Hey, What's Cooking?

"What's cooking?" is a cliche now. Even when asked literally. Instead, "Who's cooking?" seems to be the new trend.

There's a plethora (that's a subtle word in this context) of cookbooks already flooding the market. Since the digital media has taken over, there are blogs, videos, recipes, television shows and much more which talk only about cooking and this is the new era of food mania.

These "dishes" are definitely a feast, but for the eyes only! Unless you cook the same sumptuous, lip-smacking dish in your kitchen and try the recipe yourself, you really don't know...how "wonderful" or "delicious" it will turn out to be.

To get ahead in the race and sell their "tried and tested" recipes, some use the words "traditional dishes", "grandma's recipes", "diet cooking" or "healthy eating" and so on. But are they really authentic? If yes, how do you know they are actually "awesome"?

Whether the craze has caught on just of late, or has been there for sometime now, it has changed the way women look at cooking, for sure. At least the audience for "Who's cooking?" has gone up. Television surfing and You Tube searching has probably got this new name, and this is the current trend or a "fashion" rather, seemingly imposed on oneself out of compulsion.

Some women talk "big" and discuss "food", and healthy eating has definitely caught on. But it does not mean that only cornflakes, oats, sandwiches and muesli have to be served on dining tables for breakfast.

And dinner is no different. I understand that working women are back home fully burnt out but it is very shocking to see most of them walking straight into a hotel on the way back home, ordering something on the menu as takeaway, sipping a coffee and snacking on something hot and then heading towards a relaxed late evening, to watch popular soaps on the television. Which means, cooking dinner is out of question.

Some families have a well-planned weekend outing, almost every week, Thanks to the mushrooming malls, they set out early, munch on light breakfast, walk into the spa or parlour for a freshened look, do some window shopping, have a great lunch, watch a movie and sometimes have a "family dinner" outside. Thanks to these mall lovers, business is blooming for the restaurants and eateries, and they are simply minting money.

When I asked my friend recently, "Hey, what's cooking?" he had a confused look on his face and replied, "I'll know which chef has come alive today only when I open my lunch box."

I was rather surprised that at least he has a "lunch box" because most of the office-goers thrive on the office canteen these days!