Beyond The Screen: 'One Flavour Led To Another, And It Was Never Ending': Master Chef Neha Shah On Creating 51 Panipuri Flavours
In a conversation with ABP Live over email, Neha discussed her culinary journey at Master Chef, talked about her love for pani puri and how she went on to create so many flavours.
Pani puri and Indians indeed to hand-in-hand. It is one such street food which is loved by most people for the crunch, the tanginess and the spice it has. But, how many favours of pani puri have you come across, apart from the regular sweet, tangy and mixed ones? Food Creator Neha Shah, who participated in Master Chef Season 4 considers pani puri as her "elixir". Not just that, Neha also created 51 pani puri flavours, thereby securing a place in the golden book of reecords. Google was intrigued and also created a Google Doodle game on her unique accomplishments.
In a conversation with ABP Live over email, Neha discussed her culinary journey at Master Chef, talked about her love for pani puri and how she went on to create so many flavours.
Here are some excerpts from the interview:
Can you tell us about your journey into the culinary world?
As a kid, I grew up loving food. My mom is a great cook, and she's also a very nice baker, because of which I got very excited to learn how to bake, how to cook since forever. And that's how things started. And then eventually, I studied food science and technology. I went on to work in the food industry, but as a research scientist in the FMCG industry, actually. And I moved from Bombay to Delhi.
When I was living alone, that is when I started cooking, I started exploring flavours, cuisines, learning more, trying out new recipes and I started cooking and taking food to work. And my colleagues at work would be like, Oh, you cook really well. You should go for Masterchef and then Masterchef happened in my life. Actually, I went on to Mastershef for the first time in 2012. I was just 21 years old back then. At that point, because I was a vegetarian, somehow I felt like I was not in the right place and definitely not the right time. So anyways, that journey got over.
When Masterchef, Season 4 was announced in 2015, I went again, and it was pretty much the first culinary exposure that I got, the big culinary exposure. And of course, after that, it's been a constant journey where what I believe is that I want to keep learning, and that's what my journey is all about.
What inspired you to specialise in creating unique pani puri flavours for which you eventually set a record?
Like I mentioned, I studied food science and technology, I was working as a research scientist with Dabur. So, I started my career with Dabur and from there I swapped, and I moved to working with the Flavour House. So, I started working on flavours, I started working on flavour pairing, flavour combinations and that's when I realized that this is what I'm good at and this is what I've really enjoyed.
Now coming to Pani puri, I feel like Panipuri is India's most loved street food. From a child to adults everybody loves Pani-puri and so it would be amazing to do something around Pani Puri and just celebrate, pani-puri as one of the most loved dishes. I mean, that is what the central goal is or that's what I wanted to do. But then when I started working on the flavours, one flavour led to another and it was never ending. And that's when I realized that, I had developed like 51 flavours and maybe I am headed towards a world record.
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Could you share some insights into the process of creating and experimenting with various panipuri flavours? What factors do you consider when developing a new flavour?
Pani Puri is that the basic thing is that it needs to be ‘Chatpata’. It has to have sour, sweet, spicy, salty, crunch, everything. Until there isn’t a balance in the Pani Puri, it’s not crisp. That only comes when all the taste combines with balance. So every flavour has to be chatpata, that is important. Certain things are very important when making Pani Puri, like the freshness of the water, you add certain ingredients for freshness, after that, because it is a water which is essentially a juice, I realised that how you make mocktails, you can also make pani puri water. For me, it is very important that you taste as you go on and keep balancing the flavours.
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Can you describe some of the most challenging aspects you faced during your culinary adventures?
I grew up being a vegetarian and I am very proud of that fact but sometimes I feel that at certain times people don't understand what being a vegetarian is. I love travelling and I feel like most countries don't have these issues but on my recent trip to Serbia it was a struggle to find good veg food. I think for me after Masterchef, I started restaurants. Being on TV is one thing and actually running a restaurant where people are coming to have your food and paying for it, that’s a completely different ball game. So, I feel running a restaurant was the most challenging part of my culinary adventure
How do you keep yourself updated with food trends?
I am a researcher and I research a lot, I read a lot, I travel a lot, so it is very important to me that whenever I am travelling, reading, learning, researching, I make sure that I pick up the best of what's going on and that's how I keep myself updated. I honestly feel like travelling makes me feel the richest because there's no better way to learn about food specifically. You get to meet locals, so many different kinds of people, and that's when you realise that so much to know about this world and now of course because of instagram everyone knows the trends.
Could you share some of your most memorable culinary experiences so far?
Honestly, I think Thailand has the best food in the world. And I have had the most amazing vegetarian Thai meals in Bangkok and some more cities and that is truly the best culinary experience. Currently I am in New York and today I happened to visit a chinese restaurant called Chinese Dimsum House and their dumplings, their turnip cake was absolutely mindblowing. It was the first time I had a taro dumpling and I was mind blown.
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Can you describe a challenging dish or culinary project you've undertaken in the show and how you overcame the difficulties?
In all honesty, I think I undergo challenges every now and then and I love challenges. So I'm a vegetarian and I was trying to perfect the recipe for eggless vegan macarons. Now, if you see the ingredients the macaron ingredients are very simple and basic you just need like four to five super basic things to make it but it needs the right skill set to make it and I feel like with me I tend to get very impatient, especially if I don't like If I'm not able to do it in one go.
I remember I was making macarons and I must have seen at least 30 to 40 popular recipes. Of course, I was scared of failing and I did. I failed like not once but three to four times. I failed and there's not much I could do other than keep practicing. So yeah that's how I kind of... honestly, I have not overcome the challenge of macarons yet.
What are your future goals and aspirations as a chef?
My goal is to constantly keep learning and I feel like that comes with travel. The more I travel the more I learn the more I learn the better I get. I definitely intend to keep learning for the rest of my life and of course, I love creating content. I also hope that I can get people motivated.
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