Pauper to Pepper

By Akshit Rao

As long as you are dependent on anything, you will not be free. It could be love, water, happiness, food, sex or air, as long as you need something, freedom will not be yours. I was in Bombay when I met a beggar and had a lengthy discussion about freedom with her. I had this conversation with a beggar out of all people because I had realized by now that a person who has little or nothing to lose is closer to freedom than the rest of us. She had attained a certain level of freedom; she could eat anything and imagine what she was actually hoping to eat. A plate of plain, flavorless rice would taste like biryani to her.

Pauper to Pepper is a compilation of short stories of my food journey from childhood till now, my experiences of desperation for food to meeting people who had it in abundance. Looking back at my journey, the various people I came across and my closeness to food makes me wonder if I, too, will attain ultimate knowledge and freedom one day, like she did.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Apr 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781482869156

Akshit Rao

Akshit Rao was born in Delhi. He attended school at Sherwood College, Nainital and later pursued a Bachelor’s Degree in Hotel Management from IIHM, Kolkata. He has held managerial positions in five-star hotel companies in India, has been a lecturer in association with the University of West London and also worked with HT Media. He currently travels across India in order to find new food experiences and writes about them. He lives in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh.

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Copyright © 2016 by Akshit Rao.

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Contents

1. With love, from the kitchen

2. Follow the Gods

3. Train journeys

4. The crush

5. The charm

6. The genius

7. College attention, left turn

8. Pots and Stones

9. But why?

10. The big party

11. SW 19

12. Shrooms

13. One Rupee

14. The graze effect

15. Impending

16. The Sunday

17. The white in our eggs

18. Scrambling

19. Binging

20. The great one

21. Forever mine

22. That exotic thing

23. Not so cheesy

24. Getting there

25. The eternal threesome

26. Puffed in love

27. Almost there and the end

28. Now or never

29. My best friend

30. Those crumple sounds

31. Deception

32. The sound of music

33. School’s out

34. The Biryani

35. The classical menu

36. Realisation

37. Housekeeping

38. The laundry

39. All white

40. Holy baker

41. The old malt

Ma,

Thank you for being my best friend.

I love you.

I

dedicate this book to Chef Aayush Kanungo.

The heaven is fortunate to have you in its kitchen.

I would like to thank the city of Rae Bareli and of Lucknow for introducing me to the world of true and beautiful flavours. I will forever cherish the days when I tasted my first Biryani and Kebabs.

Preface

You may have heard of a place called Gyanganj. As the name suggests, it’s a land where humans who have attained ultimate wisdom, reside. It’s an isolated and hidden piece of land, somewhere in the Himalayas and most of us will only hear stories about it in our lifetime, as no one has really seen it.

I met one such genius, during my travels, who shared her experience about ultimate knowledge. She said that it is all a matter of attaining ultimate freedom. As long as you are dependent on anything, you will not be free. It could be love, water, happiness, food, sex or air. As long as you need something; freedom will not be yours. Well, I definitely didn’t want that kind of freedom.

I then met a beggar in Mumbai, and had a lengthy discussion with her about freedom. I chose to have this conversation with a beggar, out of all people, because I felt that a person who has little or nothing to lose is closer to freedom than the rest of us. She was a special person. She could eat anything and imagine its flavour to be of something she was actually hoping to eat. A plate of plain, flavourless rice, which she picked up from a dustbin, could taste like biryani to her, if she wanted it to.

Pauper to Pepper is a compilation of short stories of my food journey from childhood till now - my experiences of desperation for food to meeting people who could make love to the essence of food, through their work and way of living.

Author’s Note

This book is an ‘a la carte’ menu. You may like some dishes and not like some. You may not understand some. Don’t force yourself. Be choosy, just like you would at a restaurant. I suggest you read the quotes before each story, they might help you decide.

Each story is like a wine, the more time you spend with it, letting it linger on your palate, the more flavours you will discover or, maybe not. Cheers!

I have a theory why some chefs chase Michelin stars. They have no room for emotion, only perfection.

1. With love, from the kitchen

I feel happy for all those who go out to eat food that is cooked with love. We all have read and heard so much about love. Some believe that only those things which are prepared with affection, be it a plate of aloo chaat or of pasta, will make us feel happy and give us genuine satisfaction.

If a chef is going to show love, she would rather express it in bed to her lover, instead of flipping 300 omelettes with ‘love’, every day for breakfast.

Chefs are human beings and robots at the same time.

Your ‘eggs to order’ may not have been prepared with love but, they were definitely prepared with skill and precision. That is why; they are called ‘eggs to order’ and not ‘eggs as loved.’

Chefs may or may not agree with my theories but, the fact remains that you folks are on your toes, physically and mentally, all day long in the heat and pressure of a kitchen. I feel, it takes much more than just love, to prepare food that lacks pretention and fuss.

Humans are lovely creatures who sometimes go overboard with their feelings. Did I confuse you? Ok, I may have. If I did, then, ask a pilot, a commercial pilot, if he flies the