In 2020, I went from writing cookbooks and articles about food to also making cooking videos. Ever since, I have hosted four cooking shows, making everything from Punjabi chole to Raj kachoris, chaats in waffle cones, even a laborious nalli nihari — all under the hawk eye of the camera.
Even as I was teaching viewers how to make these recipes, I was constantly picking up tips and tricks from the set. For instance, it blew me away to see food programmers use everything from glue in ice cream commercials to plastic ice cubes for chilled colas and motor oil on pancakes in place of real honey (oops — did I give it away?). But I also noted the little things that our kitchen stylists did to make the space look pretty between shots — giving the kitchen a facelift in a hurry, if you will. It continues to be endlessly fascinating to me to see a set kitchen go from looking like a hurricane had blown through one minute to being completely calm and clean the next.
