Delicious careers

There are two things that most humans crave for — the desire to travel far and wide, and love for food. Now if one got the opportunity to explore the length and breadth of a country as diverse as ours, try out the multifarious cuisines and to top it all, get paid for it, won’t that be just wonderful?

That’s exactly the job description of television anchors who host travel and food shows. These media professionals get on the road, touring India, sometimes abroad as well, and stop by dhabas, roadside eateries and even homes of locals in famous as well as remote places, to taste the native cuisine and let the world know of the unique flavours.

Those who are closely involved with such programmes swear by its positive experience. Sandeep Singh (a.k.a. Rocky), of the popular travel and food show Highway On A Plate that used to be aired on NDTV Good Times channel, asserts that he couldn’t have got a better job. He says, “It is undoubtedly an enviable and fascinating job. The travels, the people and their cuisine make you feel so alive that you are in a perpetual state of hyper-awareness wherever you go and whatever you do.”

Rocky claims that there’s a lot to be learnt from the entire experience, saying, “Everybody’s palate is limited, but once you learn to break out of it, your outlook towards food completely changes. And this is true in the case of our everyday lives as well. We must learn to break out of our comfort zone to truly enjoy new experiences.”

Echoing Rocky’s sentiments is playback singer, RJ and TV presenter Anuj Gurwara, who hosted Road To Paradise, a travel-based show on Travel Trendz TV. He says, “The tattoo on my forearm reads ‘One life’, because I live by the mantra that the one life we have needs to be spent intensely. And a travel and food show lets me do just that. My time on the road taught me that being a traveller is much more rewarding than being a tourist. And the life lessons that my crew and I learnt from all the adaptability, camaraderie and shared experiences are just unforgettable.”

Travelling can be an enriching and rewarding experience. Anuj says, “While touring Kerala, I visited the colourful Thirssur Pooram festival, attended by lakhs of people. Just few weeks later, I was exploring the Silent Valley National Park in Periyar, said to be India’s only bio-reserve untouched by human influence. While both places provided me a contrasting experience, the one thing they made me realise is that we are nothing but a tiny speck in this universe. That kind of puts your life and thoughts in perspective.”

Such experiences are not limited to TV anchors alone. There are many foodies whose work takes them to many places and they make their travel a rich culinary experience. Pooja Vir, a globe-trotting marketing consultant, author and avid blogger, claims that over 95% of her free time on her trips abroad revolves around food. She has her own blog  (www.poojavir.wordpress.com) and regularly posts recommended food outlets across the globe based on her travels. Speaking about her passion, she says, “Food and travel, which go hand in hand, are two very good ways to understand oneself as well as the place one is visiting. The history and legacy of each place is so richly infused in its cuisine that food has been one of my biggest sources of history lessons of all the places I’ve visited so far.”

However, there are always two sides of a coin. Often, travel and food anchors have to travel to places that are remote or have extreme weather conditions, and with around 200-250 days of shooting in a year, it is by no way an easy job if you are not passionate about it. Says chef Aditya Bal, who hosts the show Chak Le India, “There’s no denying that exploring new places, meeting new people and trying out different cuisines can be an enriching experience. But there’s many a hardship too during the process of making the show. There was this one time when we had to shoot in Ladakh during winter in 2010, and explore the local Indian and Tibetan cuisine. But the weather was so punishing that the passes were inaccessible and we were stranded.”

And it’s not just the weather or terrain that can play spoilsport. Being a TV anchor is a creative job that also adds to mental fatigue. Bal elaborates, “The camera can be very demanding. When you have to travel a lot, eat a lot more, have limited sleep and then face the camera with a smile, it mentally drains you. For instance, imagine making a mistake while eating something you don’t particularly like during the shoot, and having to eat the same dish till you get the perfect take!”

While national travel and food shows have their set of dedicated fans, such shows on regional channels don’t enjoy such popularity. Jagee John, a popular chef TV anchor based in Kerala, rues that regional channels hesitate to spend on such shows and shell out a bomb on reality shows instead. “Travel and food shows have universal appeal and so much can be learned from them, but unfortunately, today’s audience seems to have an appetite for dramatic reality shows instead. And now these reality shows have not spared the art of cooking too,” says Jagee John.

There is one thing that all these people agree on — they truly believe that all the experience has made their lives richer, and made them look on the bright side of things. Says Rocky Singh with a chuckle, “Travelling makes you a better person, and food keeps you alive. So there is no reason why one should not amply indulge in both. After all, what doesn’t kill you only makes you fatter.”