6 Millennial Chefs On Inventiveness And The Importance Of Social Media

Six millennial chefs sit down together for the first time to discuss inventiveness, healthy competition, and the importance of social media and collaboration

- Karishma Kuenzang

"When you bring together six chefs who have carved their own niches in the industry with their unique focus, skill sets and personalities, either carry a sandwich with you, or prepare to find yourself gnawing on your phone, because inevitably, they will talk about food and inevitably you will drool.

This is experience talking, because that's exactly what happened when chefs Pooja Dhingra, Himanshu Saini, Prateek Sadhu, Hussain Shahzad, Shubham Thakur and Niyati Rao turned up for an HT Brunch cover shoot one fine Monday morning. While I sat there, ready to interrogate them with questions about their kitchen expertise and social media skills, they put their heads together and plotted out five new macaron flavours.

We may or may not ever be able to buy and taste these macarons because, unfortunately, the six chefs in the Great Tastebuds Conspiracy were just talking, not slaving over their ovens. But we can definitely share with you several flavours of their conversations that morning. So, settle in with a cup of tea, and read on.

COMPETITIVE COLLABORATIONS

Is it difficult to be competitors as well as collaborators, I asked the six.

"We are living in an age when collaboration is the name of the game. It's just going to strengthen us as a community of chefs. Long gone are the crab mentality days, where we see someone climbing and rush to pull them down," says Niyati Rao.

CHEF HIMANSHU SAINI, 34, DELHI

The chef with a Michelin star