A man of many talents, chef Sanjay Thumma has revolutionised cooking by taking it to the digital media, thereby reaching out to millions of viewers across the world. Thumma, who was born in Hyderabad, has gained immense popularity in the culinary world by keeping it simple and trying out various fun elements to engage his audience. “My mantra is to have fun. I really enjoy cooking and I think it translates itself into the food I make. Which is why, even though the viewers cannot taste and smell the food, they can feel the happiness by watching my videos,” expresses Thumma.
The Hyderabadi chef reveals that he was drawn to cooking at a very young age and decided to pursue a career in it. “I started cooking at the age of seven. I would go to my mother and learn how to cook from her. As far as as my career is concerned, well, we all have to choose something. I chose cooking and then luck favoured me from then on,” says the 44-year-old.
After starting out his career by working in several five-star hotels in Gurgaon, Chennai, Agra and Jaipur, Thumma relocated to Chicago to start his own restaurants. After opening four restaurants over seven years, he suddenly decided to sell them all. “I loved food but managing a restaurant was not my cup of tea, so I sold all my restaurants.I felt that I needed to cook, because once you become the owner of four restaurants, you spend all your time managing people and you don’t get time to cook,” says the chef. After returning to India, Thumma decided to start vahrevah.com, which has become immensely popular. “I started cooking for fun but after a while I decided to take videos. At that time, YouTube was a big thing, so I took videos and posted them there. It was an instant success as people loved it and could really connect to what I was doing,” he shares.
His videos were a huge hit with over two million views and Thumma became a superstar of the culinary world. He then co-hosted a culinary show in Telugu called Vantintlo Wonders, but soon quit it to start his own show. “The offer was good but I did not enjoy it since it was not my show and I had to do according to the demands of the producers of the show. In this show, I have my own writer, director and producer. So, I decide the content and the food,” he smiles. And what’s more, he does all of this in his residence, as he has successfully managed to convert his kitchen into a cooking studio, with the installation of cameras and other equipments.
Thumma is especially popular among the Indian expatriate communities in Europe, Australia and America. He feels the secret behind his success is his attempt to keep things simple. “Even though I have come from a five-star hotel background, I deliberately made a conscious effort to make my recipes simple, so that everybody across the world would be able to make and enjoy it. My philosophy is to inspire people to cook and eat fresh food,” says Thumma, who is currently one of the world’s most watched chefs.
With his focus being mainly on Indian food, Thumma explains that his experience in Chicago helped him with his endeavour. “Once you start living abroad, you realise that our food is like an ocean compared to the food that other countries eat. The kind of varieties and variations in the number of languages that are spoken in our country, and if we multiply it by thousand, that many recipes are there in our nation,” he explains, adding, “Ours is a country in which food has an important cultural identity. Even now I always try to learn something new, as my lifetime is not enough to learn even a single per cent of Indian food.”
Thumma, who currently hosts a cooking show on Zee Telugu channel, is planning to expand his business in the future and provide employment to more people. However, even if he assumes entrepreneurial responsibilities, he vows to keep cooking. “Cooking is what got me this far, so I would be continue cooking till as long as I can,” he says, signing off.
