But Food Was Planned in My Destiny

1. Tell us about your background and journey.

I have an Engineering background. I am B.Tech Gold Medalist in Metallurgical & Materials Engineering from VNIT Nagpur. I always had this liking for food. I started cooking when I was 10 years old. I used to cook and my grandmother used to taste it.

Her insights and feedback helped me to develop my culinary skills. There was a wave of Engineering back then and I ended up in joining one of the prestigious college in our country. But food was planned in my destiny. And in my college I entered into college fest.

I mainly handled Hospitality. As it is rightly said Food connects people. The same happened with me. It helped me to connect with many Artist who performed at our college festival. Finally in my last semester when I got free from college festivals, I started Gourmet Musafir.

2. Which is your favorite cuisine and dish?

I love Levantine food mainly Eastern Mediterranean. But I am a hardcore Punjabi food lover by heart. Dal Makhani is my first Love!

3. Should food blogging be just a passion or can it become a regular career?

I think it depends completely on the individual. In my case, when I started I had a good backup and experience. So I decided to give a year to Gourmet Musafir and even if it doesn’t work well, I will keep it as a hobby and I could switch to my core Engineering Research.

But to be honest if you have a will and you have decided that you want to do this as a full time career, then you can do it. And I can say this confidently because I have done this. Now I am a Full time Content Creator, Food Events Curator, Campaign Master and a Marketing Consultant. I am also Partner Creator at Born On Instagram Program. In June, Instagram India featured 2 Content Creators in a Special Newsletter and Gourmet Musafir was one of them.

4. Which restaurants/food joints would you recommend to food lovers?

As my name says, I am Gourmet Person and I love Gourmet food. I love many places in India but some of them I would like to mention here are Bayroute in Mumbai, Dragonfly (Mumbai & Delhi), Farzi Cafe (all over the world), Plum By Bent Chair (Mumbai & Delhi), Achija Pav Bhaji in Mumbai, Chaat Shaala & Frullato in Nagpur.

In India, every 100 Kms Food will change. The local authentic regional food is simply amazing. That’s the beauty of Indian Food. Also one shouldn’t miss Sarafa Bazar, 56 Dukan Indore, Ghatkopar Khau Galli, Manek Chowk Ahmedabad for Street Food.

5. What makes you appreciate a particular dish or a restaurant and talk about it on your blog?

I believe that every restaurant serves their best. In India we believe that, “Atithi Devo Bhava” and hence none of the Restaurateur would want to serve bad food to their customers. It can be a off day for someone. So I never judge a restaurant in one visit. Rather I would like to enjoy the good part of it.

6. Is there a dish you particularly associate yourself with?

Without any second thought it has to be Dal Makhani. It’s in my blood.

7. Which is your favorite book and why?

I am a Wikipedia person and not much into books. I read a lot on Wikipedia. Even the reference links which are mentioned at the bottom. Right from food, celebrities, movies, games, like everything I read on Wikipedia. But yes, I read more about Food and different Cuisines.