Fire in her belly

I have always wondered why men dominate cooking's public domain: around restaurant kitchen fires. At home, it's always the women who rule the roost. It's perfectly predictable for me to say, "My grandmother used to be a great cook." My grandfather, on the other hand, loved to eat whatever his wife rustled up. The men who've figured in my life, they've never really cooked. My brother is a provisional cook - and he's subject to a great deal of sympathy ("The poor chap cooks [other than working very hard at his day job]!"). Somehow, on the domestic front, a man who takes the rigour of cooking too seriously gets downgraded to being some kind of an oddball. Unless, of course, he's a cooking professional and making tons of money being top chef at a five-star holding. So why don't women star in restaurant kitchens as grandiosely as lads do? Reportedly, one reason is - and it's a very sexist one, may I add - that it's way too much of hard work (read: physical labour) for a woman to be taking up the cudgels. This week, we decided to chat up Larissa Mazzoli, sous chef of Chamas, at the Crowne Plaza, to find out what the exact deal is around industrial fires: is it as 'unfeminine' as it's trumped up to be? If so, what is she doing out there?
What's it like to have your dad as your boss? Take stock of a few family businesses to arrive at the bottom-line. Our Bollywood column explores the explosion of Randeep Hooda as the unlikely (sugar-coated) hero. Travel takes us to the lakes and havelis of Udaipur.
All this and much more.
Enjoy reading wknd. and have a great weekend.