Aparna Banerji
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, December 23
While a host of culinary series on TV have got the country glued to a variety of shows with a gastronomic twist, a city genius is also making waves on the telly with this at the tender age of 19.
Jalandhar boy Tanul Aanand has made the city proud by bagging slots on acclaimed channels of foodies on prime time television.
While he has already bagged shows for the channels Food Food and Zee Khana Kahazana, he is also all set to feature as a guest chef on the DD Punjabi show Zaika. A BCom second year student, and all of 19 years old, Tanul has been a child prodigy as he started cooking right from the age of eight. Prodded on by his mother Priya Anand – who he says is the cooking idol who inspired him – it was also the delicious trade secrets from his grandmothers – both maternal and paternal – which made him take up cooking seriously.
While he won a cooking challenge for little chefs at his school DPS, early on, after completing his Class XII, he also won the second prize at the Chef-de-Jalandhar contest held at the local CT Institute. Not only did he get a chance to interact with executive chefs from various five star hotels on the occasion, but also met the culinary legend Sanjeev Kapoor.
It was since then that his culinary dream began taking wings. He applied for the Maa Ki Daal show at Food Food but owing to the delayed shoot, he finally made it to the show Turban Tarka where he featured as a young achiever sharing his culinary journey with the audience.
It was in June 2014 that the shoot for Turban Tarka took place. Later, he also featured for the show ‘Ab har Koi Chef’ on Zee Khana Khazana which he shot for in November. Accompanied by chef Maharishi, he made his – Chocolate Bhujia – his modern twist to the traditional Indian bhujia – a recipe entry sent by him for the show which had been lapped up by the selectors and bagged him a slot on the channel.
Speaking about his inspiration, he said, “I never met my Nani (maternal grandmother) but she had been a constant inspiration as her cooking trickled down to me through my mother. My dadi (paternal grandmother) is also a great cook as she had these little tricks like putting jaggery, corn flour and besan into saag to make it delicious down her sleeve. I wan enamoured by their cooking skills and my family luckily encouraged my cooking. When I told him cooking is my calling – my father told me his father wasn’t a CA. But still he let him be one. So he is going to back me too. That was a happy moment.” Currently working on the cookery show ‘Zaika’ on DD Punjabi, Tanul is still in touch with producers on both channels and wants to take his dream to newer heights.