This weekend we finally celebrated my Papa's 60th birthday, we were delinquent from his actual birthday on Christmas Day. My dad is an avid chef with an eternal affinity for the kitchen, having been trained early on by my grandmother and later by network television. When my brother and I began brainstorming ideas for his 60th birthday, a private cooking class for our family just seemed like a natural fit (only second-guessing the decision when we proudly handed over a gift certificate for the class on his birthday, and Papa said "What, they ran out of normal gifts at the store?" Ummmm.).
The 6 of us arrived on Saturday afternoon for a class in Indian 101. My mom is a true vegetarian, I only say "true" because my dad is "moody" vegetarian.. his diligence depends on his mood (see "The Eating" below, as he and J laugh as he digs into the chicken!), but Naveen was very accommodating of all of our high-maintenance requirements (healthy, dairy-free, and semi-vegetarian). He was cheery, comical and really took us through a hands-on process step-by-step. As my mom and I chopped tomatoes, she said "it's like I'm doing this for the first time ever", and I have to admit, I felt the same way. Naveen taught us to properly hold a knife, slice, chop and mince - and then to boil, broil, mix, stir, season and cook!
You can check out Naveen and his classes here.
We left feeling like pros. We had patted ourselves on the back, eaten our culinary successes,
and Papa got this knife of course:
A "normal" gift? Never.
How fun! Everything looks so yummy!
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