Next iron chef - Features Indian Cuisine!

Indians are proud of their "culture", "traditions" and of course their food. We get touchy when anything with "curry powder" is called Indian. Coming to think of it, the word curry powder is too generic and has been corrupted over the years since it was initially taken to Europe as a Condiment from India.

Indian cuisine is definitely beyond pAlak paneer, aloo gobi and chicken tikka. A small pointer here, a trial to patent chicken tikka masala by some one in the UK and being called the national dish of Britain. There are more ridiculous things happening to anything and everything Indian around the world. Cant blame them, everything Indian is over 3000 years old but we don't take pride in claiming to have invented or discovered anything. No wonder others take a lead in doing it. Remember the US patent awarded for discovering the medicinal properties of turmeric in 1995. It was revoked later. Then came neem and basmati. There was an uproar by Indian across the world and matters were taken seriously. We are waking up now, better late than never... right.

Coming to the topic, November 1st 2009 episode of Next Iron Chef was based on Indian Cuisine. For people who are not aware of this show; Next Iron Chef is a series on Food Network which basically was to choose an iron chef who later becomes a part of another series- Iron Chef America.

Image courtesy: Food network

 Looked like except for Chef Jehangir Mehta,

 image source: food network

None of the other chefs had exposure to Indian cuisine. Two things stuck me here, one that, for being taken in as a base for an episode, Indian Cuisine has come a long way, the other, that top chefs of this country said they hardly knew anything about Indian cuisine.

I was a bit disappointed to see Chef Mehta not winning the challenge despite hailing from India. This episode saw a chefs lining up thorans, aloo gobi, etc. It was really a great episode but the judges fell short of being "judges" as they knew very little about the cuisine. Their comments had me rolling over with laughter. Not to mention any names but saying one of the judges said that serving plain curd was not good (did she know that Indian do have plain curd to cool their palate), and the other judge said that lentils are always over cooked in Indian Cuisine. Such things doesnt speak well for judges on a major show on National Television.