After a 14-year hiatus from the silver screen, Maria Goretti is back with a new show titled I Love Cooking on the recently launched food and entertainment channel, Living Foodz. The actor, former VJ and author allows you a peek into her life as a mother and her passion for wholesome homely cooking. The show comes after the launch of her book From My Kitchen To Yours: Love, Food And Other Ingredients which received a mixed response from her readers. “Some people expected it to be a really fancy book with recipes that are difficult and rare to find, but it’s not. It’s a home-style book with recipes that I have eaten and learned. A lot of people have been trying a whole lot of recipes from the book and when they actually replicate it and they say how much they liked it and include it in their everyday menu, it feels really good,” said Goretti.
We chatted with her about all things food:
ELLE: What was your favourite part about writing the book?
Maria Goretti: I planned the book by month, so February is aphrodisiac dishes, May focuses on kiddie menus for the summer vacation and December has my favourite Christmas recipes. Compiling this felt a lot like reliving my life.
ELLE: What’s your favourite Christmas recipe?
MG: My roast chicken! It’s a mix between what my mom does and what I learned when I went to Tante Marie Culinary Academy for a Cordon Bleu certificate four years ago. My mom does make the best roast chicken, though.
ELLE: Are you planning a second book anytime soon?
MG: Yes I want to write another book on East Indian food and the customs and traditions. I come from one of the seven islands of Bombay and have always wanted to put a book together about my culture. I hope to start it around mid-2016.
ELLE: Has food always been an area of interest? What got you started?
MG: I’ve always been a foodie but I’ve never really wanted to cook till my son was a little over two years old, and about to start eating whole foods. I had to feed him! I started making simple things, but I got so consumed by the process of creating food that I’m now somebody who wants to keep learning different techniques, cuisines, textures, spices…
ELLE: What’s your fail-safe ingredient?
MG: Garlic. So comforting.
ELLE: What’s I Love Cooking about?
MG: I signed up for 10 episodes. They say that the atmosphere of the home depends on the mood of the chef for the day. I’ve gotten back to television after 14 years. I’m back as a host but I’m also cooking and using a language that I’m not comfortable with (Hindi) so I get really nervous sometimes but I’m quite happy with the way it turned out. We Indianised a lot of recipes, gave them a local twist. It’s a two series show – the first series is with me which is home-style Indian food, like a simple dumpling made with bread with koya in it and caramel on top.
ELLE: What’s your favourite cheat meal?
MG: I’m always cheating! I’m never on a diet. I can’t do it. The thing is, I run every morning. So I feel like I can eat everything. I don’t eat like a crazy person, but I’ve realised that I need to eat the food that I make for my kids because if I eat something else, like a salad, then they are never going to understand that nutritious food is what is on the table – what is nutritious for them is nutritious for me.
ELLE: Is there a specific dish that takes you back to your childhood?
MG: My mom used to make this amazing dish – she used to call it Chao when we were kids. She used to boil spaghetti and keep it on the side, cut vegetables like carrots, French beans, she used to put cheese and sauté them with butter and mix them with noodles. Then she used to add chicken sausages, a blob of butter, sprinkle some herbs on it and put it a big glug of ketchup – that taste is just childhood for me. I can still picture her making this in the kitchen but she doesn’t remember it at all!
Linen dress, Khadijeh by Afza Ali. Metal and stone earrings, Bangdar Sarali. Metal and stone ring, Eesha Zaveri at Minerali. Photograph: Manasi Sawant; Styling: Akanksha Kamath; Make-up and Hair: Atin Pawar; Assisted by Arti Nayar (Hair)
I Love Cooking airs on Living Foodz starting mid-January 2016
