He has been in Kerala for just over two weeks now and has learnt to pronounce and measure out the ingredients for a Kerala curry without peering into his notes too often.

He is now familiar with kalan , avial, thoran and even meen vattichathu or erachiularthiyathu. He also knows how to cook ‘red boiled rice’ just right.

Well, if you are wondering how, Peter is on a cooking holiday! He is in Kerala just to learn the art of Kerala cooking. Of course, he enjoys the serenity and beauty that lush Kerala has to offer, but the main reason he travelled from London to Kochi is to experience the taste of the land: its spices and the numerous ways of putting them to good use.

So, is a cooking holiday the newest addition to Kerala’s wagon of exciting tourism packages? Yes. Many agents feel that “after the backwaters and Kathakali, this may be the next most important reason for experiencing Kerala.”

At holiday homes like The Pimenta-Haritha Farms, a family house set amidst a working organic spice garden, guests have an opportunity to spend time with people who have a passion for cooking, where they are taught to do it the traditional way. This includes different methods of making rice, vegetables and even the varied ways of using coconut. To ensure they don’t struggle to make Kerala curry with ‘foreign vegetables and ingredients’ once they get back home, they are also taught how to cook Kerala food with ingredients available in their homeland.

In fact, they call it a cooking adventure, “for we literally take our guests on a tour of the cooking experience,” says Jacob Mathew, proprietor, The Pimenta.

Says Jacob, “We give them a complete orientation of Kerala cooking: its origin and foreign influence.”

In fact, Jacob points out that Kerala cooking never really used pepper in dishes; it was largely used by Tamilians and it was their movement to the State that slowly made the ingredient vital to their cuisine. The packages he offers may vary from three days to seven, where the classes are usually conducted in the afternoons. As for the rest of the day, the guests could visit a nearby church, go to a local dance or spend a day with an elephant.” That’s a holiday with some flavour!

TANYA ABRAHAM

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