Men take fancy to cookery to spice up married life

HYDERABAD: Wannabe coy brides learning to cook up a good impression on future in laws are passe. Now, men are thronging cookery classes learning not just how to fix basic edible meals but perfecting the art of chopping onions and getting the garam masala in chicken curry just right.
Call them metrosexuals or diligent students of gastronomics, many men in Hyderabad are now outgrowing their grumpy couch potato image as they would rather now enter the kitchen and cook the dinner they have only waited for so far.And there is a practical reason for this newfound love for the roti-dal skill- to fend for oneself in offshore assignments.
Adarsh Gollapudi is one of them. He has his friends and family eating out of his hands, rather literally, as they swear by the stuffed parathas and dal fry he prepares in no time. For him, good food was always a passion but decided to learn cooking when he was leaving for a long-term assignment abroad. "There, it is costly to hire a cook or shell out money on hotel food every day. Learning cooking is better as I do not need to depend on others and at the same time I can cook healthy food which also suits my taste better," says this event manager who had joined a cookery class and has now perfected his manchurian and makhani dal.
Those holding these month-long daily classes that cost anywhere between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 say the surge of men into their kitchens has shot over the last two-three years with some classes having dished out over 80 fine 'male' cooks in this time period.
In fact, with more men rubbing shoulders with women in these classes, some class organisers have been forced to do away with their unisex classes and hold a separate class for women who are uncomfortable in the company of men making ginger garlic paste with them.
"These guys want to go abroad and there they have to stay alone and manage everything on their own. So, they think that it's better to learn cooking beforehand," says Kusum Tolwala, who runs Komal Kala Niketan Cookery Classes.
"They are learning everything from Chinese to curries to snacks to proper meals like rotis and sabzis such as Malai Kofta and Paneer Butter Masala," says Tolwala. Interestingly, some men are even taking cooking lessons to help their wives manage the daily chop grind kitchen routine.
Kinwari Bhaskar from Kinnari Classes recalls how one earnest husband learnt the traditional meal including matar paneer and even snacks like Sev puri, Batata vada and Bhelpuri both to help and impress his wife.