BBC Good Food India celebrates 2nd anniversary: Busting borders with a culinary coup

BBC Good Food India has marked the second year of its culinary journey with a collector's edition that brings together 25 top chefs from across the world.

The special issue also features five iconic Indian cafes — Kyani in Mumbai, Koshy’s in Bengaluru, Indian Coffee House in Delhi, Flurys in Kolkata and Infantaria in Goa. 

On the occasion, Worldwide Media chief executive officer Tarun Rai and the magazine's editor Sona Bahadur give dnaindia.com a sneak peek into the workings of one of the world's most popular food magazines and talk about a food world without borders... 

Q) BBC Good Food India completed two years. How does it feel?

Tarun Rai: It has been an amazing journey. Two years ago we were walking into unchartered territory. There was no other magazine in the country completely focused on food.

We needed to have a running kitchen as all our recipes had to be tested – thrice! We needed a studio to shoot the food we cooked in the kitchen. We were told that a food magazine in India would not work because cuisines and tastes across India vary so much.

Some suggested we needed four versions of the magazine – one for each region. But we stuck to our belief that our timing was right.
That India was on the cusp of an exciting culinary journey.

That our investment –including in our kitchen studio- would be worth it.
In the last two years we rode (and contributed) to that wave. The last two years have been really very rewarding.

Q) What were your expectations when you started the mag. How much of it has been realised?

We have surpassed our expectations. We have, very quickly, formed deep relationships with the industry, the advertisers and our readers. And we have not limited ourselves to just the printed magazine. We have had various on-ground events including Master Classes with leading chefs. We have tied up with restaurants for Good Food weekends and we have a huge base of passionate on-line followers. But there is a lot more to be done and we are working on a mega event property for early next year.

Q) Would you say television food shows and channels have fuelled the need for an international-level food magazine like Good Food?

Not just the television shows. We saw a wave developing some three years ago. Indians were experimenting more, both in their kitchens and while eating out. Ingredients that were not available a few years ago were now very accessible.

Restaurants serving cuisines from around the world were popping up and doing well. Chefs were turning into celebrities. And yes, even shows like Master Chef Australia were getting a lot of eyeballs. It certainly was the right time to launch a food magazine.

Q) What according to you is the future of magazines in India?

The future for lifestyle and special interest magazines in India is very bright. And I believe, technology is going to allow our magazines to reach a much larger audience through mobile devices. I can’t say the same for news magazines though.

Q) What are the things that we can look forward to next year?

We are working on a very big Good Food on-ground property for early next year. And we are also exploring a language edition for Good Food. Besides this, the Good Food mobile app should also be launched next year.

Q) Would you call yourself a foodie? What's your favourite cuisine/food?

Oh I am a big foodie. I exercise a lot so that I can eat a lot. I am from New Delhi but have worked in Kolkata and am now based in Mumbai. And I am frequent traveler to the South. I enjoy all these places because of the food. My favorite international cuisine? I think currently it is Thai.

Q) You are a busy man. But have you ever whipped up something for yourself/family?

I am very good at whipping up breakfast. A proper, big breakfast. I do it often for the family.

Sona, you're the editor here at BBC Good Food magazine. Tell me what your job involves.

Sona Bahadur: My job involves envisioning and crafting a clear editorial strategy for Good Food India. At a micro level, it includes giving direction to the Good Food edit team and inspiring them, planning issues and providing direction to our kitchen team.

Since we live in an era of magazines 24/7, I’m actively involved in establishing Good Food as a successful multiplatform product by developing our content strategy for digital and social media platforms such as FB and Twitter. Finally, I also support our marketing team in the planning of events and activations.

Tell me about your growing up years. Was a career in food always on the mind?

I did my schooling from DPS, Delhi, and Welham Girls School, Dehradun, and went on to study English Literature at Miranda House, Delhi University. I followed this up with a Master’s from University of Warwick, and after working for a few years in Mumbai, got a second Master’s in Magazine Journalism from the University of Missouri.

Since I was a child I loved food. I used to go to the library when I was really little and flip through food books and magazines and copy recipes to take home and try. It's funny, even when I was covering lifestyle and entertainment at Verve and earlier at Indian Express, I would always skew toward food stories.

I didn't start my career in food — food media was virtually non-existent in India. I started as a features writer. As a student ofMissouri School of Journalism, I worked on the prototype of a food magazine called Flavours of Asia, a magazine designed to showcase the cuisines of Asia to an American audience. The experience was prophetic. Little did I know then that I would return to India and edit India’s first food magazine.

Does your job involve a lot of travelling? 

I do travel but not as much as I would like to. Good Food is still in its infancy in India and it’s difficult for me to get away from the day-to-day running of the magazine, which is quite intense. I send my team members out quite often.

We identify destinations that offer interesting and unique food and decide on the precise features we are interested in shooting before making a travel plan.

How did BBC Good Food happen to you? What are the challenges you faced?

Prior to BBC Good Food, I was working as the deputy editor of Verve. When I left that job, I took some time off (I call it my creative sabbatical) to travel and see the world. At the time, I was freelancing for several publications including Lonely Planet, Harper’s Bazaar and India Today.

During this period I got feelers from Worldwide Media about the launch of a new magazine. When I got to know it’s a food magazine, I knew I wanted this job. I went to meet Tarun Rai, my current boss, who asked me why he should hire me. I showed him the prototype of Flavours of Asia. He looked at me and said,  “Please understand that this is not some college project!” What made him hire me? Not sure. I guess I said something right!

When I took over as editor, there were some really hard questions to answer. I remember working alone in my office with the door shut, thinking, 'Oh my God, how's this going to go? 

One of my first challenges was how to recruit a strong and talented team in a field where there were absolutely no trained professionals. So unlike, say in fashion, I couldn’t just poach good people from other existing magazines. Training the team to grasp their respective roles has also been a lot more complex and specialised in the case of a product like Good Food.

The test kitchen was totally uncharted territory for us. The ultimate tough nut to crack was recruiting a food editor and a qualified cookery team for the Good Food test kitchen and setting up daily kitchen running systems. Today, I am very proud of every member of my team and feel a sense of satisfaction that I hired right.

The other big challenge was how to create a visually stunning magazine with fabulous photography and styling despite the lack of expertise in this field in India.

The first few features were actually shot in my own house and even today I personally direct the prop sourcing and styling for all our shoots. Conceiving a new magazine, that too the first-of-its-kind in India, feeling the birth pangs and finally delivering a beautiful new magazine has been a huge high. From styling shoots to planning features and layout, I work on every area of the magazine with the team. Each issue is a new adventure and we don’t give up till we get it right.

Asparagus Biryani
 

The magazine celebrated its 2nd anniversary on recently. You have covered food across the borders extensively in your edition. Do you think a focus on Indian food would have been better?

Not at all. It’s 2013 and I don’t believe I need to wear my Indianness on my sleeve. Today the world is on India’s plate and India is on the world’s plate. Indians are hooked to shows like Master Chef Australia and Food Safari and want the big picture on food. They are more curious than ever to discover the great cuisines and chefs of the world. A global approach to food has always been an integral part of Good Food.

When I launched Good Food, I put a chocolate cake on our first cover. People asked me, why didn’t you put a plate of gulab jamuns instead? But I think Indians love their chocolate cake as much as they love their gulab jamuns. I got instant validation when the delivery boy who got the first batch of copies from the printer to our office lustily rolled his eyes and said, “Madam, I want that cake!”

Our 2nd anniversary issue is the first-of-its-kind in the world. No other food media in the world has attempted anything like this before. An American food magazine would compile a list of the best American chefs and a British mag would do the same for their own chefs. But we have managed to get 25 of the world’s best culinary minds and their ultimate dishes from in one issue.

This border-busting approach makes the 2nd anniversary issue a truly landmark one. Half of the list comprises Indian culinary personalities and one of the messages we wanted to give out was that Indians are at par with the best in the world. Indian food is celebrated in each issue of GF. Here too, dishes like Imtiaz Qureshi’s Jal Pari Pulao and Manjit Gill’s Amrud Firni are part of the cover story line up. Besides, there is a fabulous feature on mithai-based desserts in this issue.

Q) What do you think are the unique features the magazine has?

BBC Good Food is India’s first international food magazine. We interpret and curate food like no other media in India. The magazine’s revolutionary formula of triple-testing every recipe is an unbeatable USP, as proven the world over.

The substantial ratio of locally produced editorial content in the magazine customised to Indian readers' taste (for instance, our Modern Veggie section designed for our vegetarian readers) gives it a strong local connect. Good Food’s all-in-one coverage of food – recipes, restaurants and food destinations through its main sections – Eat In, Eat Out and Eat Away – makes it the complete food magazine.

Indian audiences have never seen anything like it before. Most important, we have our own kitchen studio where each recipe published in the magazine is tested. We are the first food media in India to have this unique feature. Finally, our stunning photography and design give us a clear visual edge. All these features make us true pioneers and trailblazers.

Q) How do you come up with ideas for an issue?

It’s a collective process. The entire team sits together to brainstorm ideas. All our issues are theme-driven and strongly influenced by seasonality and what is relevant for a particular month. But we have also done cuisine-driven issues like our Asian and Italian issues. Each year in August, we do the India Issue devoted entirely to Indian food. It’s our tribute to the nation.

Q) What kind of research goes into bringing out an issue?

A lot. We need to figure what dishes and topics are relevant to our readers, which recipes are suitable for making at home, what produce is in season etc. Each issue is planned months in advance.

Q) How do you select the dishes? How many times is a recipe tested?

The magazine is primarily designed for home cooks so we select dishes based on their suitability for cooking in the home kitchen. We are closely connected with the rhythms of the Indian seasons and locally grown produce.

As an editor, I constantly try to strike a strong local connect and make Good Food relevant and exciting to Indian readers. Starting with our launch issue, where we featured kinnows and bhut jhalokia chillies, each issue of Good Food celebrates local Indian produce by showcasing its potential to be used in stylish modern dishes.

Good Food recipes always work and that’s because we like to see, smell and taste every one of our recipes not once but three times before we publish it. The first time is by the recipe writer, who tests it in a domestic kitchen. Next, a member of the cookery team makes the recipe in the GF test kitchen.

Finally, the recipe is tested at our photo shoot. After the three stages of testing in which all adjustments have been made to a recipe, it goes from being good to excellent. Readers are also guided on where to get gourmet/specialist ingredients so they are assured that the recipes they chose to make will actually work. No other publication does such a detailed job of recipe writing.

Q) Food as an art is quite evolved in the West. What is the scene like in India?

While Indians have always been passionate about food, they have not necessarily always been open to new kinds of food. This also explains why the food magazine segment remained virgin territory in India till we launched a couple years ago.

But food is India’s current obsession and the hotspot of growth in the country right now. The past five years have seen Indians go from low-risk eaters to avid experimenters. The restaurant scene is thriving, international travel is exploding, gourmet ingredients are readily available and home cooks are cooking up a storm.

Indian cuisine, which has hardly had any innovation in the past few decades, is now seeing an exciting phase with a new breed of chefs who are modernizing this cuisine. We are witnessing a new sophistication in the presentation of Indian dishes at restaurants like Indian Accent and Masala Library.

Good Food too is playing an active role in this by being an agent of change. For instance, cup idlis, featured on the cover of our recent India issue, were invented in our test kitchen and became an instant talking point in the food world.

Q) So what are the upcoming trends in food?

Food trends, like fashion trends, don’t just sprout overnight; they evolve in reaction to social and economic changes. We eat more local produce because we want to save food miles. We buy cheaper cuts of meat to save money.

The recession has played a big part in influencing all the major food trends in the last couple of years. The economy has become an important factor both from the point of view of the food seller as well as the consumer. One sees these influences in restaurant menus in India as well as overseas.

For restaurant concepts, entrepreneurs are turning to ideas that require less specialized culinary skill. This explains the emergence of this year’s hottest food trend, gourmet junk food, which has seen items like sandwiches, pizzas and burgers get top billing from chefs.

Also, the emphasis on DIY trends like BYOB (bake your own bread) and homemade pickles. At the same time, cheap eats like ramen and street food are getting a haute reinvention. In India, the current interest in regional Indian food will continue to grow. We will see more restaurants that offer regional cuisines with a contemporary twist.

Lemongrass Panacotta Kheer

Q) What are your top tips for a person who doesn't quite know where to start but wants to cook more at home?

Buy the freshest, best quality produce, choose simple recipes and of course subscribe to Good Food India. Our triple-tested recipes guarantee 100% success provided you follow the directions carefully. Sections like Ready in 30, which offer easy yet stylish recipes, are perfect for the first time cook.

Q) For somebody who selects choicest recipes for others, what is your idea of comfort food? A recipe of your favourite dish would be great

I'm sort of a funny mix. I like a very wide range of food from street food to posh nosh. While I enjoy fine dining, I also love to cook and eat in a simple way. I’m crazy about McD's French fries and large slabs of Milk chocolate. I'm not a food snob, and neither are our readers. And that's what Good Food India is all about. It's about loving food without being a snob about food.

Comfort food for me is egg bhurji with pao. I also love khichri, especially with a twist. I think Pinky Dixit’s (of Soam fame) khichris are amazing. Recipe below:

Lilva khichdi
Serves 8

Time: 30 minutes + soaking

This khichdi is almost creamy, like a kedgeree, due to the fragrant starchy kolam rice that is used. Ideally it’s best to soak the rice for a couple of hours so that it cooks quickly with the green beans without letting them disintegrate. You could also use leftover cooked rice to make this khichdi, only you would need to simmer the beans and rice with salt and a little water till the rice is slightly mushy.

INGREDIENTS

* Surti kolam rice 2 cups
* lilva (papdi beans) 1 1/2  cups

THE TEMPERING
* ghee 2 tbsp
* cumin seeds 1 tsp
* asafoetida (hing) 1/2 tsp
* fresh green garlic or chives 1 cup, chopped
* salt to taste
 

Wash and soak the rice in warm water for at least 30 minutes. Drain and keep aside.

Combine the rice and beans in a cooker with salt and pressure cook with 3 cups of water.

When the khichdi is cooked, prepare the tempering by heating the ghee in a pan and add the cumin seeds and asafoetida. Add the green garlic or chives and sauté for a few seconds. Add the rice and beans and mix gently. Adjust the seasoning and serve hot with a dollop of ghee and a sweet and sour tomato chutney. 

PER SERVING: 118.75 kcals, protein 2.81g, carbs 24.94g, fat 0.65g, sat fat 0.33g, fibre 1.61g, salt 0.2g

Q) Name five best dishes that you will never forget.

* Steamed pork dumplings at Din Tai Fun, Taipei
* Op la (Vietnamese style bacon and eggs) at Hoa Ma Quan in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam,
* Shab degh (dum-cooked mutton with turnips) cooked by ITC’s Imtiaz *Qureshi for a recent BBC Good Food shoot.
* Karimeen Pollichathu (Grilled Pearl Spot)at a hole-in-the wall joint at  Kumarakom, Kerala
* Peter Gilmore’s famous Snow Egg at Quay, Sydney.

Q) How adventurous are you when it comes to food. Ever tried anything whacky?

I’m not too bad. Blood pudding, frog legs, kangaroo meat and snails are among the more unusual things I have tried. Gresham Fernandes’ porcini mushroom ice cream, which I ate last year, was truly whacky. Loved it.

Khandvi Ravioli

Q) The Indian edition of the magazine is in a nascent stage. How do you plan to take it from here?

In a short time of just two years, we have firmly secured our reputation as India’s most trusted and loved food magazine. At the same time, we have emerged as a dynamic multiplatform brand with a huge social media presence (our FB page has 1.40K likes) and innovative offerings like our recent introduction, Twecipes, or 140 character recipes for Twitter.

Our event properties like Good Food Day have already been institutionalised. In the days to come, we will boost our digital initiatives and introduce more exciting live events and brand extensions. Something major is just around the corner early next year. Watch this space.