If you thought it was only food that the Indian sub-continent had to offer, a television show by renowned Indo-Kenyan chef Kiran Jethwa, is now here featuring some of the most exotic beverages from the nooks and crannies of the country!
From coffee and fruit wines made in Coorg, to chilli wines and finger-millet drinks from Sikkim to fragrant rose milk from our very own Chennai, there’s a lot we have to quench one’s thirst. Chef Kiran Jethwa has taken on a journey to unearth some such highly exciting drinks. Titled Spirited Traveller, the show not just presents these beverages, but takes a look at the cultures they come from with their history attached. “It’s a first-of-its-kind show that aims to explore the most authentic, exotic beverages across India. When I was asked to be involved, I thought it’s a fantastic idea. The show is a thrilling adventure exploring the diverse culture of India and its local delicacies. It’s mainly about reaching out to people through unique beverages and the traditions behind them. We have looked at India through a different lens,” chef Kiran, who has been cooking Indo-Mediterranean food (deconstructed Indian food with Mediterranean flavours) for many years now, shares.
The journey through the show has been a whirlwind tour he says, adding — “Each place has thrown up something that I didn’t know before. Three places stood out the most from the trip — Nagaland, Sikkim and Varanasi. In Nagaland, the rice beer called chang, has a very unique brewing process, which uses yeast, harvested from the forest. Apparently, no one knows how to make the yeast, it is a guarded secret. Sikkim offered me a finger-millet wine called chichauk, one of my favourite drinks which was served out of long bamboo glasses. thandai from Varanasi was also very fascinating.”
The chef owns a premier restaurant company in Nairobi and has been travelling across the US, Europe, south east Asia, Australia for many television shows. He says he found that being a chef was his calling through the Indian food he has been eating since childhood, with his father being an Indian. “In our family, food was at the forefront of everything. And the kitchen was a very social place. Both my parents are great cooks, my father (from Gujarat) ate only Indian food at home and my mother who is a German, is possibly the only six-foot Yorkshire woman I know who speaks fluent Gujarati and who can out-cook anybody I know. I grew up eating Indian food and that has influenced almost everything I do. I loved cooking from a young age and when I finally found a professional kitchen, I realised that this is what I wanted to do,” Kiran reminisces. His cooking style draws inspirations from various parts of India, like wrapping his food in banana leaves. “Indian food I think is one of the greatest cuisines in the world. The fact that it has travelled across the world shows that people love it,” Kiran says, signing off.
(Spirited Traveller airs every Monday and Tuesday at 9 pm on Fox Life)
