Chef Ranveer Brar

Life is One Long Food Trail

His culinary journey would make most people, most envious. But Ranveer seems oblivious, takes life in his inimitable stride; with panache and style

Text & Photographs: Farzana Contractor

There was a time, celebrity chef, Ranveer Brar, the blue-eyed boy of Indian cookery shows, did not care very much for television. I don't know whether he has a great affinity for it now, but he certainly made peace with it a few years ago, when it gave him the opportunity to travel and document what he loves best; bring forth food stories attached to Indian cuisine. He couldn't have been in a better space; food, travel, people and of course bread and butter...
It was September 2012 that Ranveer returned to India. From the USA, Boston to be specific. The market there, like all over the world, was depressed and the food industry was struggling. He was trying his best to keep afloat, the small restaurant he owned, but it wasn't happening. Here was a chef with two courses undertaken in the culinary arts at the prestigious CIA in New York, another at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris, raring to go places but was in limbo. Stuck. Static.
And then came along a messiah, who pumped in money in his Boston restaurant, became a friend, handled the business and in short allowed Ranveer the opportunity to retu home to India to test the culinary waters in Bombay.
He gave a job interview at Novotel as Executive Chef and was of course immediately hired.
It was to be his first and only job. For soon after he joined Novotel, the Public Relations department convinced him to shoot some cookery demos showcasing the hotel food. The TV crew shooting these episodes was a startup company with no real funds. Therefore it was a mutually beneficial arrangement. The crew was getting their content and location for free and the hotel, some good advertising material; so it was a win-win situation for all. And Ranveer the good bloke went along for the goodness of his heart.

But a good tu never goes in vain. What goes around, comes around and soon enough the very same TV crew got some serious funding and they zeroed in on Ranveer to be the host of a food show they were working on. Ranveer obliged and the rest is history.
A new TV star was born.

But before we proceed, let me tell you a little story, a prelude to Ranveer's TV trails. The crew had actually asked a focus group of 50 women to rate some chefs short-listed by them. After seeing random rushes of the chefs, who do you think they rated the highest? This is a no-brainer, Ranveer, obviously! If you ask me, he is handsome, of course he is, but he cooks as good as he looks! And that is what is important.

So here we were now, Ranveer and I, sitting, chatting at the plush bar of The A Club situated in the swanky One India Bulls at Lower Parel in Bombay. I was here for the very first time and was suitably impressed. With the concept– a corporate club– and with the management skills of Romil Ratra, the man behind the enterprise, who UpperCrust has featured in one of its recent issues.

Well, catching up with Ranveer was nostalgic. I have known him from the time he retu ed to India, have followed his upward graph and was genuinely pleased at  the way he has shaped up.

Tired as he was, since he had come straight from the airport and a long flight from Calcutta, Ranveer was nonetheless charm personified and completely at ease.

We finished a no-fuss shoot (as I like it best) and soon got talking over pots of green tea.

"You know, I am most honoured to be on your cover," started Ranveer, "remember it is where it all began for me. At the UpperCrust Show, to be exact. I was barely in Bombay for two weeks working at the Novotel when you guys invited me to come and do a cookery demo. To be honest, that was a turning point. In the sense that, here I was, a Lucknow boy who grew up in Delhi, went to Boston and returned to Bombay, a city I did not know at all, and was now facing an enthusiastic audience, which seemed to like what I was demonstrating! I too was really enthused, felt the positive vibes of the people, my tentativeness went away in a jiffy. UpperCrust Show made me realise I can do it, Bombay works, I thought to myself!"

Good to know that and we are happy to stake a claim on you and call you a Bombay boy from now on, I joke.

But it has been a good inning for Chef Ranveer Brar. He has been on various channels at various times doing varied food shows over the past six years. When The Great Indian Rasoi on Zee TV concluded, in December 2013, it had won some 17 awards and that was only the beginning. Subsequently he worked on shows like, Breakfast Express, Snack Attack – all on Zee. On Zoom, there was Thank God Itu00b4s Friday. There was Raja Rasoi (which won him many awards), as well as Station Master's Tiffin, which had Ranveer travelling to various parts of India by train.

"Travelling in India for TV has really been good. I started with going to places nearer Bombay, like Poona, Nasik, Malvan, Ratnagiri, where I picked up so much. Learned so much. There is so much out there! I started falling in love with all the stories around food. I would chat with people long after pack up, it was that interesting. Once an 85-year-old man cooked for me and his passion was so endearing. My relationship with cooking only got deeper, more meaningful. I loved it all. I had no choice but to make peace with being on camera and in the end it all becomes easy, so that was also fine," says Ranveer shrugging his shoulders.

In all the years that Ranveer has been on TV, he has not done just that. A few years ago he seeded a production house called Food Mantra, which changed names and is now called Hot Potato Films, which creates culinary content. "What I am glad about is we are now creating more serious content in and for the food world. Documentary in nature. It is a natural progression, an outlet for my creativity. Like right now we are working on Gobindobhog, known as the Basmati of Bengal," says Ranveer. He elaborates that he feels a sense of responsibility to not let food from the past disappear from our plate and palate. "Those in their 40s, the Doordarshan generation I call them, must make sure they do whatever they can to keep our culinary heritage alive. Else with the way mode food is forging ahead, slow food will all but disappear from the awareness and psyche of the young foodie." he cautions.

So that brings me to some news which is sure to create big ripples in the food space. In the pipeline for Ranveer, is a huge project. Probably his biggest and most challenging. He is about to launch, with a little bit of help from investor friends, a biryani supply chain. The aim, the target, is to serve one hundred thousand, meaning one lakh biryanis across India per day. This is to happen through a delivery system. Ambitious? I guess so. Over ambitious, I guess not. Especially when you consider the trend and food statistics. Trend now is to order in; chill, stay home, but eat from out. And statistics show that from the 25 million meals ordered around India, 25% is for biryani. It is a national favourite, for sure. Remember we have scores of ways of making biryani and different states like differently made biryani. All of which has been taken into account by this Master Chef. And he has six styles of biryani planned; Lucknow, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Sindh, Tamil Nadu and Mapula (Kerala).

I do have the name for the company but I don't want to divulge it. All I want to say is, it is a sweet name. Sweet, because it has a childhood association, a nostalgic memory for me. My father hailed from Lucknow and our family went there for every Diwali holiday.  Back then we children never could pronounce Lucknow properly. The wrong pronunciation is what Ranveer has named his brand. Clever. Nice.

I wish Ranveer luck for his new enterprise. He smiles and says, "I am confident of the project. Biryani is a national weakness and everyone now orders in. Even Ishaan, my son who is just four and a half year old, calls Swiggy and orders for an hamburger, so we are good!" laughs Ranveer.

Ranveer is a happy man. Working hard, yes, but content. Not under stress and strain. He says he is fortunate that he was in the right place at the right time. And thankful that life worked out well.

And he knows exactly what he wants do in the near future. "I am 43 now, I want to retire at 45 and do that what I really want to do, create good food content. Television is there, but I want to be on every mobile phone!"

So the man who was a judge on MasterChef India in the 4th season is all set. He has just launched his own App, has his own production company, his five restaurants in Boston are running successfully, being looked after by Peppino, his business partner and friend. And the biryani project is about to take off.

What more could he want? Some sleep, perhaps!