‘Indian food misrepresented in many parts of the world’

Born into a family of Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir in the early 1980s, Sandeep Pandit recalls food being an intricate part of his life right from his childhood. It was during his early years in Jammu and Kashmir that he began to nurture his love for food. His early culinary experiences began with learning to make dal from his mother at a time when his family didn’t have a refrigerator, and feasting on dishes of lamb, lentils and vegetables with his family members. After migrating to Bengaluru when he was all of eight with his family, Sandeep began exploring the world of south Indian cuisine. When the 37-year-old, after moving to Australia in 2016, was presented with the opportunity of being part of the renowned MasterChef Australia platform, he decided to showcase Kashmir and south India in all their glory. 

“The entire MasterChef Australia journey has been a very humbling exercise. It has been a culmination of a very long journey started several years ago. And, I firmly believe in the power of food to cross every single boundary. I was someone from a faraway country, cooking food that wasn’t typically considered fine dining, as I cook rustic Indian food. I learnt that Australia loved me for that,” recollects Sandeep in a conversation with DT Next, ahead of the show airing in India.

To be part of the much-loved show, Sandeep presented the show’s judges Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris a Kashmiri thali that consisted of rogan josh (lamb leg cooked in spices), hakh (collard greens cooked in mustard oil) along with turmeric rice in a brass thali, winning the judges hearts instantly. During his time on the show, he went on to cook traditional Kashmiri dishes like mutton yakhni (yogurt-based gravy), muji chetin (a radish chutney), among others. He even took south Indians world over by a surprise when he paired the humble lemon rice made at millions of homes with a pepper chicken to win perfect scores from all the judges. 

“South India is where my heart is, and I consider myself a Kashmir-born south Indian, as most of my upbringing was in the South. The moment I saw lemons during a challenge of the show, I tried to recall the most beautiful food memories I had. My mother’s kitchen came to my mind as she absolutely loved lemon rice. It was a staple for us when we were in school. So, I decided to make it. Every dish I cooked on the show has a food memory associated with it,” recalls Sandeep, who used Kashmiri chillies and made his own fresh blend of garam masala for each cook on the show. 

Sandeep’s fondness towards curries, however, also stirred several followers of the culinary competition to remark that he was cooking only curries. He clarifies saying, “Indian food has been misrepresented in many parts of Australia and the world. A lot of the West limits its understanding of Indian food to just butter chicken and naan. These are the two dishes I did not want to attempt on the show, as Indian food, to me, is far more than them. I believe I have shown Indian food in a way that no one has done before on the show and felt quite privileged when the judges called me the best Indian cook they had seen,” asserts Sandeep.

After a flawless journey through the show for a few weeks, an unfortunate injury in the MasterChef kitchen led to his eventual elimination. “The back injury broke my spirit as I was bedridden continuously for a while, taking endless physiotherapy sessions. If not for the injury, I would have definitely been one among the top five or top ten contestants. The level of competition is so intense in MasterChef that one requires utmost focus on food,” he adds. 

Regarding the latest development of the cooking competition’s judges — George, Matt and Gary — quitting the reality show a few weeks ago, Sandeep terms the trio an important part of MasterChef. “With the major part of the show going away, the dynamics will be changed. But, the journey of the platform will continue. It is a place where dreams come true, and where my dream came true,” stresses Sandeep, who even got former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to take note of his cooking. Sandeep is now on a mission to preserve and popularise Kashmiri dishes that aren’t cooked by many, through his website.