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Talking khana Sanjeev

Ask him about the product (a sugar substitute) that he endorses, and he says: “In the last 15 years I have endorsed just six to seven products, which means one in a couple of years. I would never endorse something that I would not want anyone from my family to use”

As host of one of the longest running shows on Indian television “and mind you it is not a serial,” Kapoor is easily one of the most recognised faces in television. He says he’s getting ready to launch a television channel devoted to food.

Quiz him on what got him into the kitchen, and he says “When I was a kid I didn’t know this is what I wanted to do. Like there is Playdoh today, then too as kids we were given things such as dough to keep ourselves busy. Going by the time spent in the kitchen, my brother who is a management consultant should have been the chef.”

A predilection for the “different” led him to the hotel management course.

“I wanted to do something that was drastically different. Something bizarre, something that would make people do a double take when I tell them this is what I do. So, becoming a chef was the thing to do, nobody I knew (family or friends) was a chef,” he says.

He was one of the youngest executive chefs of a five star hotel in India, since he peaked his career while very young.

Then came the “What next?” moment, and television and ‘Khana Khazana’ happened.

And, he has come a long way. Things with a streak of madness is what attracts Kapoor, which is what he says drew him to go bungee jumping 20 years ago in New Zealand. “I paid $ 80 to jump off a cliff, and people were like ‘what is wrong with you?’”

That same streak of madness led him to the dance-based reality show ‘Jhalak Dikhla Ja’.

“I asked a friend of mine what he thought about my participating in the show. I was told that if people had two left feet, I had 20 left feet. And, others raised their eyebrows and they were like naah. That was it, my mind was made up,” he says.

Sanjeev has written around seven books on cooking as well.

Although he cooks them all, Indian cuisine is undoubtedly his thing.

Of the million kinds of world cuisine that are available in India these days, he says: “There was a time when nobody wanted to be seen eating Indian food, there was no pride in eating Indian. They wanted ‘foreign food’, but were unwilling to compromise on the Indian taste. Therefore we have an aloo tikki burger or chicken tikka pizza or ‘Indian’ flavoured noodles. However, today it is hep to be seen eating Indian food.”

The tête-À-tête is almost over, and narrates a culinary disaster.

“A pal and I were on a train from Ahmedabad, and my friend wanted to have an after dinner coffee. Now there was only coffee and no milk in the pantry. So, I asked the staff to add ice cream to the coffee and serve it. The coffee came and as we sipped it, it tasted strange. I asked the boy what he had done. He said he had added the ice cream as I had requested…only that it was strawberry because the vanilla flavour that he was serving was over.”

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