Chef Vikas Khanna brings food alive, kills English in Twist of Taste 3

Halfway through the second episode of Fox Traveller’s Twist of Taste 3, hosted by Michelin-starred chef Vikas Khanna, I realised who he reminded me of: Shriram Nene, husband of Madhuri Dixit. Was it his cooking prowess (according to an interview by Madhuri Dixit, her husband is as smashing a cook as Khanna)? Could it be the boyish looks, floppy hair and thin-lipped smile? No. It’s the New York-meets-desi accent. [caption id=“attachment_1375293” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Vikas Khanna. Image courtesy Facebook[/caption] The new season of Twist of Taste – Coastal Curries has its moments. It’s always nice to see a host who’s easy on the eye. The first two seasons had Vineet Bhatia’s mastery in the kitchen and his ease with the people he met. This season, you get to rest your eyes on “New York’s Hottest Chef” and the one of the sexiest chefs alive, Vikas Khanna. Personally, I prefer slightly more rugged-looking chefs, the sort that look like they’ve slaved in the kitchen and are suitably bruised and battered as a result (like a Marco Pierre White or Anthony Bourdain). But it seems our Indian chefs spend a lot more time on grooming than their foreign counterparts. And why not? Everyone likes a well-groomed man. But this isn’t ‘Style and The City’. It’s a food show, in which Khanna travels along the Indian coast, giving his personal twist of taste to coastal curries. In the first episode, Khanna went to Ratnagiri, offering me my first taste of dismay. Thankfully, my spirits were raised slightly in the second episode. The Ratnagiri episode began with Khanna visiting the fish market. It was one of the most awkward sequences I have seen because Khanna was so obviously uncomfortable in the dirt and grime of a local market where he had to prod and feel the fish before buying them. After finally buying some jitada, or what we know as betki in Bengal,  Khanna sat down to learn how to cook the fish from two locals. So far, so groovy, but then, once he was served the curry on a bed of rice, guess what Khanna did? He ate it with, not his fingers, but a fork. Any Indian who eats fish cooked the Indian way knows that to get the full flavour of fish – especially when paired with rice – you need to get in with your fingers. Not for Khanna and his manicured fingers, though. Not even if it makes better television. Thankfully, that moment passed soon. And Khanna was back to meeting yet another lady in Ratnagiri who taught him how to make a cucumber cake. The dish was interesting as was the fact that, as per my keen observation skills, Khanna’s terribly awkward around ladies. Like a fish out of water, or cucumber in a cake. But in the next episode, when Khanna travelled to Puducherry, all that awkwardness vanished. As he spoke to a chef who makes his own cheeses and chatted with a French architect about bouillabaisse, Khanna was totally at ease. For a series premised upon a chef meeting locals and learning their local culinary secrets and delicacies, Khanna’s comfort zone is limited and sharply defined. He’s obviously uncomfortable getting either his hands or himself down and dirty. Even when he chops onions or juliennes red and yellow peppers, there seems to be a hesitation, which is odd to see in a chef. He also seems much more comfortable with European ingredients, which would be fine if he wasn’t so unwilling around Indian ingredients. He even communicates better with foreigners, if his performance in Puducherry (compared to how he came across in Ratnagiri) is any indication. What saves the programme is how beautifully the food is shot. It looks as good as any international cooking show. The pièce de résistance in Twist of Taste for me, though, was Khanna’s command over the English language. The second episode had gems like “I bring most exotic India to your kitchens” and claims that some items were “more denser in taste” or had been “so much immersed”. Rather tragically, Khanna seemed utterly confuzzled by the word “coulis” and just couldn’t make up his mind whether or not he should pronounce the “s” at the end. A food-travel show becomes compelling viewing because of the chef-host. Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown is such a treat for the senses purely because of how easily he approaches and communicates with locals, even when he doesn’t share a language with them. Or consider the gusto with which Gordon Ramsay eats his way through dicey local delicacies in Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escape. Vineet Bhatia, Twist of Taste’s first host, could build that easy rapport with locals and their food traditions. Khanna, unfortunately, cannot boast of this trait. However, if all you want from a show is a good looking host, then turn on Twist of Taste.   Twist of Taste seems to be the place where food comes alive (sort of) even as the English language dies a slow, painful death.  Maybe I expected too much. Or maybe it’s all relative. After all, if I compare Khanna to the other Indian cooking show host, Ravinder Singh, Khanna doesn’t come out looking or sounding too bad. You can watch Twist of Taste on Mondays and Tuesdays at 9.30pm on Fox Traveller.