How did Love Bites... happen?
My friends surprised me one day by bringing along their producer friends to a meal I had cooked up at home. They were excited to discover a model who cooks and that is how it ended up on NDTV Good Times.
When did you catch the cooking bug?
About 10 years ago, when I was living away from home, I missed Mallu food and got my mother to teach me some recipes. After that, I took a couple of cooking courses.
How is Love Bites... different from the other food shows?
The fact that I’m not a chef, and that I have been in the public domain as someone completely different. So hopefully, I can convince viewers that if I can cook, it can’t be that tough!
You have been nicknamed ‘desi Nigella’.
It’s a huge compliment to be compared with her, but she’s an icon and I’m nowhere close.
How do you go about picking Love Bites’s signature dishes?
I have a little black book with recipes that I have collected over the years. Plus, I have three shelves full of cookbooks.
The one dish you never tire of cooking?
I love experimenting with Panna cotta.
Cooking shows you like to watch?
I hung my head while watching Junior Masterchef recently. I also love Food Safari.
Is there an art to making cooking look sexy?
It is important to be natural, a bit of a motormouth, and keep the tone simple. Love Bites... has been shot in my home, so it helps being in a comfort zone.
You plan on launching a restaurant.
Probably in a year or two, once I take professional cooking courses and work in a restaurant kitchen. I’d like to open an intimate place.
Have you retired from modelling?
I do a few shows, but I don’t take part in fashion weeks.
