More than Diwali itself, it’s the festive frenzy ahead of the festival that cheers us. While many love Diwali for different aspects — for its fairy lights to family get-togethers to the famous card parties, for celebrated chef Ranveer Brar, food, feelings, and festivals go hand in hand. “Some of my most priceless memories associated with Diwali date back to my childhood days. Diwali meant a visit from relatives, especially cousins. The moments closest to my heart are those spent with Biji (grandmother) and my mom in the kitchen, helping or watching them prepare special treats like Kanak Kheer and Atte ki Pinni,” he says, adding, “The aroma of ghee and wheat flour would fill the entire house. Freshly harvested cotton would be brought in and we kids would be tasked with making Baatis!”
The star chef was in the city to whip a festive feast and unveil homeware brand Home Centre’s kitchen essentials for festive gatherings. TMS catches up with him at a time when he is wearing many hats — from a film debut in The Buckingham Murders to writing his third book, A Journey Through India (self-published), after his previous two books Come Into My Kitchen (Collins India) and A Traditional Twist (Popular Prakashan). The new book fortifies him as not just a food connoisseur but a storyteller of culture — a feat chefs have seldom achieved in this country.
Festive greetings
Brar has been a Master Chef India judge, a restaurateur, author and TV host in his two-decade career. Apart from that he has been featured in dozens of television and OTT cooking shows. However, he has barely missed any Diwali homecoming. He tells TMS: “I have almost always made it a point to spend Diwali with family, except the couple years when I was in Boston. Diwali for all of us, it isn’t just a one-day festival. It’s a happy emotion that starts to build way before the actual day. I try to be at home a few days before and after Diwali to enjoy it all the more. As a kid, the chavannis I got from my grandfather for rolling the most number of baatis was priceless!”
The Home Centre’s culinary event at Ambience Mall saw Brar making everything — from gourmet snacks like dahi ke kebabs to sweet spring rolls. For those looking for more festive recipes, his blog has unique renditions of quintessential Diwali sweets ranging from the healthy murmura laddoo to strawberry boondi laddoo and everyone’s favourite, Shahi Kaju Katli.
As Diwali is also synonymous with gifting, Brar showcased several of Home Centre’s latest collections. ‘The Moksha collection’ in ceramic stone featured nature-inspired floral motifs in soft hues. ‘The Marshmallow collection’ stood out for its classic gold and white touch for luxurious appeal while the delicate Showstopper edit’s tea-set brewed perfect conversations. The chef notes how people have become mindful in gifting in the post-pandemic era.
“Covid-19 years have been a very tough couple of years for all of us. I’ve noticed a marked change in people, where they are living each day with a vengeance (in a good way). People appreciate connecting with others even more now. So gifting is more personalised and meaningful. There’s an increased interest in hand-made goodies — diwali ki mithai, pakwaan, decorations, and much more,” he says.
Hunger for stories
The 46-year-old Lucknowi is one of the most followed chefs in India boasting 11 million loyalists across Instagram and YouTube. The massive fan-following is not just because of his impressive work at some of the best hotels in the country like the Taj Mahal, The Claridges, and The Oberoi amongst many or headlining popular television shows like MasterChef India (Seasons four, six, seven and eight), and Raja Rasoi Aur Andaaz Anokha but also because he serves food with cultural stories.
In one of his videos on his social handles, he tells the history of the crispy dish dal pakwan that travelled from Sindh to India. In another, he traverses College Street in Kolkata to narrate how the Indian Coffee House while having a colonial connection, became a bastion of anti-British sentiment galvanising freedom fighters of India. His most popular video, grabbing two million plus views on Instagram, dives into Mumbai’s Matunga Island’s connection with Udupi and how it became a thriving hub of South Indian migration, serving authentic fare.
“It has been my tagline for a long time that to understand the cuisine of any place, it’s important to understand its culture and demographics. Once you learn to appreciate why a certain ingredient was celebrated the way it was, or why a dish came into existence, it makes the experience even more special. That’s the connection I want people to establish with food, than simply following recipes,” tells the chef who likes to call himself a “story-hungry traveller”.
Appreciating when people are truly passionate about their culture and cuisine, he recalls, “I had a sustainable yet delicious meal that a lady in Khejarli village in Jodhpur prepared with ingredients saved up over many seasons. She made Bajre ki Raab and the traditional Ker Sangri, flavours I still recall fondly. Then there was Radhanagari, near Kolhapur. One of the dishes in their repertoire is the Doodh Saar. You have to taste it to believe it!”
His recent book A Journey Through India is also his way of serving culture with food. “I travel especially to discover not just the regional but sub-regional cuisines as well. It’s so intriguing to learn how each region has adapted the local ingredients and tweaked their cooking methods to suit the demographics of the place. From the delicate Kashmiri Nadru, the minimalistic dishes of Rajasthan, to the wonderful fish delicacies prepared in Assam, Bihar, and Bengal and the unique spices of South India, there was more than enough to fill a book and that’s exactly what I did!” he says.
While food, history and culture are his daily diet, poetry adds to his layered personality. He often engages with his audience by putting out pun-intended one-liners and shayari, “Being a true blue Lucknowi, expressing myself in a shayarana andaaz (poetic way) comes naturally! Word play makes people stop to look at what someone’s trying to say. That’s the power of poetry. I have found great inspiration in the works of Rabindranath Tagore, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee,” he tells us. Next on his plate is growing his Indian restaurant Kashkan by Ranveer Brar in the Middle East and working on his next cookbook based on the seasons of India.