Top chefs on telly

Since the second season did pretty well,Star World has brought the third season close on the heels of its international premiere recently. In fact,Indian viewers will be the first to see the show outside Australia. The new season was launched on August 2 with new marketing and promotional activities to increase brand awareness and grab eyeballs. Besides tie-ups with exclusive and popular brands,Star World also brought the shows judge and internationally renowned food critic Matt Preston to India to promote the show in a bigger way. His visit kickstarted with a media event where Matt took centrestage with a live cooking of mouth-watering dishes that included an exotic salad,followed by an appetiser from the MasterChef kitchen. At the learning end and helping Matt was funnyman and food critic Kunal Vijayakar. Kunal also prepared an Indian street recipe for his foreign guest 8211; bhelpuri!

I am thrilled to be in India to help launch the third season of MasterChef Australia. The series has been a huge success in Australia but I am so delighted to know that it is equally big here in India, said the master chef who has corresponded with many of the shows Indian fans through Twitter. But now that he is in India,Matt will meet them face to face or live chat with them on Star Worlds India Facebook page. I am really looking forward to talking with them and understanding what they love about the show. Judging by the barrage of tweets I have been getting,Indian fans have been hungry for it the new season to start. And thats the best thing a cooking show could inspire 8211; an appetite for more.

Like Indians who love to eat and eat most of the time,Matt also appears to be a big eater,or at least has an appetite for almost anything thats edible. Like the lady in the kitchen,he sniffs at and licks finger to taste every ingredient. When it comes to eating,he gobbles up vada-pav in a jiffy and gulab jamun melts on his palate within seconds. All gone in his big tummy,and he is ready for more. Probably Australians are big eaters,but they also love to watch cookery shows/contests in big numbers. In comparison,Indians really dont. Cookery shows have been there since ages. They come and go without getting noticed much. People dont talk about them as much as they do about singing,dancing,quiz and other non-fiction shows. That may be because of the easy connect these shows create for themselves with mass Hindi GEC audience.

However,when it comes to watching cookery shows,viewers dont seem to be inclined in big numbers. One reason could be the recipes and the kind of food thats cooked there. No item is easy to cook,and most recipes will eat up at least two days kitchen budget of an average Indian home. Something that hits your budget badly will not evoke positive response. It may be exciting to look at but since its beyond ones cooking skills and budget you simply dont care. Thats where cookery shows fail. Of course,MasterChef India was not a cookery show but a contest and human drama in a kitchen. It was all about cooking under pressure. But it was about cooking exotic food and hence mass GEC viewer didnt connect with it easily. It didnot do badly but didnt get as exciting ratings as the exciting food that was cooked in the shows kitchen.

Its different with MasterChef Australia though. Its target audience is only a miniscule segment of the urban mass 8211; 15 SEC A,seven metros 8211; which has wallet and palate for exotic food. Thats the reason why MasterChef Australia gets eyeballs. According to Saurabh,the new season has got stunning response. It opened with 0.19 TVR and averaged 0.06 for the first week. The last season average was 0.03. It is hogging 50 per cent share of the entire English GEC genre, says Saurabh. Both English GECs and MasterChef have huge potential to grow. One,because Indias English-speaking population is only second to the USA. Two and more importantly,given the huge rise in middle-class income in the past decade,the easy availability of disposable money is every businessmans delight. People are waiting to spend; somebody has to show them how and where. A food channel a decade ago would have been a disaster,today it has some realistic chance to survive. It is why you need to market your product aggressively. It is why Matt Preston is in India and Star World is promoting the show in a big way. Maybe,part of the success and eyeballs of the parent brand will spill over to its Indian offspring which will go on air around the festive season.

Heres a surprising piece of news: eating butter chicken with red gravy has become a bit of a culinary cliché! Thats not it. Adding green apples to your chutney could add a nice twist to it and the dal available at your local dhaba has the potential of winning a Michelin star! Not entirely convinced? Chef Vineet Bhatia who is set to make his TV debut with Twist Of Talea show on how simple recipes can be transformed to impressive ones with a few creative ideas- certainly seems to think so.

The London-based chef is set to celebrate straightforward,accessible culinary ideas for people who love to eat well on Twist Of Tale to be aired on Fox History and Traveller. He says,Youll begin appreciating it once you start experimenting with the clichés. For those who grew up eating butter chicken with red gravy,Twist Of Tale will be quite a revelation. Get it! There are many Delhi-ites who have not eaten butter chicken in white gravy. I plan to introduce the audience to such never-tasted-before cuisine!

In the world of Indian cuisine,Vineet Bhatia is no ordinary Joe. This London-based chef owns restaurants and is a consultant to many more. His forte lies in showcasing Indian food in the right way.

There are a number of shows on TV that teach you how to cook. But none of them have ever attempted what I plan to do; to teach people how to make a simple dish interesting and then present it well without compromising on the taste,authenticity and flavours. We have all tasted dal makhani and chicken masala. But Im going beyond the usual recipes. Ill teach people how simple dishes can be transformed with a slight variation. For instance adding green apples to your basic chutney could change the taste completely.

Bhatia plans to travel to 13 cities across India and accompanying him on the food trail is his wife,Rashima. Spread over 13 episodes,Twist Of Tale will feature cities likes Mumbai,Delhi,Hyderabad,Bengaluru and even the lesser-known places like Mcleodganj and Manali in Himachal Pradesh. Each episode is of one hour,broken into four segments. In the first segment we travel to a new city,visit a restaurant 8211; not essentially a 5-star 8211; and tell the audience whats good about that place. The second segment introduces the audience to ingredients that they have never heard about. They are also told innovative ways of using it. For instance,in Hyderabad I found green tamarind leaves and in one of the episodes I plan to show people how it can be used in some of their recipes, says Bhatia.

The third segment has the chef performing a live demo. I cook basic food items but with a twist. While I was at Jaipur,I came across a vegetable dish made of gulab jamun,it was simply delicious. Ill incorporate the recipe in one of the episodes. At the end of the show I plan to get few people who would taste the food that I have prepared and give their feedback. That will make the show interactive, he adds.

Citing an example of what to expect on the show,Bhatia reveals,When visited a 90 year-old dhaba at Amritsar that is well-known for its dal,I added a new twist to their traditional recipe by adding jeera aloo and tandoori lamb chops to the dish. You have to taste it to know what a classic combination it turned out to be! At Goa,I added cashew feni to a lobster dish. Among the other exciting dishes lined up are gajrela malai martini,mouth-watering tandoori champagne and uttapam lasagne. Bhatia adds,When Fox History and Traveller approached me for the show,I was ecstatic. The format of the show is very exciting. It involves two of my greatest passions travel and experimenting with food. My accomplice and my better half,Rashima,brings in the extra zing to the show as we discover and give the Indian cuisine a makeover during our travels. The chef,who has titillated the taste-buds of patrons in London,Geneva,Dubai and Moscow,hopes to keep up with the latest trends in Indian food on his show. Id like to take the show further and go to Agra,Meerut,Kashmir,Ahmedabad,Bhopal and small towns that have not been explored. But that will depend on the feedback I get. If all goes well,Id love to do a sequel, he concludes.

Anita Aikara