Renuka Vyavahare (BOMBAY TIMES; May 23, 2020)

The Coronavirus lockdown has made most of us get closer to the kitchen fires. Richa Chadha is no exception. The actress, too, is busy honing her culinary skills, but with a twist. While many Bollywood celebs have been regularly sharing images of the sumptuous meals they have whipped up, Richa, on the other hand, has no filter. She has been putting up hilarious pictures of her misadventures in the kitchen.

She tells BT, “I am not one of those people who believe that cooking is therapeutic (laughs!). I don’t like cooking, but I manage to make good food. Maybe because I like to eat good food, somehow what I cook turns out to be nice. For me, it’s all very experimental.”

Speaking about her experiments in the kitchen, she says, “Pakana kuch aur tha, lekin kuch aur hi ban gaya — it happens to me every day! For me, it’s just about making something for lunch and dinner that is edible. Once I was trying to make an aloo dish, but when it didn’t taste nice, I added grated coconut, rai (mustard seeds) and curry leaves in it. It turned into an awesome dosa ka masala. So, my cooking has a lot of jugaad. Having said that, during the lockdown, everyone is doing that because baahar sabzi khareedne roz kaun jayega? Also, everything that you want is not available. Everyone’s is making food out of whatever is easily available in the kitchen.”