“Hey! You are damn lucky”, “Wish I had the luck like you”, “I am jealous of you”, “Kaash, hamein bhi aisa sukh milta?” and so much more…

Yeah, I keep hearing this whenever we have friends at our home. I keep seeing the envious looks too!

Wondering, why am I the centre of attraction of all my friends, especially girl friends and sometimes male friends too? One track minds, please abandon your thought process.

All these praises I get because my other half (must say, Best Half) is a Master Chef! No, he does not cook for a living, but cooks for the love of it!

He is a magician in the kitchen (please ignore the mess that is created after the Magician’s work!). He can throw a lot of different ingredients in a lot of different pots and pans and make it all taste good, real good! His forte is cooking up non-veg, but is equally adept at vegetarian dishes too! Salads, Mocktails are pretty cool stuff for him. And his Sooji ka Halwa is world famous at our home!

Whenever we have get-togethers at our place, (which is almost every weekend, yes its true!) he is the one who cooks everything. I am present just to assist the Master Chef, washing things, taking out pots and pans, keeping the ingredients ready, putting the home in order, the crockery, dining table mats & napkins hold my attention while the artist creates his magic.

So all this should make me a very happy wife! No hassles, no anxiety or apprehension of cooking (fear actually, will the food be good?) Yes, I am happy and in fact very proud of my hubby’s culinary skills and it is really wonderful especially when we have large get-togethers, coz there are a thousand little things to do, so it’s a great help to have him take care of the most major part while I can look after the remaining 999 things!

Oh, by the way, I almost forgot to tell you, that I am a good cook myself! I will not blow my own trumpet, but just a statement from my hubby dear should convince you, “You cook better than your mother” and let me tell you that my mom is the world’s best cook! And since the Master Chef himself appreciates my cooking so it must be true!

So one may ask what my hassle is then. Well, it’s not much of botheration but still there are times when his culinary skills get on my nerves!

Yes, he is so skilled that he can know from the look of a dish that I have added coriander (dhania) powder to it. “This should be sautéed to a light brown while you have done it till it was just pink”. “The ghee is a little less”. “This should have been cooked in a kadhai and not in a pressure pan”. “This is slightly tender, should have removed it from the fire a minute before”. “The tomatoes should have been added afterwards”. And the suggestions are endless! Just suggestions! Mind you, he would still appreciate the food! Not for any reason but just because the food was good!

And that’s not all, in case he finds something amiss in the food; he will leave the table, search the refrigerator, spice-up something or cook something new in a jiffy. Yeah, it could be even slitting the green chilies and adding salt to them and grilling them on the fire for a sec or two or making scrambled eggs! How irritating this could be? I mean leaving the dining table! Urgh!

I kind of envy those women who say that their husbands are not at all fussy about food, they eat whatever is served to them, without any complain or a suggestion and some even finish the whole meal even if the lady has missed adding salt! How sweet!

So while it’s a blessing (90%) to have a husband who can cook and help around, it’s a bane (10%) too.

So, a rose is a rose is a rose 🙂