Indian fusion cooking is what’s in these days says Shazia Khan, Masterchef India Season 2 runner up. That’s what she worked on in her recent cooking demonstration at the Chancery Pavillion where she worked on vegetarian fusion recipes, calling it a wedding between Indian and international cuisines.

“We have basically given Indian food an international twist by taking recipes, this time from France and Italy using our flavours in those recipes.”

Shazia worked on six different dishes including polenta using sooji or rava instead of corn meal, inspired by uppitu or kesari bhaath ; masala crepes with an Indian filling or deconstructedgajar halwa on the lines of a panna cotta.

This is her fourth show in Bangalore. She has already done a few cooking shows in the South, in Chennai, Hyderabad and Mysore.

“I have been passionate about cooking since childhood. I first attempted cooking when I was 9 years old, I tried to make custard with fruits. I come from a family of good cooks — my parents and my grandmother were great cooks. But it’s only after I got married that I was encouraged by friends and family. We always have lots of get-togethers and parties and I used to cook for them and I was motivated further once my kids were born.” It was her kids who pushed her to enter Masterchef after watching Season 1.

Though Shazia never took any formal cooking classes, she picked up recipes from the internet and from TV shows, watching Nigella and Sanjeev Kapoor. “And I learnt a lot in Masterchef. I got to know so many new ingredients and I tried new dishes that were out of my comfort zone. I realized that presentation is also important.

Being a home cook I never really paid much attention to it earlier. And learning how a professional kitchen works obviously broadened my perspective.” Meeting Vikas Khanna, who runs a Michelin-star restaurant in New York, was also inspiring.What Shazia loves cooking now, post- Masterchef is Indian fusion and modern Indian cuisine. “Modern Indian cuisine is where old recipes are tweaked and presented stylishly, like in Masterchef .

It’s about giving a desi twist to simple ingredients and presenting it differently. If fusion is about making cheesecake with gulab jamun and gulkhand then modern Indian is about making dal using, say, zucchinis and presenting it well.”

She is now working on opening a cooking school for the underprivileged who are passionate about cooking but can’t afford a cooking school. “So we will give them basic training on cooking and etiquette, so that they can then be placed in good jobs or households where they can earn a better living. The location has been finalised, so the school should be ready the end of the year.”

She is also working on two recipe books, one on food that is close to her heart and another on age-old recipes from different cuisines.

“So if we have a section on biryanis in the second book, we will have about 20 different kinds. India is one place where the food changes every 60 kms and one dish has about 10 versions. So in the book we will be bringing recipes that have been passed down in the family in different parts of the country, focusing on Malabari, Hyderbadi and Mughlai.”

The Hindu ,Harshini vakkalanka :June 7,2013