After worked as a marketing executive in corporate sector, I decided to pack up my laptop and pick up a knife instead. My mother’s cooking helped me get started; I trained and learned to combine Mediterranean techniques with Asian ingredients; now it part of my signature style. My work is mixing with talent, creativity and tradition, modernity with perfect presentation, style and taste. The inexor
able advancement of globalization has however pervaded the Pakistani cuisine, most especially in urban areas. International cuisine and fast food has increased in popularity in major city centers and has led to the mixing of local recipes with foreign ones, this is called “fusion food.” The increase in pervasiveness of the Western culture has led to many Pakistani trying new (foreign) and modern foods which has dramatically changed the Pakistani diet, very earlier I realized low calories and fusion cuisine meant big business. So, my recipes are a mix up blend of Pakistani spices, imported ingredients, fresh local seasonal vegetables and different type of the cooking methods and techniques makes my food more exotic and aromatic. But stirring up old eating habits is tough work. People’s perception of Pakistani food is that it is very heavy, oily and it all tastes a little bit the same. So, my challenge was to say that it’s not real traditional Pakistani food. If you look at what we eat, we have vegetables, whole wheat roti, rice, some yogurts or Rita (chutney). We have some really nice combination, chicken, red meat or fish. So, if you look at the plate, it is nutritionally balanced. That is the way we should be eating. Not the way they eat in most of the western countries which is lot of processed food, which you buy in super markets. It is unhealthy because even if it has a little more fat or a little less fat it actually hasn’t got any nutrition inside it. From the spices to the onions, I believe that Pakistani food is nutritious. How much oil or fat you want to add is kind of subjective to how you like to eat it. We have become so health conscious in Pakistan that everyone is very concerned about being healthy, not getting ill and staying away from all kind of heart problems and diabetes. So, one should look towards the east to look how one should be eating and we all will be a little healthier.
