Question:
Hi, I am Shikha and am getting married in two weeks. Now my problem is that I am not much of a cook and haven’t cooked or made anything better than Maggi or Coffee. So what should I do to impress my in-laws on the day when I am expected to cook something sweet for the first time after marriage? I have been engaged for 4 months but I did not get enough time to acquire cooking skills or hone them. Please help.
Answer:
Hi Shikha, no problem that you did not pay much thought to learning basic cooking well in advance but rely upon the fact that your in-laws, especially those of higher generations, may not be very generous if you confess that you don’t know how to cook. May be they had known of your inefficiency in this area at the time of engagement and in this case they had surely expected to improve your cooking during the courtship period.
Now coming to what can be done in the two weeks that are there with you. If possible try to pry it out of your spouse or your sister in law or mother in law as to what are you expected to cook on your first day in kitchen. It is anything specific that their family tradition demands or you will be given the choice to cook.
In either case, learn to make at least 4-5 common dishes and practice them. If you are clumsy with measurements, try making the dishes in such portions that should suffice the expected number of people to be attending your culinary test.
On the day of the test, appear calm, cool, confident and in control of the situation. Make something which are very confident about and serve properly. Do not ask about comments upfront. You may not like it if they say something nasty and if compliments are in place, you will get them without your having to ask for them.
