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 Picture this: pristine clean cooking zone,
big-sized oven, a huge chimney, sophisticated cooking appliances and
above all, a light and airy room - is this a five-star kitchen? No! It is Mrs. Chandri
Bhatt's "low cal" cooking class!
Unless
you are a rank newcomer to Chennai, you'd know who she is. For Mrs.Bhatt is no stranger to the
cooking enthusiasts of our fair city. She has been in this field for over 35 years now and
in that time, has done TV shows, taught chemistry, been a consultant, taken part in
exchange programs - in short, "been there, done that".
As a class, the whole setup looked very unlike what I had
imagined a cooking class to be. The class looked bright and cheery - so much so it
made you want to get up there and start wielding the spatula yourself!
The room is all spic'n'span, the cooking range is gleaming and when the teacher herself is
so obviously fond of teaching the tricks, the eager student would not be waiting for an
invitation! The students themselves form a wide range - college girls, young mothers with
kids, office- goers and even grandmas! In fact, ask the proud teacher and she'll tell you
that the age range of her students is from
15 to 65!
 After sitting through one complete class, I have to admit
that it is not a bit like any class I have ever seen! The atmosphere is that of fun -
and of camaraderie. In Mrs.Bhatt's own words, "it is like a mother teaching her kids
how to cook"! Never said a truer word! The whole class is conducted in one fluid
motion - no glitches whatsoever! Assisted by three Women Fridays, Mrs.Bhatt assembles
stuff for one mouth-watering dish after another and proceeds to explain how to make it
themselves. She uses simple and easy sentences, supplements it with smooth actions making
it all very... simple! What makes it all seem so easy is Mrs.Bhatt's preparation - it is
obvious, just looking at her demonstrate that she has spend loads of time on each and
every recipe and how to get it across to her students. She not only tells them how to make
a dish, she also gives out interesting tips to help them out.
 Whatever
doubts the girls have, she clears them in a jiffy - soon enough, it becomes time for all
to check if the dishes have come out well.
There's a sort of eager anticipation in the air
when Mrs. Bhatt opens the oven and then, elated to discover that the dish had come out
"A OK!" If this had been a bunch of soccer players, then they would have fallen
all over each other in celebration! After the celebration, come the treats - each student
is given a bit of the delicious (and low cal!) dish she had learnt to make and, pretty
soon, you can hear cries of "this tastes so good!"
This is not a new scene to Mrs.Chandri Bhatt. She has been
interested in cooking ever since she was a little girl in Mangalore when her home was the
"family headquarters". Each holiday, droves of relatives used to descend on them
and the whole summer, the womenfolk would be cooking for the entire family. As time went
on, people moved on and the she went off to Bangalore to study. That was when she tasted
different kinds of cooking, courtesy her roommates who were from all over India. Her love
for cooking grew enough for her to test a few things here and there. In a strange twist,
she took to teaching chemistry after her college! I thought that was a strange thing to do
for someone who so obviously loves cooking but Mrs.Bhatt says it actually helped her when
she decided to jump into mainstream cooking-cum-teaching - the precision and discipline
that chemistry demands were a big asset.
 And so she joined a cooking institute and
learnt all the finer details of the wonderful world of cooking. She was such a star
student of the Institute that she was asked to stay back as a teacher. She then went on to
become a consultant for Kitchen Appliances. She took part in exchange programs
involving her contemporaries from various foreign countries that helped her learn the
cuisine of those countries. She also did some cookery shows for DD, and later for the
tamil satellite channels but quit it because she wasn't satisfied with the show producers.
She says, "I will not get involved in a TV show, unless I am assured of a good
production unit". Whoa!
After dappling with various stuff, she started CCI -
Central Culinary Institute - in March this year. CCI is floated by the Oriental Group,
which owns Copper Chimney, China Town and Mrs.Chandri Bhatt is the Principal of the
Institute. Pride brims in her voice as she talks about "her baby", which is how
she describes CCI! CCI offers a wide variety of courses - starting with a foundation
course in cooking & baking to courses in microwave cooking, low calorie cooking, food
preservation, confectionary, international cooking to specialization in baking and
confectionary.
 Whew!
Big list indeed! How does she prepare for her classes? And does it give her any free time
to herself at all? The one answer she gives is a big "yes!" Whenever she starts
a new course, or classes for a fresh batch of students, she just prepares for the first
couple of classes - she meets her students and after learning about them, their lifestyle
and their needs, fashions the entire course to suit each of them. Her students are those
who are looking for something different and at the same time practical. More often than
not, they belong to the upper strata of society; sometimes, even owners of small
restaurants enrol in her classes to learn fresh recipes.
So there's one thing assured then - if you enrol for
Mrs.Chandri Bhatt's course, you not only get to learn to cook delicious items, you
also get to make it the healthy way.
Lavanya
To enrol in Mrs.Chandri Bhatt's classes,
dial 8211434 right now!
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