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Microwave for macro impact

Make five star food at home on your microwave oven, says Godrej, which has added this product to its range

Cooking can be such a bore sometimes. All that endless stirring over a sweltering flame and peeping into bubbling pots and sizzling pans to check colour, flavour and half a dozen other things can be excruciatingly irksome. And that's exactly why the microwave folks are gleefully rubbing their hands together, while cash registers ring madly in their minds.

Over the past five years, microwave sales have increased fivefold, according to Shyam Motwani, VP, Marketing and Exports at the Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd. The 110-year-old company, best known for its fridges, has now added microwaves to its list of products, which include washing machines, air conditioners and DVD players. But what's interesting is how they've chosen to promote them.

Five star cooking

Now, everyone knows that microwaves are most popularly used to reheat food. For the real business of cooking and baking, people prefer to stick to their gas stoves and ovens. So the company has brought out a microwave cookbook, which is all about 5 Star cooking at home.

`Five star food at home' might sound like an oxymoron; besides being something only a moron would try. After all, when making dal can be such a challenge, why would anyone want to mess around with crab claws and subtly spiced salmon? Here's the pleasant surprise. They've made it addictively easy.

In a clever move, the company has not only roped in eight well-known five star chefs and asked them to provide recipes but has even got nutritionist Sushila Purshottam Sharangdhar, director of Health Education and Management, Mumbai, to keep them honest by keeping track of the calories and ensuring the butter, oil, fat and ghee make no more than miniscule guest appearances in the dishes.

After all, she says, the advantage of having a microwave is not just the fact that it slashes cooking time by 75 per cent but also that it "reduces fat anywhere from 50 per cent to 100 per cent." Besides, she adds, "You can mix, cook and serve in a single dish."

Low calorie count

There are actually recipes with a cooking time of two and three minutes, each of which has a delightfully low calorie count. To prove their point, Godrej got the Executive Chef of the Radisson, Chennai, (also a contributor to the book) to whip up an Urulai Roast (13 mins) and a Meen Polichadhu (10 mins) at the press conference, when the product was launched in the city recently.

The company plans to make this a road show of sorts, travelling the country to prove that microwaves can be used for serious cooking, and convince the "housewives" of the versatility of the appliance. Oh, and their new range of microwave ovens has all the usual features, besides a special `power wave technology.' The book, unfortunately, is available only with the appliance. Perhaps they should start marketing it independently. Till then, well, for recipes there's always the Internet.

SHONALI MUTHALALY

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