David Rocco's Dolce India: Easy on the eye and the palate

Just when we’d given up all hope, God said, “Let there be David Rocco”. Not only have I found the male version of Nigella Lawson, I’ve also found a food show worth watching on the telly. It’s a double whammy. And no, I’m not speaking of a foreign cooking show being shown here. This is a show about food and travel in India, and boy was I surprised by how wonderful it was. David Rocco’s Dolce India is the Indian leg of his international show, David Rocco’s Dolce Vita. In Dolce India, David travels through the country – Varanasi, Mumbai and Rajasthan – meeting people, learning local recipes and teaching Italian recipes along the way. Yes yes, it’s been done before. Most recently by pretty boy Vikas Khanna on the same channel which is airing David Rocco’s Dolce India. That one channel can have two hosts ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime – no points for guessing which adjective fits which host – is a little schizophrenic. But Fox Traveller has really hit on a winner over here. [caption id=“attachment_1472493” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  David Rocco. Image courtesy: Rocco’s Facebook page.[/caption] I’ve watched David Rocco’s Dolce Vita before, and he has a certain ease of conversation and cooking which is a delight to watch. He’s also extremely easy on the eye.  I almost didn’t recognise him in the Indian version because he’s shaved his hair. But thankfully his charm in and out of the kitchen wasn’t Samson-esque, so he’s retained it. I saw two episodes over the weekend. The first was such a great watch that I actually recorded the other so I could watch it when I got home. So why am I ooh-ing and aah-ing over this new programme? The first episode which I saw, was called Elephant King, and had David visiting Rajasthan. While I’m sure the sights and sounds and heat and dust of a small town in Rajasthan were new to him, he seemed to mingle in with the locals easily. You see him meeting a local – not a Maharajah – in a market in Rajasthan, where they go and try samosas and namkeen from the bazaar. All of which he genuinely seems to relish. The person he meets also owns an elephant. Rocco makes chapatis for the elephant and even samples the chapati himself. No grimacing because he’s eating food he’s cooked for an animal. To complete the exotic India touch, now that we’ve seen an elephant, Rocco then heads off to meet KV Singh who says he’s a direct descendant of one of Rajasthan’s maharajahs. KV and his wife Shweta live in a big haveli and Rocco spends the day with them – learning to cook their food and also teaching them how to cook Italian food. So here’s what I liked. In one episode, I got to see 3 separate Italian dishes being made – a bolognaise, a pomodoro sauce and a fried pizza. We also learnt 3 Indian dishes – a panchmel dal, gajar ka halwa and laal maas. And we got to see a polo game, visit a local market and see Rocco flirting with KV Singh’s wife. Food, travel and a little frisson. Rocco’s style of cooking is very rustic and almost “homely”. He’s not a trained chef. He cooks by instinct and he cooks local Italian fare. The cooking isn’t done in a sterilised studio kitchen, which was the other thing which appealed to me. He cooks the mutton, bolognaise and gajar ka halwa al fresco on the lawns. The pomodoro sauce was cooked in a kitchen which looked like it could have been in any of our homes. His instruction-style is conversational and he looks amused and intrigued by all that’s happening. I tried the pomodoro sauce and it turned out perfectly. There’s also lots of wine being drunk through the show – which might explain his good mood. The second episode I saw had him visit Mumbai and pretty much get mauled by the body odour inside a local train. He visits a Koliwada fish market, buys fish, eats at a local restaurant, cooks Bombay duck and stuffed pomfret in the kitchen of the local restaurant and then visits Italian expats living in Mumbai, when he cooks a delicious pasta with prawns accompanied by fried fish. He also visits Juhu Chowpatty and eats pani puri and vada pav – which he loved – and balks at the jam filled paan. Once again, the pasta he cooks is in a kitchen in a Mumbai flat, very similar tp Rachel Koo’s My Little Paris Kitchen. Why this show is better than the other foreign-chef-visits-India shows is because while looking wonderstruck by the chaos that is India – Rocco also looks completely at ease while tasting local foods or standing in a local market. He eats with his fingers and doesn’t whip out a fork while standing at the roadside kebab stall. He doesn’t look like he’s scared he might catch a fatal disease – which he well might. It’s always nice to see a chef who is at ease with himself and his surroundings and who isn’t looking like he or she’s more interested in a walking a ramp or being on the cover of a magazine, than cooking over a stove. And yes, it’s very heartening to know that Anthony Bourdain is not the Last-Of-The-Good-Looking-And-Interesting-Chefs. Rocco packs it all in. Much like Nigella is popular with us women who want to cook like her and wouldn’t mind looking like her, Rocco is popular because we’d like to cook like him and don’t mind looking at him while trying to do so. And you do get to see parts of India and learn recipes which you might not know. Also, the way the recipes are explained is great for someone who has an interest in cooking. Which is pretty much the target audience which Fox Traveler’s cooking shows are aimed at. The recipes are described the way home chefs usually describe their recipes, in approximations of quantities. It’s quick and easy. This is definitely a show worth tuning in for. If Fox Traveller can convince Rocco to shoot more series with them, they’ve managed quite the coup. I’m guessing there’ll be a second leg to this series because he’s hardly visiting any cities this time round. But maybe he wanted to test whether he’d get Delhi belly or not before adding more cities to the list. A good decision I’d say. You can watch David Rocco’s Dolce India on Fox Traveller on Thursdays and Fridays at 9.30 pm.