West aware of Indian palate, not its spectrum

Chef Ranveer Brar says the West doesn't know much about Indian cuisine except for a fixed menu. "The West doesn’t know much about the Indian cuisine except for a fixed menu of maximum 10 dishes. Most Indian restaurants outside have copied and pasted those fixed dishes there.

"They are aware and have the palate for Indian food, but don’t know the spectrum of our food. When we Indian ourselves don’t know so many dishes which are made across the country, how can we expect the westerners to know about it?," Brar said. The ‘MasterChef India 4’ judge believes that in the West, the trick is to understand the palate.

"First, you need to understand the palate there and what they eat, what is famous there and their kind of flavours." Del Monte announced the winner of its ‘Del Monte Italian Escapades’ contest, which had the consumers and food bloggers from across India contributing their unique pasta recipes.

The recipes were shortlisted and judged by Brar, who recreated six recipes too. He also chose the recipe sent in by the contest winner Samina Patel. Patel will get an all-expense paid customized trip to Italy for an exquisite food and culture experience.

Delighted to be associated with Del Monte for the event, Brar said: "Italian cuisine has come a long way in India. Initially, the cuisine was relished by the urban Indians at fine-dining places.

"Now a large section of our society prepares it at home, and not just for special occasions but as a day-to-day meal. I am pleased to see the enthusiasm that the participants have showered. It was indeed difficult to choose the best recipe and finally one winner out of the 185 recipes that the contest received."

Speaking about the idea behind the contest, the 37-year-old celebrity chef shared that there is a need to give exposure to the home-cooked food. “If a chef makes your recipe, in today's date it is a good thing. That it's your recipe that is coming out and being cooked by a chef. We are just giving the people their due.

"Any kitchen that cooks at home with minimum resources needs to be given the respect and appreciation. As chefs, we start cooking with 40 to 50 different ingredients in front of us, with different spices, pastas at our disposal... so we need to bring this under the limelight, talk about it and encourage the scenario,” he said.

Brar says we are becoming a "very chef-driven society for some reason". "The home makers have been cooking for a very long time, yet they believe that the chef makes better food. Personally, I would disagree. I have just an experience of 20 years in cooking, but my mother has been cooking for say 40 years…," he said.