Creating a Culinary Space with Difference: Chef Ranveer Brar

CHEF RANVEER Brar after making his space in the Indian hearts is amongst the few Indian Chefs who have achieved the celebrity status. At the age of 25 Chef Brar become the youngest executive chef and since then there was no looking back. In between his busy schedule and his journey towards to dive in more into food, BW Hotelier spoke to him to know more about his life and beyond. 

Coming from Lucknow how much it has impacted your whole culinary journey?

Lucknow and its food definitely had a great impact on my journey as a chef and food lover in a broader sense. Though my initial food sojourns included enjoying feasts at neighbours’ houses during festivals, conversations with the local grocer and exploring the street food of the city, my moment of realisation came much later in my teens. As a city, Lucknow has so much to offer in terms of not just food, but also food-conversations and food stories that help you establish a much deeper connection with what’s on your plate.

How much do you feel is the Television industry playing a vital role in spreading the F&B consciousness?

Food has always been and will continue to be an integral part of our lives. Television plays an important part in reaching out to more and more food lovers and helps in that connect between professional chefs and home-chefs. Now that we see far more conscious efforts and genuine, healthy curiosity in people towards exploring not just a dish or a recipe, but food in its entirety, Television helps in bridging knowledge gaps and encourage food conversations.

Having served in numbers of hotels and now getting known as a celebrity chef, how would you differentiate the two lives?

The entire time that I have spent with food, has been a great experience! In my understanding, one cannot become a celebrity chef unless you are a good chef. That’s a conversation we need to have, both as chefs and as an audience. Working with hotels made me a good chef and hence, being a celebrity chef seems to be a workable option. Both experiences have helped me grow as a person and a chef. Additionally, when working for hotels, we are planning, organising and using management and leadership functions and expression is a small part that comes out in the food and in the menus.

However, the expression aspect of a chef’s job takes on a much larger role when you become a celebrity chef because you are expressing yourself through your food, your thoughts about food, basically, everything you have to say about food and the world is listening. Hence, for a celebrity chef, expression becomes more important and you become more responsible towards expression.

In your TV shows, we have witnessed you promoting a lot of Indian recipes, do you suggest any more strategies for promoting the Indian food?

We need to focus on creating dining experiences based on the local cuisines more. With hyper-localisation being a big trend now, it’s important to respect where we are, its uniqueness. The USP you can add to the food other than your own touch to it is to respect the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates of where you are and what goes in and around it.

Tell us about your sweet fond memories with food which you will always cherish?

Many fond memories, especially related to my travels and the several food personalities I meet. The best memory that will be close to my heart is when I cooked for Shri Vajpayee and had conversations with him across the table. That food connect was incredible!

What would suggest to the budding chefs out there?

Stick to the 3 Ps – Patience, Perseverance and Perfection. For that, you need to get the basics right. With the right foundation in place and a passion to match, there is no limit to what you can create.

Educate us about your next plans for which you are excited about.

Lots going on. Currently shooting for a travel-based show, plus some more travel related ventures. Couple restaurants in the works as is my next book! So, watch the space