In a candid chat with R Sharma, chef Vikas Khanna opens up about his expedition to the Middle East. He shares that why it is important to give other cuisines a chance and how will he break the code of being ‘foreigner’ with his show
For a chef who has mastered the art of bread making, what if he himself tells you that he struggled to such an extent to make sangak (a kind of bread) in Dubai that the struggle very shortly came onto his ego (laughs). This is what happens when you step out of the horizon which you mark as your territory and enter the world that is unexplored. For chef Vikas Khanna, this was like a ‘calling’ when he got the golden opportunity of widening his zone by taking the third season of Twist of Taste internationally.
The show Twist of Taste-The Persian Trail, this time will see Khanna travelling to the Middle East and exploring the adventures in the city of popular and ‘not so popular’ places. “The show is not about food. It is about the people and their stories,” he shares.
“You will see me struggling to make sangak. I am a breadmaker, I started making bhature at the age of 12. When I was 16, I started selling kulche. I brought my own tandoor at 17. For my entire life, I have made breads and it is not easy to do so. But I couldn’t make this one. They make that bread on small hot stones. The flour that they use is as liquid as water. I tried five times and after that I got pissed, ego hurt ho gayi (it hurt my ego) I told them I need to find my own way to do it. Eventually, I found my own way and made the breads,” he continues.
He adds, “We talk about what we got from the other countries but we never talk about what we lent to them. This show will show that.” During my expedition, I found out that people in Middle East have traded spices like turmeric and cardamom from us.”
As the show takes a step ahead and goes international, the chef tells us, “I think it is fantastic that we are taking a new step in mainstream Indian cooking. We are bringing a total foreign cuisine and giving it a twist. We are trying to create a cuisine and it would be hard for viewers to believe what have we made it by adding our flavour to it.”
The chef believes it is important that we try different things and step out of the flavour of our comforting ‘taste-buds’. “I am not going to fight for origins because all these places are fighting for it. Whereas, what I noticed was — Although they are fighting for it but it is overlapping. All the ingredients are being grown under same climatic conditions so we cannot comment.” he shares.
But he stresses out, “I am not creating something entirely new and different. I am giving the recipes my twist by not disgracing the flavour of the authentic dish.”
Though he does not deny the fact that it was no less than a challenge undertaken. “It is a challenge, I won’t deny that — it was a calling. I am a chef and I should have the liberty to try and explore different cuisines. You cannot just stick to only one type of food. Television has a wider outreach and after this show, people will say it is ok to travel and try different things. Even when we go out, we look for butter chicken and daal, then how will we contribute to other cuisines and the economics of their restaurant. I have shown that its not foreign, its just that the technique is different,” he says.
“When you are going to see me trying making makbooza (Egyptian rice with meat chunks), you are going to draw similarities between it and our biryani. If you go to Dubai with your family, I am sure you are not going to taste it considering it is entirely different in taste. But people are going to love it when I am going to break the code and tell them it that it is similar to our biryani,” he says.
For him, it is not only acceptable to let things unfold, but also important that we do not define any food item by our pre- conceived notions. This is the reason that the chef, despite being a host on the show, did the research himself and explored the places that are not ‘so-popular’. “Its not only about food but the people. let’s not define a restaurant; if we have shortlisted a popular restaurant. You will not find some of the places on the show available on guide books,” he added.
He concludes, “There were times when my crew said, they cant take me out along with them. I disapproved and said, it is a travel show, if we don’t go out then how would be know about the place.”
(The show airs on FOX life every Wednesday and Thursday at 9pm)