HYDERABAD: Novotel Hyderabad Airport brought in a biker-themed ‘Cooking Face Off with Chef Kunal Kapur’. Instead of bloggers critiquing food served by the numerous food hubs, the hotel roped in food bloggers and their food was to be critiqued. The event started off with the celebrity chef riding in his favourite Harley Davidson along with the team from the hotel to the lawns on Wednesday.
The face off was among four teams of food bloggers from the city who are made to cook for the chef at the event. The chef adjudged the artichoke and cream chicken roulade and burnt bell pepper and tomato salsa dish made by Neidhi and Ashis who run a food and travel blog as the winners of the contest.
In a brief interview, in between sips of wine, the soft-spoken chef from Punjab, who is now based in Delhi, talks of his passion for photography, automobiles and gardening apart from cooking. “I’m planning to get a bike for myself, but first I’m planning on convincing my family so that I can have a bike,” he laughs and tells us.
“ I’m fortunate I have a patch of land outside my house where I have a kitchen garden and I like gardening whenever I have time” he says when asked about his passions. The chef also tells us of his upcoming Pickle Book which is underway.” I was amazed at the amount of diversity and culture I came to know while doing my show Pickle Nation.
This inspired me to write a book and cover more extensively on the food and the culture surrounding pickles. How much more intriguing will it be to cover all of india?” he says. He talks extensively on how he is amazed by the tradition of pickles and the stories related to pickles.”
This is a total Pagal Bandhan but I’m embarking on a journey which will take me to all the states of India and talk to people on pickles and this book will be a total people’s book. This will include people and the food and their culture.” he reveals.
Also the exciting part of his book will be the pictures the chef himself is taking of the people, the food, the region, culture he is encountering and will be as he goes around the country. When asked about the release of the book, he says “ It will take me another year and a half.” When asked about his regular schedules, “ I like to walk and usually get up early and walk for around 3 kms everyday,” the chef tells us.
When asked why Hyderabad for this Cook off, he says,”To me Hyderabad has always been associated with food like Hyderabadi biryani and I always love coming here one or twice in a year to keep track of the developments in the food industry.”