The wonder chef

Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu

The paddy fields of Gudivada will never be the same again. Last month, this bucolic village in Andhra Pradesh lost its most remarkable resident. A centenarian who went on to become an online sensation in literally the same amount of time you and I take to catch up on beauty sleep. Eking out a livelihood by labouring in the fields until two years ago, here was an unlikely celebrity like no other. At a surprisingly spry 107 years of age, Karre Mastanamma was widely believed to be the oldest YouTube star in the world. A culinary star no less, she tasted overnight renown as a result of desperate bachelors seeking a taste of home.

One of them, her Hyderabad-based graphic designer grandson K Laxman, and his video editor buddy Srinath Reddy, sought to fill this nostalgia-ridden vacuum by uploading home videos to their lately-minted channel. Called Country Foods, it demonstrated for the benefit of the home-sick simple and easy-to-do home-style recipes. On one of their visits to the village, they filmed Mastanamma doing what she loved best: single-handedly cooking large country meals al fresco, on a woodfired makeshift brick chulha, using her nails to deftly peel fresh vegetables. In August 2016, they uploaded a video of her preparing an eggplant curry in her preferred surroundings. It was an unprecedented hit. Going viral, it catapulted the twinkly-eyed great-grandmother into instantaneous fame.

The grey-haired, saree-draped Mastanamma went on to feature in some 200 videos in the ensuing two years, garnering a whopping 12 lakh followers at last count. Her 106th birthday was flooded with good wishes, greeting cards and gifts from around the world, from as far as the UK and USA, as well as Pakistan closer home. Her vast culinary repertoire included chicken biryani in smoked bamboo shafts, emu egg omelettes, lamb intestine curry, beef paya and goat legs. Her most popular recipe till date has been watermelon roast chicken. The juicy pulp is scraped out; the empty shell lined with banana leaves and filled with raw chicken marinated in local spices. The sliced off top of the fruit is replaced, sealed with dough, and placed directly upon the fire. Since it went live last year, the video has been viewed a gob-smacking 12 million times!

As much as the bespectacled ‘grandmother with the toothless smile’, it is the simplicity of treatment which, I believe, has her global audience smitten. The videos are shorn of all fancy gadgetry and new-fangled gimmickry. The rustic setting, with avian life seen daintily picking its way around freshly irrigated fields, is unquestionably a major part of the overarching appeal. Besides, other than a few forgettable experiments with burgers, pizzas and KFC-type chicken, her recipes have mostly retained their traditional flavour. In fact, a peruse of the comments section will reveal how each time Laxman and Srinath have tried to digress, they have (rightly) received a not-so-gentle rap on the knuckles by her watchful admirers.

Despite hardship and emotional upheaval, Mastanamma’s life is a study in fortitude. She lost her husband while still in her twenties and later four of her five children to cholera. Independent and able-bodied, the spirited lady chose to live next door to her surviving son instead of with him. She fell ill a few months ago and passed away on December 4. We hear her 100-year-old sister Bharati — equally gifted in the cooking department — will now carry forward her virtual legacy. But those paddy fields in faraway Gudivada won’t quite be the same.