Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

What’s cooking on the NET today?

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By Swati Basu Das — A fine dining idea at home is now just a click away as new age foodies love to make it all by themselves in their own kitchen. As internet slops with multiple cooking pages, a quick click on your smartphones, laptops and tablets connects to the celebrity-chef-style cuisine that is much cherished by at-home cooks. New age moms, food lovers, wanna-be chefs seem to turn down those primitive ways of flipping through cookbook pages to give their cooking skills a head start. Rather, they have shifted their tastes by just logging on to community pages, Facebook live sessions, blip recipe videos, Instagram, Youtube, etc.


They toss it with ease by just following a live cooking video or connecting with their celebrity cook. Comments posted and feedback received from chefs and page administrators encourage them to stir up more flavours and garnish newer dishes.


“Prior to the internet, we knew what to expect when our moms made eggplants or bakes, but now things have changed. Many women have learnt the art of creative cooking through these platforms. I, too, am no exception,” shared Oneza Tabish, founder of Facebook community page What’s Cooking Oman.


Instant, thoughtful and innovative platters made out of staple veggies, poultry and meat are not only served affectionately on the table in every home but are uploaded and virtually passed on to bring a smile in every home.


Community pages clicked and recipes uploaded daily by food lovers and connoisseurs all over the world is done with a simple thought — not to enjoy food in secret but to fork up the joy of cooking and its taste to drool over.


“Firstly I feel with the advent of the internet, cooking has become an art. Gone are the days of humble food, it’s now very creative and innovative. Anybody can blog. There is Instagram or Facebook for uploading your dishes. There is no cost involved to post your dishes, so it’s an easy access,” Oneza said.


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Those simple secret potpourris, mouthwatering local cuisines and finesse and precision of baked dishes, passed on to us by our grandmoms — though delicate and perplexing in their aged recipe booklets – still spread out flavours but in a simpler way with an instant click.

More than over a hundred ‘likes’ adding up to each such post boosts the foody spirit. These have honed the cooking skills of many first-time cooks, harnessing the digital collections to present a look-perfect garnishing in their next post.


“It’s those instant likes that get you hooked to do better and be more creative. Many use this platform to gain appreciation which is missing in their lives. Constant encouragement works wonders to bring on the drive to cook something unique,” Oneza believed.


Those twisted spicy secrets have now been made simple. It’s all about sharing and gaining as much popularity and appreciation among the group members. “It’s not only about making and eating with the family, it has now become like sharing the taste with all food lovers and who struggle as to what to be made daily. It also creates a bond between two strangers sharing a common interest that unites them through these groups. Thanks to such community pages,” says Ivy Bhattacharya, who stays in Muscat and loves to be on live kitchen.


A celebration of all time and for all reason – ‘food’ — a form of most delectable part of art, once cooked at home and shared only among the family members, now serves a virtual treat. “Members motivate each other, inspire each other. With each post, there comes a like or share, which boosts the women to outdo their previous post,” Oneza said.


At-home cooks and wanna-be chefs logon to follow posts and videos, as the food page giants have helped today’s world by foaming up and creating the art of cooking easy and accessible, as they get to know cuisines from every corner of the globe.


As communication on a community page plays a key role, Oneza believes in open boundaries. “On my group, a lot of ladies post without any inhibitions, because as an administrator I am not strict. An administrator of a particular group also makes a lot of difference. I’ve had so many men and women who have now turned into ace cooks, just by learning from the group.”


With more than over 500 million giant food page connections on social media where celebrities interact with their fans, demonstrating recipes and displaying their work-space gains multitude of followers, therefore login on to these pages to literally watch and learn, similarly widening connections.


— axisswati@gmail.com


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