Hello hello…Its dec 1st!! Why am I excited?? Just like that! And it’s a new month; my last month was kind of crazy even though good things also happened like TED. With Ted came a whole bunch of new friends.I know some I will keep for life. Hoping the coming weeks have some great goodies for me in store

You know I have this habit of saying “then tell stories”. It basically means what else is going on or “aur batao” in Hindi as we say it. So I was talking to a friend in USA and on me saying the same to her, she went on and on about how she is missing me and the rocky road bars I use to make and how she wishes to see the Christmas in India. (I think I need to tell her a story in return of how Diwali is the Christmas she is imagining).Anyhow and that got me craving for the rocky road bars I use to make to snack on for friends sometime. Me being me!-The crazy late night bird, I decided to bake in the middle of the night and I must say the end result was beautiful. It did require some patience but it was totally worth it. I will give the recipe in few days once I tweak the amounts.

BEFORE BAKING – Rocky Road Bar

Before baking

After Baking

Since I am posting this much later…I am including the speech which was written last minute for TED. Now I have a funny story to add. Right before the speech my left eye lens fell. It was probably the funnies moment coz I couldn’t see anything except bright light on my face. So I closed my eyes and just spoke what came to my heart. I think highlight of the story is that I gave out brownies and chocolates after the talk and people enjoyed.

A friend helped me …said let me ask you few questions. And while I answered he said here your speech is ready!

So guys I am going to keep this a home style recipe here are my ingredients of life:
 
My story started with the inspiration my grand mom gave me and Chef Yan who I saw on TV. That’s how I started, I pretended that all these knives and forks around the kitchen were mine and I was there to teach “someone” how to cook. The only problem was I didn’t know anything, and there wasn’t anyone to teach, so I combined the two and set out to teach myself!

I have come a long way in cooking since then but I have never taken the image of my grand mom out of my head.
I watched her patiently prepare things from scratch, put together everything and never complaining. My grandfather mostly just ate.
 
That taught me something about great cooking right there. And in the many years and many visits to different countries I have learned the secret to being great at cooking that I am going to tell you today. 
 
The 3 secrets to cooking
 
Secret 1
 
Be a foodie. Love the food.
To me a foodie isn’t someone who knows everything about food and can make the perfect chocolate cake because often they miss out on the 2 most important ingredients that are really needed to make food taste good. Passion and Love. The universal ingredients permeating our life and consuming everything around us. If you want to be a good cook or a great cook, be passionate about food!
When you cook, make sure you cook with your whole heart, because the person you cooked for would know if you haven’t put your whole soul into it. Food requires feelings. It’s a mirror to your personality- my personality is well rounded as you can see.
 
Secret 2.
 
Food to me is also the universal language. You don’t need to learn Spanish to make friends in Mexico, The enchiladas with paneer – works just fine. 
Most of the times you don’t even have to speak because you get in the way of eating food.
 
Secret  3
 
Food teaches you about patience, perfection and adjustment. the same dish can taste
different to different people (I mean, that’s scientific fact and also
a bit philosophical) because we each have a unique sensory system? So
being a good cook is also about being open-minded and recognizing that
what may taste one way to you may taste differently to someone else,
 
Ending
I thought long and hard about telling you how many memories food rushes in, but there’s no better way for you to understand what I say till you experience it. So I’m going to give you each one a chocolate piece I made. Don’t be a pig and stuff it in. Think of the happiest memory you have put the chocolate in your mouth while thinking about it and then just slowly take it in smiling to yourself.
 
So with those last words to “chew” on, I’ll leave you with my best wishes. Thank you and Namaste or may be Bon Appétit

Chocolate Torta

It’s been a crazy busy week; I got back to Delhi a week before. Been one fun month and lots of stories to tell. I finally or shall I say almost finished my website. Still have a lot of changes to do and add the credit card feature.
Shall get back to blogging, sharing stories from Netherlands and Sam’s land plus lots of new cakes and dessert…meanwhile check the website out! www.foodaholics.in