"Let's cook for a Change," says Mohanlal.

"Partying is boring, let's cook for a change," says Mohanlal.

The crew of 'Peruchazhi' were in for an unexpected treat when they were shooting at LA. They were in an area which didn't have many Indian restaurants and had resigned to continental food. But then, the least expected member of the team turned out to be their saviour, none other than Mohanlal! The actor is known to cook for others as he had once done for Vijay during the shoot of Jilla, but no one knew he would do so in a full-fledged manner, for the entire crew. “Not only did Mohanlal insist on cooking for everyone, he turned out to be chef extraordinaire,“ says actor/producer Vijay Babu. It all started with the superstar deciding to cook a vegetarian dish for the three vegetarians in the team * director Arun Vaidyanathan, and actors Ragini Dwivedi and Sean James Sutton. “However, Mohanlal has some secret recipe which he would never share with anyone. In fact, he doesn't like people in the kitchen when he is adding the secret ingredient. Once he offered to make scrambled eggs for breakfast, at which everyone said -Scrambled eggs will taste the same, who ever makes it. But he just went into the kitchen without allowing anyone else in, and cooked scrambled eggs, which actually tasted special and different! No one knows how he did it,“ says Vijay. However, the actor's culinary skills were put to test on pack up day , when everyone wanted to party . “It was Mohanlal who suggested -Partying is boring, let's cook for a change. There were 30 people including the American crew, who wanted a taste of his cooking, but he was undaunted. Since we didn't have enough room in our kitchens for such elaborate cooking, we asked a friend, who runs an Indian restaurant in the area, if we could use their kitchen. He obliged and opened their huge kitchen specially for Mohanlal! Mohanlal prepared a beef dish for the Americans which they absolutely loved. He always uses red wine in non-vegetarian dishes and it turned out really well.“ There were a few Malayalis among the staff there who were fascinated by the sight of Mohanlal cooking in their kitchen! However, Vijay adds that cooking is no joke for Mohanlal. “He is passionate about cooking and consequently, a food connoisseur as well. One day, he was making a curry, and on finding it a little bland, he added some salt, not knowing that different varieties of salt have different strengths there. The dish became slightly more salty, and Mohanlal got agitated. He started adding tomatoes and potatoes and even after everyone had eaten and assured him that it was tasty, he kept harping about it!“ But he finds joy in cooking and it's apparently a means of de-stressing for the star. “He just loved to make people happy by serving them food,” signs off Vijay.