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No fuss over food

PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA

Joyful Joy Michael at Chi Kitchen and Bar, Select City Walk

“I am not going to talk about theatre and education. I will save it for another story.” Renowned theatre personality and educationist Joy Michael clarifies it right at the beginning. But for a whole life that has been spent as one of the core members of 45-year-old theatre group Yatrik and in esteemed educational institutions — she was the principal of St. Thomas’ school, Mandir Marg — it isn’t possible for the octogenarian to keep away from the topic. She along with the likes of Rati Bartholomew, Roshan Seth, Sushma Seth, Kusum Haider founded Yatrik theatre group way back in 1964 and was its director for 40 long years.

So, during her lunch at Chi Kitchen and Bar at Select City Walk, Saket, every now and then, Joy would get on to her favourite subject, reveal the latest production up her sleeve, recall her association with the stalwarts like Ebrahim Alkazi, Zohra Segal and then gently add, “Don’t write this. I will give you my full life story when you come home.”

Alright, so this tete-a-tete is exclusively going to be about food, I decide but that’s not the case either as I discover soon that the multi-faceted personality isn’t too big on food except that she loves prawns. The chef obliges and whips up a special prawn cocktail for the guest — shallow fried prawns in a dip made of mayonnaise, gherkins, chopped celery and Tabasco sauce. “They are expensive and not easily available so one can never have enough of it. In Yatrik, we have a tradition wherein we have a special feast after the last show of every production. I remember somebody would just produce delectable prawn curry. There would be lots of laughter, jokes and sharing. We would cut the critics to bits,” shares Joy nibbling on the prawn dish. “Whenever I go to Ahmedabad, my daughter Merieo who is the commissioner there, makes a lot of effort to prepare prawn curry for me.”

She candidly admits not possessing any extraordinary culinary skills. “I am no good when it comes to cooking. My husband was a fabulous cook. I can make rice-dal, omelette, sandwiches, muffins or French toast for my grandson. On my retirement from the school, in fact, Kristine gave me a beautifully illustrated cookbook on which she had written, ‘For my darling mother for whom life in the kitchen begins after 63. Happy cooking’ which is when I retired,” she laughs.

But aren’t army officers little particular about food, I ask, for Joy was married to one. “It wasn’t a problem for one always had cooks at home. I am good at putting things together so I looked after everything whenever there was a get-together,” says Joy. For the main course, she again orders a prawn delicacy, Singapore Chilli Prawns with steamed rice. “Once, on our way to Australia with my husband, at the stopover in Singapore we had this dish. They were mammoth Arabian prawns,” recalls Joy sipping white wine.

For dessert its dates, toasted nuts and honey pie with vanilla ice-cream but she finds my choice — Apple cake with Cinnamon ice-cream — better. Reserving the rest for later, she chuckles, “Hope it wasn’t a mad afternoon for you.”

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