Cooking It Up,Online

Marriage,they say,teaches you many things and in case of Hyderabad-based Veena Nair,it taught her how to cook. And cook well,to the extent that she emerged as the winner of YouTube’s first online cooking show — Next Chef — beating contestants from six countries.

“When I got married in 2010,I could only prepare Maggie and dal chawal. Winning a contest like this seemed so far-fetched,” says the 27-year-old IT professional who uploads recipes and videos on http://www.veenaskitchen.com and the online channel veenanairxp21. Her onion-and-potato pakoda recipe registered 5,000 hits in five days. She then progressed to publishing her own online books. “Next in the pipeline is an online cooking institute that teaches cooking for free,” says Nair.

Launched in November,the contest was part of YouTube Partners programme. “The winner will get a kitchen-equipment kit worth 5,000 US dollars,besides mentoring by industry leaders and filming and editing

lessons,” says David Macdonald,Head of YouTube Partner Operations,Asia Pacific.