserve my emotional quest. Its at times ridiculous that you need to secure great percentages to prove your intelligence. Isn't being intelligent and wise different from being well educated and learned? I remember a lot of people who were not educated, not learned were great visionaries, leaders and had a passion in their life. Need i give any examples? I had just mentioned the word "learned". When I look up the dictionary to check my understanding of the word "learned" it says "someone who has acquired much knowledge through studies"; fair enough, but when is the time to challenge the great gift that we were born with, called brain? Yes, books give the direction but its on us how we interpret them. We need to encourage the healthy habit of muddling what we read in our minds. I believe we should be absolutely free to choose the right from the wrong. What I always see happening is that young minds are always so much conditioned to see and accept things the way it has always been that even a small kindergarten kid will have a negative opinion about the cute looking red devil with tail! Come to think of it, its nothing but the way the surrounding of the kid. Like Pink is a female color! Ferraris are Red! Nurses wear cool sexy short white skirts! or Chef's are dirty and Fat!!!

Never mind, coming back to Fall of 2002, I had done my bit to prove my worth in the country's education system, and was happily moving forward to take up an engineering course without even having a clue to what it will be to be an engineer. Would I be making roads and bridges (at least thats what I think of when I hear engineers, although my dad happens to be an engineer and trust me, I never seen him doing either) or would be sitting in the USA in some software company, punching a monotonous keyboard, having coffee and enjoying my NRI status back home. I didn't know then and i don't see many now either to proudly make bridges and roads, ones I see making roads don't look handsomely paid.Yet, I had this grilled in my head that life after school only starts at an engineering college. But within me, I had to do something more instantly creative! I liked to cook, I always felt that I will be able to take up this easiest form of world's oldest profession and do justice to it as i wont be able to do justice to the other world's oldest profession which, as i know is prostitution!

So here I come to a strange place called IHM&CT Pusa, New Delhi. Believe me, its not one of the campus one would want to be, its not bright and its not welcoming, but there is something in the place which attracted me. The BTK (basic training kitchen) was my first ambush with a professional kitchen and i was in love... As my friend SALT had put it in the previous post APPETIZERS, the beginning of a romance!!! then came ATK (advanced training kitchen) and I was madly in love by now. Passion was brewing like a flavored stock within me, slow and steady only grew stronger and richer everyday. Add to this the spice of having some lovely friends for life.. Abhinav, Raheja, Ravisha, Shradha, Nanzu and of course you Aki.. thanks guys! am I getting too emotional and all? Ok Ok, Cut to the birth of Kitcherie.... After I finish college and secure a decent job and while still keeping the passion on a slow simmer and hunger to learn more and more I met this young business person by the name of Mr.Abhinav Agarwal who had a similar passion like me and he had a major role to make me realize what I wanted to do in my life (that will be a different story for some other time). This was the evening where we usually sit down with god's own drink of a single malt in a delhi bar and trying out our first smoke, the tickling idea of opening a place of our own came back again. It was strong like a thrust and we even went to decide the name of my own restaurant. After some thousand names I came up with the name of kedgeree as the idea was to make the restaurant a place for comfort food, what more could be more comfortable to eat like a rissotto? The indian brother to risotto will be khichdi! or kedgeree which is again a transformed dish in its own. When I thought more of it, i wanted to call it KITCHERIE!!

Its been more than 3 years now, that I had that word with him and it was never forgotten since then. We always talk about this. I always say that alcohol will never lie, hurt or cheat, it will simply heal what needs to be fixed. I was with my friend salt the other day and we thought of voicing our thoughts to the dumb internet where our human need of getting to express is met, we promised to start a blog and then eventually after a long session we passed out.  This time the feeling was all the more stronger to be heard.  Very next day Mr. Salt gives me a call and asks me what will our blog be called? In a flash I respond "Kitcherie".

Kitcherie will be our attempt to voice our mixed emotions and feeling and all the unheard of voices in my little head about eating, passion, relations, friends, everything that is complicated, none the less - Food and beyond.  To me Kitcherie means the kitchen in my head where always something is cooking!! Like a melting pot of thoughts and beyond thoughts.