Dining With The Kapoors: Armaan Jain On Bringing Together Large Family And His Nani's Favourite Recipe - Exclusive

Armaan Jain is the main man behind Netflix's Dining with the Kapoors. The former actor-turned-chef brought together his family for an epic lunch to celebrate the centenary of his grandfather, actor-filmmaker

Raj Kapoor. The documentary special, directed by Smriti Mundhra, is a tribute to the Kapoor family legacy, and the family reminisces over a special lunch, just like in the past. Armaan, who has never met his grandfather, spoke about his motivation and his grandmother, Krishna Raj Kapoor's recipes.

Armaan Jain on food being the bonding glue in Kapoor family

In an interview with Zoom, the Lekar Hum Deewana Dil actor shared his childhood memories, and Raj Kapoor's 100th birth anniversary gave him the catalyst for a family reunion. He recalled, "For us and especially for me particularly, growing up was just food, food, and food at my grandmum's bungalow. That home was a home full of memories with food, people, and a lot of parties, anniversaries, weddings, and celebrations. Growing up for me was a lot less cinema, because I also come from a finance business background. So I saw a lot of food growing up, and I kind of observed very carefully the love each member really has for food. Food has been a catalyst in our family for bringing us together on occasions and spending time with each other."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpdgEgpcbDE

Armaan continued, "The Raj Kapoor home was always an open house, like in the studio. RK Ganpatis and festivals were always open to everyone, and there was always food and feeding and hosting. So I've been there and heard these stories growing up, and I just felt there was a certain element of Raj Kapoor. Obviously, you know him as the cinema and film personality, but you don't know what the family and the traditions and the values and the legacy really are with food, which has transcended from my grandmother's time to my mother's time to, let's say, our time, which we are carrying on. So I felt it would be great with family members coming on a dining table and really reminiscing, and the nostalgia of the story is the good times, the bad times, and really deep diving into this. So that's how it came about."ALSO READ: Dining With The Kapoors: Producer Armaan Jain Breaks Silence On Alia Bhatt's Absence, Says 'Every Function It Happens...' While not everyone was able to be a part of the celebration due to the schedules, Armaan shared that the Kapoor family got on board with his vision quickly. He added, "Our intention was clear in terms of what we wanted to kind of showcase. When I took this to the family, they were all aligned because, like I said, these are pretty much my experiences. Obviously they have different experiences at different times, but it's pretty much the same value system, the same traditions, the same banter, the same fun, and the same get-togethers. So they were like, this is something that obviously is truly special and a different way of celebrating our grandfather, and they were very interested and aligned from day one."

Armaan Jain on his grandmother's favourite recipe

Armaan, who is also a founder of The Junglee Kitchen, also revealed some of his favourite foods from his grandmother's cookbook. He shared, "Fun fact, a lot of her recipes were like household recipes passed down, meaning from actually my great-great-grandfather's times. We had a bunch of that documented, but she also loved watching cooking shows. She would just document a bunch of things and various recipes." "But, for me, I mean, a household favorite, and I think that's something that we're carrying further in my kitchen as well, and serving is, I think, Junglee Mass, which is one of the favorites during all those big get-togethers, and Yakhni Pulao, which is again passed down multiple generations. And our family and Raj Kapoor loved his dal, like simple dal—dal tadka and dal makni—and those are a few recipes that are part of her diary and partly what I'm doing as well and serving people." Calling Dining with the Kapoors a "lovely, quick, happy watch," Armaan hoped that the special would resonate with families. The Netflix special premieres on November 21.