Laid-back, easy and the very likeable Arjun Kapoor has a wonderful line of films and projects that are sure to win hearts. However, the pandemic put a spoke on all the plans. So it’s no point talking films with Arjun keeping the dismal scenario in mind. However, we can do the next best thing – talk about food and Arjun Kapoor more so as he joins the star-studded line-up for the third episode of the celebrity cooking show, ‘Star vs Food’ on Discovery+.

After having famous Bollywood personalities like Kareena Kapoor Khan and Karan Johar grace the show, the amusing and quick-witted Arjun enters the kitchen for the first time to try his hand at cooking a very flavorful menu including Laal Maas and Chapli Kabab to surprise his uncle and aunt, Sanjay and Maheep Kapoor. Under the mentorship of Gulaam Gouse Deewani, Head Chef at The Butler & The Bayleaf, Arjun Kapoor whips up a royal Mughlai flavoursome menu. Here, Arjun talks about food, his woes with obesity and more…

So is there a challenge in cooking?

Arjun avers, “The trickiest thing about today’s cooking is the fact that I have to enjoy myself while still learning something new and that’s not always easy.”

Arjun has had a problem with obesity, so how did the great transformation from P.H.A.T. (Pretty, hot and tempting) to fit happen?

Arjun reminisces how his indulgence in food was uncontrollable as he weighed 150kgs by the time he was sixteen years old. Talking about his parents’ separation, he said, “I looked at food for comfort. I got caught up in the way I felt emotionally… so I started eating and then I really enjoyed eating, and then the fast food culture came into India at that point of time and fast food is ‘fast food’, so you can go after school and keep eating. It is very difficult to let go because eventually, there is nobody to stop you beyond a point. Your mother loves you; she will reprimand you, but you are still a kid, and they give you benefit of the doubt ki yeh umar hai khaane ki, theek hai.”

But there were complications from overeating, right?

Arjun agrees. With time, he developed asthma and other injuries because of his obesity.

So how did the great transformation happen?

Talking about the transformation phase, he avers, “I literally, one Diwali just ate biryani and had a tub of ice cream, and then I said Bas! Is Zindagi ke liye bohot kha liya, ab apni agli zindagi ke liye nahi kahunga! And that’s where the new phase of my life started, where I learnt how to let go.”

So any food memories from his ‘good old days’?

Arjun mentions how with the turntable or the ‘Lazy Suzy’ as the family called it, he was always the first one to hoard on the chicken legs especially when they were homemade.