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HT Brunch Cover Story: The Kapoor family’s best-kept food secrets!
Raj Kapoor’s grandson, Armaan Jain, 30, shows how the love for food runs as strong in India’s premier film family as the love for films
Pop quiz: If the illustrious Kapoor family of Bollywood wasn’t known for the films they made, what would they be famous for?
Answer: Their love for food!
And the disappointing reality: this passion has rarely been documented enough.
Sure, Kareena Kapoor’s references to “paya soup” on Karan Johar’s talk show may have caused a split-second pause: the dish is meant for evolved taste buds, after all. But beyond the customary mention, or the occasional family photo on Instagram at one of the elaborate get-togethers over food, the bond The First Family of Films shares over food hasn’t been discussed… certainly not enough for the set of insiders, who insist the Kapoors could well be called The First Family Of Food!
One grandson of the illustrious Raj Kapoor is now set to change this.
Dal for the dil
Meet Armaan Jain, the son of Raj Kapoor’s daughter and fourth child Rima and Manoj Jain. As the photo on the cover of this magazine shows, Armaan is every bit a Kapoor, with film star good looks and a natural ability to work the camera. A quick stalk of his social media profile indicates that his first love is cricket, but sure enough, this first cousin to Ranbir Kapoor dabbled in films: after going through the customary grind of working as an assistant director at Dharma Productions for a few years, Armaan Jain made his debut as a leading man in a movie called Lekar Hum Deewana Dil in 2014.
“But even then, my passion for food was a notch higher than my interest in films,” he surprises you by saying. “I fell in love with good food and everything to do with it when I was a little boy!”
Armaan has just taken the first step to converting his passion into a profession by launching Kitchen Tales, an all-vegetarian kitchen that aims at supplying fancy, wholesome Indian food at prices that don’t cost heaven and earth. And the star of the menu is Armaan’s own creation: the Truffle Dal Bukhara.
“Being stuck at home during lockdown gave us time to experiment, and the Truffle Dal Bukhara was a result of that,” says Armaan. “Whenever I cook something new, I’m thirsty for honest feedback. My family and I live on different floors of the same building, so I send it to all, but an important opinion comes to me from our cook, Ravi, who has been with us for years now…”
Armaan’s passion is palpable, but so is his sense of practicality. “After my film, I dabbled in ad film production, then got into investment banking as my dad is an investment banker. We looked at the tech space, education etc., but in the food space, I noticed the opportunity for a good quality all-vegetarian kitchen the moment I saw it. Besides being Jains ourselves, I have a lot of vegetarian friends who feel uncomfortable when ordering food from mixed kitchens. Another thing I want is for my food to be affordable to all. If there’s truffle in a dish, it’ll never cost less than ₹700; we’ve priced ours under ₹400!”
Armaan is also quick to clarify that no, he’s not the master chef behind the menu. “We went through the rigours of designing the menu with professionals as it should be done, but my Truffle Dal Bukhara is on it!”
Family of foodies
Ask Armaan about his family’s love for food, and he immediately flashes back to his childhood. “My mom always says I was an observant child, but I don’t think I was more observant of anything more than food,” he confesses. “My earliest memories of being in the kitchen was when I was just about a toddler, watching my dadi and naani, both of who were fantastic cooks. Few know, however, that my dad [Manoj Jain] is as fond of food as my mother’s side of the family. As children, family holidays meant we cooked for ourselves, and I remember being in the kitchen watching Dad cook. He’d take my younger brother [Aadar Jain] and me to the market every Saturday morning – we’d get two packets of chips if we went along… that’s where the passion for food was born.”
What is this Kapoor family’s love for food that we keep hearing about? Armaan tries to summarise, but with a disclaimer. “Not possible to explain in a few words,” he says upfront. “Everything in that family is about food! Yes, we talk about films, but you’ll be surprised, at our get-togethers, it’s always food, food, food! We discuss it threadbare… At a regular family gathering, we’re often discussing the best restaurants in the world, and in India. You must know that the Kapoor family is obsessed with Chinese food…”
What Armaan says next brings a smile to your face. “As a family, we also argue a lot about food,” he says. “It’s all out of love, of course. But imagine a houseful of people with an opinion. Yeh chawal thoda chipta hai… ghee aur daalo (This rice is a bit flat… add more ghee)! And I’ve always been very forthcoming with an opinion. Even as a kid, I’d argue my heart out and hold my ground against every other opinion. Growing up made me realise that everyone has a different palate and you must respect that…”
The most special part, Armaan says, is that “a lot of recipes have transcended down the generations — and I’m talking four generations here, so it’s not like the passion for food in the Kapoor family is a new thing. It’s great that these dishes still exist in our homes today.”
Food for thought
Well into our chat about food, Armaan reveals some interesting insights. One: he is so much into food that he’s often a solo diner. “This may sound a little lonely and sad, and however much I enjoy sharing this passion with this big food-loving family of mine, it’s also something I enjoy doing alone,” says Armaan. “It was when I studied in London that I’d go to restaurants alone often, and I started to appreciate that too. For when I’m eating something I really enjoy, I often don’t talk… If out with friends for dinner, I talk to them on the drive to the restaurant, or on the drive back!”
Two: he rubbishes the idea of cooking not being a guy’s thing to do. “My mother and my wife are fantastic cooks, but my dad and I cook more than them!” he says.
And finally, on him doing films again, he says, “Never say never. I’ve learnt so much from films, the experience contributes to everything I do. I have no regrets… let’s say I’m taking it one course to the next, pun very much intended!”
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From HT Brunch, January 24, 2021
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