My Little Master Chef

All of us for sure have enjoyed playing with cooking set or kitchen set. My mother use to get me the kitchen set sold at Siddharoda math fair in Hubli. Those were made up of clay and could easy break if not handled well. I use to wait for the fair,the Jathara during Shiva Rathri , so that my mother got me a new set for that year. I also carefully preserved the previous years set, as I wanted to have more utensils, as much as my mother had in her kitchen.

During our childhood, we faced lots of water scarcity problem, and my mother and brothers used to fetch water and filled the tank and drinking water drums. I was asked to stay at home and play with my toys and kitchen set. COOOL! I played with my friends for hours together. Least bothered about any household problems. It was all mainly handled by my mother and my brothers helped her too. Later, I did notice the clay sets being replaced with aluminum and steel. They were pretty expensive and I did not trouble my mother to buy me that, i consoled myself saying that my kitchen set was prettier than those new kitchen set in steel. The set had a chula with three stone type, two parath , a kadai, two spatula, pots for water, two vessels like for cooking rice or dal. Later version also had a gundupangala making one. i use to make idlis instead of gundpangalas as I like idlis a lot. Gundupangals or padds as they call it in northern Karnataka is a kind of dumpling made out of rice flour, wheat flour batter with chopped onions, green chilies and coriander leaves added to it. It goes well groundnut or peanut chutney.

When we moved from quarter no 17/c M.T.S Colony Karwar road to Gadag road, I gave away all my toys including five to six sets of clay kitchen sets-they looked pretty as I was parting away to my little friends in the colony.

I recollected all that when I got the new kitchen set for my son when he was one 2years old . Not clay one, instead steel one and more sophisticated one. It had a LPG cylinder, gas stove, refrigerator, dinning set, quite a few spatula, dosa making slab, idli maker, grinder and so on. He still has it and loves to play with it.

I still remember his first play- he made me to sit with him and said he will cook 'mammam'- that is food for me. He used to called food as mammam. He lit the stove and did all the action and finally gave me buttermilk to drink. I was wondering and asked him "why did you light the stove for making buttermilk" For this he replied that "Pati does the same". Pati means grandmother in Tamil. then it did strike me that to warm milk is then made into curd and then churned to make buttermilk. This he has observed and is imitating her. COOL buttermilk my son served me. I was touched and moved when he asked "do you want salt?". He then used to take all the real kitchen cutlery, spoons, bowls as they appealed him more than his toys.

Now he is 11years old and still at times loves to play with his kitchen set. Now a days he also loves watching Master Chef programme aired on Star Plus and listens carefully to the comments passed by the judges. Last sunday he prepared his own way of making sandwich. He made it so well and called it "Sandwich Hindustani". He took all the efforts for presenting it as he said that presentation is more important.

It was appealing and I appreciated his efforts put in.

It is nice to encourage them in making as they learn to not only to make but also learn the effort that mothers put in the kitchen in cooking all the delicious things on demand. This also helps them to learn to chopping(under adult supervision), more about vegetables, fruits, there nutrient value. Of course, one has to teach the safety aspect of cooking too. Anirudh-My little Boochupapap- My Little Master Chef!!!