Melting pot of world cuisines

Master Chef India 2 started today …am a great fan, I try not to miss a single episode  of the Australian ‘original’ …the challenges set for the contestants are amazingly innovative, the participants cope well, the hosts and judges are so natural,  genuine, well informed, friendly yet firm, suave and sophisticated, most of all the production quality and editing are superb…..in stark contrast is the ‘desi’ version ….the master clock framed in a glitzy foil covered tyre? ! yeeks... totally 'Sadak chaap' !

I wasn’t disappointed though… its come a long way from season 1 which was hosted by Akshay Kumar which in my opinion was a total debacle

We are a sub-continent of diverse cuisines, dozens of them ,  internationally acclaimed and much sought after and yet we want to ‘copy cat’ in an effort to get ‘trendy’ ? … are we embarrassed about our payasams, kormas and murambas ?  that we need to call them ‘Mousse’ , ’sauce’ and ‘compote’ L… it felt like an insult to the wonderful world of regional, traditional and grandma’s recipes which have been passed down  generations for hundreds of years

What is probably more annoying is the Hinglish spoken by the hosts and the star chef whose claim to fame ( excuse my ignorance, but who is he?) is that he immigrated from Amritsar to New York; the silver lining to this grey cloud is that people from the far corners of India are indeed going global in their thinking, working, speaking and food choices!

I have always preferred authentic recipes, I cringe from wedding menus which are ‘multicuisine’ – starting with papdi-chaat and kebabs, moving onto naan and chicken makhani, hakka noodles with manchurian gravy, an au gratin and of course the curd rice; all aromas over powering and blending into each other, enhanced of course with ‘tasting salt’ which is nothing but MSG.  Believe it or not,  let me tell you a secret, except for the very health conscious restaurants and caterers, every cook and chef worth his name in salt swears by this chemical the infamous MSG or Ajinomoto, they add it to every dish, it is no longer an ingredient limited to Chinese cooking.

Check out Bharat Vijay Hindu Hotel - Veg, Non-veg, Chinese, Punjabi and South Indian!!

I have resigned to the fact and grudgingly accepted that the Indianised version of every possible international cuisine is here to stay; starting from the road side vendor to the five star caterer who serves you chowmein chaat, spring roll dosas, ‘baked dish’ and mini gulab jamuns with an exotic ice cream frozen inside an orange!  Three Cheers to Fusion food and innovation!!

Anyone game to try tonight’s winning innovation by Shipra - Yam mousse with an apple & aam papad compote garnished with caramelised lotus root chip?!

Bon Apetit!… Live to Eat J