Cooking up a storm
28 Oct 2013 2:55 AM IST
Cooking shows are fascinating for those who can’t cook. Especially for those who can’t, perhaps. I grew up watching Yan can Cook (by Chef Martin Yan), there weren’t any Indian chefs around of note then. I was fascinated by the way he chopped, the way the noodles just rose up on being fried, the way all the audience on the sets got a chance to eat what he had cooked.
Then came Sanjeev Kapoor, somehow, his Khana Khazana, did not have the same charm. Over the years there was Tarla Dalal, Madhur Jaffrey making way for the hotter and cooler breed of chefs with Vikas Khanna, Aditya Bal, Ritu Dalmia, Bikramjit Ray, Kunal Kapoor and the list goes on. They mixed food with some great audience chemistry and most channels got their recipe for TRPs.
Indian television took a page out of international shows like Masterchef and created their own repertoire of a handful of shows that strangely tasted very insipid. Two reasons – the local rip-off did not do justice to the sights and sounds of the international counterpart and the melodrama was too much. And again, there aren’t too many Indian chefs who can live up to the flair of Anthony Bourdain, Gordon Ramsey, Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson or Take-home-chef Curtis Stone.
For now, India seems to be rooting for Rishi Desai on Masterchef Australia (on TLC). Desai is cute, he can cook and he seems to be excellently low on the melodrama factor. The other Indian contestant on the show, Neha Sen doesn’t have the kind of support Desai has managed to garner on social networking sites. But Masterchef does not work on votes, thankfully
TLC is also coming up with The Taste soon that will bring together Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson as mentors alongside other chefs. We aren’t missing this for the world!
Plus Supernatural season 9 kicks off from Friday, 25 October. Those who watched season 8 will have to admit the story is limping but the last episode closed with angels crashing down to earth like meteorites, Sam was barely alive and Castiel is no longer an angel (Sigh!) Here’s to season 9.
Then came Sanjeev Kapoor, somehow, his Khana Khazana, did not have the same charm. Over the years there was Tarla Dalal, Madhur Jaffrey making way for the hotter and cooler breed of chefs with Vikas Khanna, Aditya Bal, Ritu Dalmia, Bikramjit Ray, Kunal Kapoor and the list goes on. They mixed food with some great audience chemistry and most channels got their recipe for TRPs.
Indian television took a page out of international shows like Masterchef and created their own repertoire of a handful of shows that strangely tasted very insipid. Two reasons – the local rip-off did not do justice to the sights and sounds of the international counterpart and the melodrama was too much. And again, there aren’t too many Indian chefs who can live up to the flair of Anthony Bourdain, Gordon Ramsey, Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson or Take-home-chef Curtis Stone.
For now, India seems to be rooting for Rishi Desai on Masterchef Australia (on TLC). Desai is cute, he can cook and he seems to be excellently low on the melodrama factor. The other Indian contestant on the show, Neha Sen doesn’t have the kind of support Desai has managed to garner on social networking sites. But Masterchef does not work on votes, thankfully
TLC is also coming up with The Taste soon that will bring together Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson as mentors alongside other chefs. We aren’t missing this for the world!
Plus Supernatural season 9 kicks off from Friday, 25 October. Those who watched season 8 will have to admit the story is limping but the last episode closed with angels crashing down to earth like meteorites, Sam was barely alive and Castiel is no longer an angel (Sigh!) Here’s to season 9.
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