The musician-artiste manager rustles up a Pulled Pork Dosa and Bacon Butter Chicken with equal ease.

I started cooking when I was maybe 9 or 10. My earliest memory is of cooking breakfast for about 13 people at a family vacation. I took orders for scrambled eggs, omelettes and fried eggs.

What got me into cooking is just the fact that I love to eat. I often find that the food I eat outside isn’t cooked to my liking, so I prefer making it myself.

A love for food runs in my family. My grandfather would even hunt his own rabbit and deer to cook. The rest of us are the kind of cooks that enjoy throwing things together with whatever is available.

At one point, I wanted to become a chef. I seriously pursued cooking till the 9th grade, but then around that time, computer engineering caught my fancy and I got derailed.

My favourite dish growing up was my mother’s roast chicken. That and cheese macaroni top my list.

In 2007, my wife gifted me a camera phone, and I used it to shoot a picture of a dish I had cooked. Facebook had just taken off at that time, and I posted the picture there. The next thing you know, I had a blog going. A YouTube channel followed much later.

I currently follow the Keto diet, which can be summed up as ‘high fat, moderate protein, low carbs and no sugar’. So most of my recipes – I try to post at least two per week – are on those lines.

The thing with recipes is that you can’t copyright them. You can come up with your own unique versions, though. So while I have come up with unique dishes like Bacon Vada Pav, other dishes I make – like a hamburger – follow the classic recipe along with a few tweaks.

I experiment a lot in the kitchen, and there have been hits and misses. My Bacon Gajar Halwa was a surprise success, as were the Pulled Pork Dosa and Ham and Cheese Dosa. On the other hand, a Chinese dosa I attempted with oyster sauce was quite terrible.

I don’t eat out too often, but I do enjoy occasional visits to The Bombay Canteen, Indigo Deli, Ruka and Joss in Mumbai.

I host pop-up dinners at home sometimes. My music is mostly crowd-funded, so I host three-course meals as a reward for people who contribute.

My fridge is always stocked with eggs, some kind of meat, fancy cheese, basil pesto, olive oil and butter.

Lots of chefs have inspired me. I follow everyone from Curtis Stone to the guys on MasterChef Australia. Sanjay Thumma of Vah Chef is my go-to guy for Indian food. For meaty recipes, I watch a lot of videos by the BBQ Pit Boys.

Meatzza

Ingredients

 

• 300 grams chicken mince

 

• Pepperoni

 

• Mozzarella cheese

 

• Salt & pepper to taste

 

• Garlic bread seasoning

 

• Pizza sauce

 

• Olive oil

 

Method  

 

• Season the chicken mince with salt, pepper, garlic bread seasoning and mix well.

 

• Lightly oil a frying pan and shape the base using the chicken mince.

 

• Fry on a low-medium heat till the base is almost fully cooked.

 

• Remove onto a rack on a baking tray.

 

• Top with the pizza sauce and pepperoni and cheese.

 

• Bake with the ‘broiler’ setting till the cheese is melted and golden brown.

 

• Slice and serve.

 

Sahil’s Tips And Tricks

Learn your basics – you’ll achieve a lot more.

Always keep your knives sharp. There’s nothing worse than a blunt knife in the kitchen.

Always bring the meat up to room temperature before cooking.

Respect your ingredients and treat them with care while cooking.

Never be afraid to experiment and try new things.