Saransh Goila working on dream project 'Sadak Chef'

Celebrity chef Saransh Goila says he will be travelling across India to document recipes for his travel show "Sadak Chef".

"I am presently filming for my new food travelogue 'Sadak Chef'. It has been a dream project and I've been waiting to do that," Goila told IANS over an email.

"It's a show where I travel across India, documenting recipes and cultures, eating and exploring without any boundaries whatsoever," he added.

Talking about his passion for food, the chef said: "I grew up in Pitampura, Delhi, in a middle class family. The most affordable form of entertainment was going out to try new restaurants or cooking new recipes at home."

He started playing in the kitchen at the age of 12, and was known as 'the boy who cooks' in his family.

"I had a deep love for theatre and was great in the kitchen. The family agreed that becoming a chef was a little more stable as a career," said Goila, who went to the Institute of Hotel Management, Aurangabad.

But Goila had a tryst with his "first love" acting.

"I studied under Barry John for six months, understanding the nuances of acting. On the side, I kept in sync with my cooking career by starting a catering company in Delhi and by doing food styling assignments for Prahlad Kakkar. It is then that I figured I could use my oratory skills to both cook and teach people how to cook by doing what chef Sanjeev (Sanjeev Kapoor) has been doing for two decades."

Today, Goila is popular as a TV show host, entrepreneur, author of "India On My Platter" and founder of Goila Butter Chicken. He was a guest judge on the famed competitive cooking game show "MasterChef Australia" as well.

The season ten of the cooking reality show is aired in India on Star World. The channel also celebrated the launch of the show and #10YearsOfGourmet last month with a special event with Goila in Gurugram, Haryana.

Goila rose to fame with his butter chicken. In fact, Australian chef George Calombaris labelled his butter chicken as the best in the world.

"Goila Butter Chicken started with a series of pop-ups in Mumbai in 2014 and then became a full-fledged venture in 2016. It is my version of what butter chicken could be.

"It is a little more detailed with the cooking process and complex with technique. The gravy is smoked with coal, the ratio of tomatoes is more as compared to the traditional butter chicken recipe and the creaminess comes from cashews, not from cream. There is no sugar or colour in this recipe."

The chef feels Indian cuisine is one of the most sought after cuisines internationally.

"There is a lot about Indian cuisine that we ourselves don't know about and we need to change that. Indian food is not only Mughlai or just butter chicken, as a matter of fact and the world needs to know that. At the same time it is important to tell the world our cuisine is not greasy curry and that it has been misrepresented for many years.

"It is a great time for our cuisine and we all need to join the movement."

What are the next big food trends?

"Regional Indian cuisine wave will be strong. We will see a lot of Assamese and Bihari food pop-ups. Waffles are doing rounds in India at the moment. Globally it is all about getting back your roots and the same will happen in India as well. So Butter Chicken might trend globally this year," he said.

(Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in)

--IANS

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