'Culinary art is also poetry'

For many, cooking may be just one amongst their daily routines, while for some it must be a tedious job to try their hands on. Not everyone can relate cooking to art. But prominent poet and lyricist Viplob Pratik is one of those few who relates culinary art to poetry – aesthetic, spiritual and beautiful.[break]

An evening when Republica met Pratik at his residence in Maitidevi, he was lost into his own world of fiction and fantasies. Despite there was a power cut in the evening, Pratik was rather finding a different world of light in the darkness as there wasn’t a single candle lit in his apartment. Humbly, he arranged candles for us and soon the poet turned into a promising chef.

“I’m not fond of eating a lot. But what I eat has to be something worth going for,” Pratik started the conversation on his relationship with cuisines. “Often, your personality is reflected by what you eat,” he quickly added, stressing on how he is very systematic when it comes to cooking and dining.

Cooking started with Pratik as soon as he moved out in early 2000 to live on his own.

“Trust me that all cooking knowledge came to me by instinct. I never went through any recipe guides or cookery shows to learn cooking,” he explained.

Though Pratik insists that he has never spoiled food since the time he started cooking, he however remembers an incident when he spoiled a vegetable as he had no clue that it was a must for a gourd to be peeled before being cooked.

“Cooking is an art. It’s like writing a poem,” he makes it loud and clear.

Pratik, who is very particular when it comes to cooking, doesn’t like any interference while he is handling the meal.

“Too many cooks spoil the broth,” he quickly related the one-liner to his style of cooking. Pratik elaborated, “When I’m inside the kitchen, I prefer everyone to stay away from my business. Not just about cooking, I’m also very particular when it’s about chopping vegetables. I need to make sure that each potato is cut into the same size so that the perfection is maintained for this art.”

With the conversation moving further, the poet struggled to his best to deal with salt, turmeric powder and cumin powder in a dim candlelight inside his kitchen. Due to the power cut, and though Pratik seemed a bit unsure about whether the food was done well or not, he definitely reached that perfection in “culinary art” because I had never tasted such delicious Mutton Curry and French Beans (Ghiu Simi) before.

MUTTON CURRY

Ingredients:

Mutton: ½ Kg

Olive oil: 1½ tbsp

Chopped onion: 100 grams

Ginger-garlic paste: 2½ tbsp

Salt: 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder: ½ tbsp

Method: