Ronit and his rissoto

Though actor Ronit Roy doesn't even manage to get the time for a nice relaxed lunch, he's no greenhorn in the kitchen. This suave actor can whip up delicious rissoto, pasta, Thai curry and a number of vegetarian dishes. Here's chef Ronit in a chat with CS:



Kitchen for kids
I used to cook quite often before I started working in television. Now, I have my lunch in between shots (laughs). But I do enter the kitchen on my rare days off. I love to experiment with my dishes. My kids love my cooking, and that's enough motivation for me to cook. I enjoy the entire process, right from the grocery shopping to arranging the ingredients to garnishing.

Say cheese
I love buying cheese though I can't afford to eat much of it (laughs). Other than that, I like to buy herbs like parsley, basil, oregano as I cook a lot of Italian food. A few days back, Neelam (my wife) and I were in France where we bought fresh basil grown in a pot. I eat non-vegetarian very rarely, and my family is totally vegetarian. I make a lot of Italian as well as Indian dishes. I also make excellent vegetarian kheema with soya.

Global gourmet
I am a foodie and quite knowledgeable about food, so I have never been caught unawares at a food joint. Once I remember going for a dinner with Mandira (Bedi) at a Chinese restaurant to eat fish. It was an underwater joint and we could see the fishes swimming around us. They looked so pretty that we didn't have the heart to eat them. Recently in Cannes, Neelam and I went to Caf ufffd Roma, and she ordered for Pasta Noma without onion and garlic. It was amazing! My favourite restaurants are Penne, Spices (Marriott), Bowli Beach (Cannes), Jaiya and No.7 in New York.

Guilty indulgence
I like Indian, Italian and Thai cuisine as well as junk food. Burgers are my biggest weakness. And I invariably have a couple of Tiramisus after an Italian meal, which means running two extra kilometres on the treadmill.u00a0