JOIN USI get inspired by anyone. Right from a roadside food vendor to Michelin-starred chefs that I have worked with. For me, it is not about the money or the commercial aspect of food, it is all about my passion for cooking and feeding people,” says Shipra Khanna, former MasterChef India winner, restaurateur and a die-hard foodie.
Shipra’s journey in the kitchen is truly inspirational. From being a humble home cook, she went on to take the food world by storm after her phenomenal win in MasterChef India’s season 2 in 2012. And now, after two cookbooks, multiple TV shows, a Youtube channel (Shipra’s Kitchen) and few restaurants, the food prodigy is still going strong. “My journey in the kitchen has been interesting and quite out of the ordinary for a chef. I have worked with a lot of Michelin-starred chefs from all across the globe. I am also a teaching faculty at the Cordon Bleu as a guest chef and I have taught in Paris and in Shanghai. It has been a process of growth and self-discovery. But I still haven’t learnt it all,” she explains.
Food memories
Coming from a Shimla-based Punjabi family, Shipra’s life has been all about food. And it has been her saviour during troubled times. “In my family while we are eating lunch, we think about what to make for dinner. Even as a child, I was creatively inclined. I would read recipes and figure out how to bring my own twist to them. That’s how it started for me. And thanks to my daughter, I picked up a lot of tricks of the trade because I wanted to cook for her at home. So yeah, my mother, grandmother and daughter are my greatest inspiration in the kitchen.”
Shipra’s travels have also shaped her as a chef to a great extent. “Most people travel for sightseeing or to enjoy the luxuries that a place has to offer. I travel for food. Nothing can reflect the culture of a particular region better than its cuisine.”
And her recent trip was to Oman where she got to sample traditional Omani fare. “Oman is a luxury destination and its cuisine is unique from what we consider Arabic or Lebanese fare, which has really picked up in India. Omani cuisine is still grossly misunderstood and unexplored.”
Her travels also form the subjects of her cookbooks. In her first book, The Spice Route, Shipra has catalogued her culinary adventures across different regions and has curated recipes that she picked up during her trips. “I am working on my third book The Spice Trail, which is about my travel and culinary adventures in one country and it will soon be followed by sequels about different countries,” she says excitedly.
Her second book Sinfully Yours, however, plays to her strengths, as it all about desserts that she learnt along the way in different kitchens. “I love baking, whether it is a savoury or a dessert. I have a major sweet tooth and the classic French dessert mille-feuille is my all time favourite. It is a technical dish and can be tedious to prepare, but the end result is to die for.”
According to Shipra, passion and instinct are the two most important attributes that any aspiring chef needs to have. “Most good recipes are a result of someone’s instinct. Apart from this, the most valuable thing I have learnt from famous chefs is, KEEP THE FLAVOURS SIMPLE. This is the basic thumb rule in every five-star kitchen. Complex flavours can ruin a dish and you won’t be able to grade it. Simple clean flavours can make any dish a winner.”
New techniques
Speaking about the latest trends in cooking, Shipra says, molecular gastronomy is the thing to watch out for. “It is all about combining science and food together to give you different textures by keeping the flavours intact. So it is basically about changing the look of a dish. For example, you realise that what looks like a fried egg is actually a dessert when you start eating it. Fusion food is another trend that is catching on.”
Known for her fusion creations, the glamorous chef says, fusion can be of two kinds — one where you keep the flavours intact and experiment with the components of the dish and another one is a completely new dish with new flavour combinations.
“Some of the Michellin-star restaurants create amazing fusion food that can leave a lasting impact on your palate. I remember eating at chef Alain Passard’s restaurant in Paris, I had this simple salt-crusted beetroot, which was a real revelation. During MasterChef, the first dish I created was a fusion. I had made yam mousse with apple compote and caramelised lotus stem chips. It won me the first apron in the kitchen and it was taken by a lot of restaurants in their menu,” she says.
Shipra then went on to create Indo-French fusion dishes including tandoori chicken parfait with pepper relish and Amritsari fish with pine nut buerre blanc and potato au gratin.
As a restaurant consultant, Shipra believes that the Indian food scene is evolving like crazy. “There are so many cuisines that have still not reached India, but they will with time. People now want to experiment with flavours and expand their palates, and the food industry is booming.”
Having entered the male-dominated field of professional cooking, and earned the title of glamorous chef, Shipra says the climb to the top has been tedious. “It took me five years to establish myself in a comfortable space. People assume that women don’t have what it takes to work long hours in a professional kitchen. Now when I see more and more girls studying to be chefs in hospitality institutes and colleges, I am happy and proud that they are breaking these barriers.”