What's Best in the World of Food

Oh no, it's Valentine's Day and your partner expected something special but you didn't plan anything? Well, if you're moderately good in the kitchen, here's three recipes that if mastered, will help you win over the coldest of hearts. We've gotta warn you though - they're pretty high on difficulty levels so plan a day in advance. 

All three recipes have been given to us by Chef Ranveer Brar, TV personality, currently Senior Executive Chef at Novotel and we've gotta say quite a bit of eye candy himself!

When we approached JW Marriott for a shoot with the Chef de Cuisine at Arola, a niche Spanish lounge, there’s no way we’d have known they’d volunteer to give away 2 of their signature dishes – Patatas Bravas, and Crema Catalana that Chef Manuel Olveira creates in this video at Arola.

We caught up with Chocolatier and Owner of Fantasie Chocolates, Zeba Kohli, at a wine-chocolate pairing workshop at the Pune Farmer’s Market in Mumbai. And we asked for a few tips on cooking with chocolate.

We met Cordon Bleu Chef Michael Swamy on the first leg of Nine Hills’ ‘Wine in Food’ -- a 7-day road show that aimed at popularising cooking with wine (watch the event video here). At the event, held at the Westin Garden City Hotel, Mumbai, Chef Swamy made two salad dressings – a Chenin Blanc Vinaigrette, a warm mulled red wine dressing, a chicken main course dish and a dessert. Read on for the salad dressing recipes and Chef Swamy’s tips on choosing the right wine and cooking with it.

If the first wave of popularizing wine culture was wine tasting and pairing and the endless talk around it, the second is cooking with it. Since, wine continues to be a buzzy, distant terrain for Indians – more terminology than actual rolling around your tongue – cooking with wine may well hit a ‘note’ closer home because it is about doing it yourself in the unaffected comfort of your kitchen.

But that's not exactly why Pernod Ricard’s Nine Hills Wines hit upon the idea of popularizing cooking with wine.

KhaanaWaana caught up with food connoisseur Karen Anand and Adrian Pinto, Senior Manager, Wines, Pernod Ricard India at the Pune Farmer’s market at the Westin Garden City Hotel, Goregaon, recently. In this freewheeling conversation, Pinto talks about where wine fits into the market’s concept of natural produce.

Food connoisseur Karen Anand's Mumbai installment of the Pune Farmers' Market was everything a Sunday outing ought to be. Winter light, canopied expanse, lots of wine and food. You could perch yourself on a high chair, sit with friends around a round table, lounge around on a cane mat or simply sprawl out on the grass. So unlike any Mumbai event. That could explain the turnout at the far-flung venue, The Westin Mumbai Garden City Hotel at Goregaon. Find all photos in our Facebook album here.

After getting eliminated in final week of MasterChef Australia, Rishi Desai's indisputable talents in the kitchen - aided by his chocolate boy looks - has earned him a fan following not only Down Under but also back in India, from where this Kolhapuri chemical engineer originally hails.

So it was only natural that his cooking demonstration at Godrej Nature's Basket in Bandra last week would be populated by a predominantly female audience who had the pleasure of watching Rishi recreate some of the magic that made him a strong contender in the MasterChef kitchen.

Soundtrack: BugaBlue / http://freemusicarchive.org/music/US_Army_Blues/ / Public Domain Mark 1.0

Four courses at four different restaurants and lots of wine. That was the menu for the day at Sula Wine Rides, a Sula Vineyards sponsored event for a few of Mumbai’s food bloggers, conducted by Sovna Puri, Sula’s Head Tastings, Mumbai.