It has been an unlikely journey for Chef Dinesh Patel, from being a professional lawyer in London, to a reality TV star. Patel, who was among the top three finalists on Master Chef Season 5, began his culinary journey right in his childhood. Seeking inspiration from his grandmother’s cooking skills, Patel’s passion for cooking made him audition for Master Chef, the show that earned him renown and fame.
For Patel, Master Chef was a life-changing experience. “It was a very interesting experience,” he says. “It was a definitely a challenging one which pushed me out of my comfort zone. But more than that, what Master Chef did to me was that it brought me back to my home, India, after eight years. And this time I saw a very different side of it through Master Chef. That journey was unforgettable.”
Recently, Patel conducted a live cooking session at hotel Radisson Blu Agra, hosted by Alka Ladhani, Executive Director, Radisson Blu, Agra. Known as a “dessert king,” Patel cooked a two-course meal, which included a non-vegetarian starter and an innovative dessert for the media personnel and other guests present.
“There are chefs who are not into the limelight and working behind the scenes in numerous restaurants. They are reponsible for amazing innovations and creations.”
As everyone present was attentively following the action in the kitchen, to make the session more interesting, Patel kept his demonstrations interactive, highlighting the tips and inspirations for each of the dishes for the people. He also explained various ideas and shared some of his culinary skills with the guests on how to make any dish perfect by improvising a little.
As this was Patel’s first visit to Agra, he chose to make Agra-special delicacies. Talking about his recipe, Patel said, “Today I am focusing on Agra-specials. I am doing Agra Petha Savoury Salad which is a savoury salad with Meetha Petha from Agra. And I am also doing Shahi Tukra Summer Pudding. In England, we make this dessert with bread called summer pudding in the summers with fresh berries. So, this time I am doing Shahi Tukra Ka Rabri with mousse out of it and preparing it with strawberry combo with traditional fried bread. So, it’s a mix of elements, texture, sweetness, contrast; it’s a little bit of a twist in the dish.”
Patel runs his patisserie business in England. His love for sweet dishes made him specialise in desserts. In terms of Indian cuisine, his favourite dessert is Rasmalai. Patel said, “I was a mehendi artist when I started at the age of eight and used to go to weddings and used to do bridal mehendi. My parents used to work so most of the time, I was at my grandmother’s place. I started cooking at home. This is what I used to do occasionally but eventually when I started gifting cakes, biscuits to people then they asked me if I would like to take orders. Earlier I was bit apprehensive but then I thought I will give a try.”
But according to Patel, it was never a switch in his career. He always loved cooking. “At the age of fourteen, I started my business and continued my studies side by side. It was a never a switch, it was always a continuous process as I followed my passion with my studies too. I also enjoyed my academics. I practiced as a lawyer for one year and gave up because deep inside my mind I always thought what I was going to cook next. And my business also did well enough to support me,” said Patel.
While interacting with the guests, he also shared some of his Master Chef experience. He said, “I specialise in desserts. Though I specialise in it, I tried my hands in every aspect of cooking. This was Master Chef and not Pastry Chef.”
Patel believes that in each restaurant, there are millions of hidden talents who are out of the limelight. But each chef is doing something great. “You have your usual like Chef Vikas Khanna, Chef Kunal Kapur who have done amazing things but if you look further into the industry and delve into it, there are chefs who are not into the limelight and working behind the scenes in numerous restaurants. They are doing amazing innovations and creations,” said Patel.
When asked if there is anything lacking in the Indian culinary industry, he said, “There is nothing lacking in India as such, but you can always experiment with the food. We have so much of our own culture; we can do different things with it. Look home and then look outside.”
While talking about his plans for India, Patel said that he would like to introduce some Asian-fusion cuisines here. “I have been running my patisserie for eight years now. I think that business will also be a perfect venture for Indian market now. The patisserie or the food industry is still very young here in India. There are so many innovations and experiments happening into the industry right now, so I would love to be a part of that. What we do in England that we focus on fusion so, what we do is we take all our traditional mithai and we do fusion desserts with it which is our selling-point in England. So, I am presenting my Indian culture over there. What I want to do is that I would like to mix Indian mithai flavours here. That is my plan,” said Patel.
The live cooking session ended on a upbeat note. The host of the event, Alka Ladhani, said, “It has been a wonderful experience hosting the talented Dinesh Patel and his master class at Radisson Blu Agra. We are very proud of our food heritage in Agra, and who better than Dinesh Patel to embark on this culinary journey with us. I am very grateful to our guests who took out time to be a part of this mid-week culinary getaway.”