Local cuisine, global acclaim
Indian food is full of rich flavours and unique aromas that can melt any foodie’s heart. The world got a taste of the real Indian flavours at the recently held Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Paris, where Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma won the ‘Best in the World’ award for their bestselling book Highway On My Plate — The Indian Guide to Roadside Eating.
The self-confessed foodies could not believe when they were told that among 160 participating nations, their book was nominated among the top five in the award category. Rocky Singh, co-author of the prize-winning book, mentions, “We were thrilled when we got the news of the award nomination because it was for the first time that an Indian cook book was shortlisted among global contemporaries. To get recognition at an international platform was not only an achievement for us, but also for our rich cookery heritage. In our book we featured around 350-400 restaurants with approx 2,000 unique recipes. It was a huge task as we tried to fit in the first 100 episodes of the show in the book.”
Twentyfive thousand copies of this book have already been sold, reveals Rocky. He says, “We met many like-minded people at the awards. Though this book is like an encyclopedia of regional cookery, we plan to take out a next edition soon based on upcoming episodes.”
An excited Mayur adds, “We are passionate about food and the show and book originated because of our love for food. We hear that there are people who now call themselves HOMPers, and they organise HOMP (Highway On My Plate) meets on regular basis in their respective cities to explore popular eating joints. We will soon have a grand HOMPer meet in Mumbai to discuss more about food.”
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