Chef On The Loose

Ever since,Bhatia has been on a mission to go to the very roots of Indian cuisine and he’s doing this via his television show on Fox History and Traveller,Twist of Taste with Vineet Bhatia. The weekly show goes on air on the 14th of this month.

He’s looking for hearty,salt-of-the-earth style food and he’s travelling across India in search of it. “We’re covering 13 cities: Amritsar,Delhi,Jodhpur,Chennai,Goa,Hyderabad,Lucknow,Mumbai,Cochin,Bhubaneswar and Puri,Kolkata and Guwahati. Everywhere,we’re examining how people of the region eat: what are the ingredients they use,what is popular. Of course,we’re also exploring the street food in each place,because really,that is the food of the masses,” he says.

There have been numerous other shows where hosts have gone beyond restaurant cuisine: eating off a street vendor’s cart,in fact,has been de riguer for quite a while now. Bhatia wanted to make certain that his show didn’t fall into the cliché,where the host eats something,exclaims how wonderful it is and then moves on. “When the channel proposed the show to me,I stated quite clearly that I would do it only if it played to my strengths as a chef,” he says. The final format,as approved by Bhatia,now runs to about one hour per episode. “It starts off with my wife Rashima and I arriving in a city and telling the viewers about its history,local specialities and related information. We also explore the culinary specialties of the area. Then Rashima picks up a food item,which I have to reinterpret as part of my ‘challenge’.” It’s this part of the show that really brings out the innovator in Bhatia. “While it’s perfectly fine to eat food as served by our mothers or by these street vendors,what’s the harm in trying to infuse a little creativity? Take a simple seekh kabab. You order some from a restaurant,enjoy it,and when there is some left over for the next day,don’t just heat and eat it. Instead,slit it open,stuff it with masala cheese and then heat it.”

Bhatia’s travels across India during the course of the show have opened his eyes to the myriad possibilities of food in the country. He recalls,“I tasted this dish called gulab jamun ki sabzi in Jodhpur. I know it sounds strange,but it was delicious. There is similar food innovation all over the country,although most of it is dictated by need rather than curiosity. What I’m trying to do through this show is not only document the roots of Indian food,but also the paths it can take into the future.”