Cooking It Up,Online

It was a visit from an aunt in Chennai that introduced her to the basics of cooking and inspired her to shoot videos of recipes and upload it. “I realised that there are many like me who could not cook and didn’t have people around to teach them,” says the 27-year old IT professional,who then started shooting her own videos while she cooked,edited them and uploaded them. Naturally,all this got her instant appreciation online.

Her onion-and-potato pakoda recipe registered 5,000 hits in just five days. She then progressed to publishing her own online books — Book of Chutneys and Book of Starters and Snacks. “Next in the pipeline is a free online cooking institute,” says Nair. Meanwhile,she provides us with the link to her blog www. veenaskitchen.com and the veenanairxp21 channel that has about 150 of her recipes.

Calling herself “a full-time amateur food-video producer”,besides uploading her own recipes,she also uploads those by celebrity chefs from around the world. “I have realised that cooking in India is perceived rather religiously. It has been the fodder for TV shows and now,its potential has been tapped online. That’s why when the contest was launched on November,I jumped at the opportunity,” she adds.

The contest was part of YouTube Partners programme. The short-listing was based on many criterion — content of the videos,frequency of creating the videos,and their appeal to domestic and international audiences. “The winner will get a kitchen-equipment kit worth $5,000,besides mentoring by industry leaders and filming and editing lessons,along with other perks,” says David Macdonald,Head of YouTube Partner Operations,Asia Pacific.

As for Nair,inspired by the movie Ratatouille,she now wants to set up an online video gallery to impart lessons on the finer nuances of culinary art.