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Aboard a steamboat!

Veteran artist Sakti Burman is as good a pulao maker as he is a painter

PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA

RIGHT ON THE TABLE! Sakti Burman relishing his meal

Way back in 1962, veteran artist Sakti Burman sold one of his paintings for Rs.250 to a banker "after much debate".But today, he can afford to buy a cup of tea at a five-star hotel for this amount.

Times have changed, and so has the world of art in India. Artists are respected but also measured according to their `selling capacity' in the art bazaar. And by this standard, 72-year-old Burman, who lives in Paris now, is among the `blue-chip' artists today, in India and abroad.

He takes time out for lunch at the Empress of China restaurant in New Delhi. The talented painter finds that Executive Chef Thomas Wee has decided to prepare an authentic Chinese dish for him - Steam Boat - live on his table!

Game for it, he soon reveals that he is a lover of food. Soon it emerges that he is great at making vegetable pulao. "That's my signature dish," he says. Married to one of Paris' well-known artists Maitee Deltil, he says she cooks Indian food very well. "You know, like a good European husband, I wash the dishes when she cooks," laughs Burman as the Duck Trolley arrives with an array of spices, salads, sauces and a burner for the chef's live preparation.

"In Paris, we have live cooking of fondue. They use French cheese in it and eat directly from the dish on the burner. Once in Zurich, Switzerland, a friend took me to a restaurant and treated me to fondue. I was a student then. She said, `When you eat straight from the burner, be careful so that it doesn't fall before you put it in your mouth. If it falls, you will have to marry me, according to a custom here.' I was damn scared and extra cautious because I didn't want to marry her. It didn't fall anyway,"

In France, Burman says he alternates between Chinese, Japanese, Parisian and Indian food in restaurants whenever he isn't eating at home. "I love foie gras, which is goose liver cooked with sliced calf meat, pork, mushroom and done in olive oil. My wife cooks it very well. I don't actually miss Indian food there, but I have seen that whenever I come to India, I invariably eat traditional Bengali food like chorchori (mixed vegetables), machher jhol (fish curry) a lot. Maybe I miss them subconsciously," he says, relishing the prawns, tossing them with the sauces and salads.

RANA SIDDIQUI

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