We catch up with Ranveer Brar who returns as a judge on MasterChef India Season 8!

With chefs in India becoming more ramp-ready with each passing year, it’s no more a surprise to see a great looking face under a toque who could give any of our supermodels a run for their money. What makes them even bigger celebs, however, is that they have those much-appreciated skills in the kitchen — a sure hit path for anyone wishing to win someone over. We are, after all, primarily a culture that values our food over most things in life. In a world like this, it’s no surprise that Ranveer Brar is considered royalty. After all, who can resist his on-screen charm, his natural panache and his quirky ways of presenting food and its preparation — something that has carved out a special niche for him on television as India’s unchallenged culinary heartthrob.

Just 45 and still very fine, Ranveer Singh Brar is from Lucknow and like all things from that city, he comes with a tehzeeb (etiquette) and a finesse that we’ve come to know Lakhnavis for. Born into a Sikh family, Ranveer, was inspired by local kebab vendors on the streets of the erstwhile capital of Awadh at a young age. That love for flavour led him to pursue his love for food and his passion to learn the culinary arts of the region saw him apprentice under a local food demigod, Munir Ustad. Ranveer then went on to join the Institute of Hotel Management (IHM), Lucknow; and thus began his formal initiation into the world of cuisine.

Working his way through some of the biggest gourmet destinations in Mumbai, Delhi, Goa and Boston (USA), he then also began appearing on multiple food shows across several television networks in India, finally leading to his first appearance as a judge on MasterChef India during its Season 4 (2015). He then returned as a judge for Season 6 (2019), Season 7 (2023) and the most recent Season 8, which has just begun streaming on SonyLIV (October 16).

With quite a few books to his credit and an app in his name, he debuted as an actor with Femme Foodies (2017) but was catapulted into the limelight for his critically acclaimed role as a queer chef in in Hansal Mehta’s Baai — a part of the Amazon Prime Video anthology Modern Love: Mumbai (2022); while he was most recently seen in The Buckingham Murders (2023). A chef with many talents and several more that we are yet to discover, we catch up with Ranveer on a particularly busy day of shooting on the MasterChef India Season 8 set to find out more about what we can look forward to in the current season and lots more.

“I think every new season allows us to understand India all over again and especially through the lens of its connection with food. I’m really excited to see where we’ve reached and how far we’ve gotten from where we started. It’s very interesting for me to especially see where we are as a country in our relationship with our food. Plus, there’s always the amazing experience of getting to meet these passionate home-cooks who are looking to make a mark,” Ranveer begins.

This season of MasterChef India focuses on a lot of home-cooks from smaller towns. With contestants from far-flung regions like Chalsa (West Bengal), Pampore (Jammu & Kashmir) and Upper Rangsa (Meghalaya), the season shifts the limelight to micro-cuisines from smaller geographies. “I think this time, we’ve gone really wild when it comes to the food challenges and we’ve also got a lot of guest chefs. We’ve tried to represent a lot of the food conversations happening around the country through these guest chefs  and the home-cooks and we’ve also tried to bring in as many contestants from really small micro-cuisine-rich geographies. From small villages to entire not-so-well-known regions with cuisines that deserve to get as much recognition as possible — we’ve searched for some of the most exciting talent in the country today,” the chef adds.

We break for a cup of tea and when Ranveer has had a few more minutes to rest, we continue and decide to shift the focus now to his role as a judge. He’s after-all back on these sets for the fourth time. “For me, expression is really important. I look at what the contestant is trying to say and what’s on their plate — there should be a coherence. That makes a huge difference according to me. I also look for the strength in the story and the conviction with which you put what you’ve cooked on that plate,” explains Ranveer as he rushes for a quick take.

A few minutes later, he’s back and we decide to bring back the focus on him again. We’ve seen him on quite a few other online and TV shows already this year and are curious as to what’s keeping him so busy and breathless in 2023. “I’ve opened this brand called Kashkan by Ranveer Brar at the Dubai Festival City Mall around two months ago and I’m now looking to expand that over the next few months and also open a second one. I hope that by mid-2024 we’ll have three. I am also working on one more book on Lucknow and Lakhnavi cuisine. It’s a slightly long-ish project, but we’re getting there and that’s definitely next on my agenda. There’s also an extremely interesting travel series that I am putting together on 75 dishes from across India and I am sure everyone will love it,” he beams.

With just a few minutes left,  we go all kamikaze and ask him what brand ‘Ranveer Brar’ has come to mean in 2023. “Well, I honestly don’t take a lot of things too seriously. With me I think, what you see is what you get. I always prefer going with the flow, for the lack of a better way of saying it. I feel, that is what has worked for me,” he smiles and bursts into a peal of laughter. 

There’s finally a sense of calm around us and so we decide to wrap this conversation up and let our busy man have a bit of a breather. We ask him finally, what was the last culinary experience that blew his mind and also what food trend, according to him, will define 2024. “I was travelling across Wayanad in Kerala recently and I was amazed how differently they use coconut in this region. I mean, as a chef, I have had my fair share of Malayali and South Indian food, but to see how diverse just the usage of coconut in itself can be across one single region or what we assume is one region, really blew my mind,” he gushes and adds in conclusion, “I think 2024 is going to be defined by micro-cuisines and I also really feel that food conversations around these smaller cuisines are going to take centrestage and thankfully so.”

MasterChef India Season 8 is streaming live on SonyLIV.

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