Chettinad cuisine is the cuisine of a community called the Nattukotai Chettiars, or Nagarathars, from the Chettinad region in Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu state in India. Chettinad cuisine is perhaps the most renowned fare in the Tamil Nadu repertoire. It uses a variety of spices and the dishes are made with fresh ground masalas. Chettiars also use a variety of sun-dried meats and salted vegetables, reflecting the dry environment of the region. Most of the dishes are eaten with rice and rice based accompaniments such as dosas, appams, idiyappams, adais and idlis. The Chettiars, through their mercantile contacts with Burma, learnt to prepare a type of rice pudding made with sticky red rice. The chefs of manapatti village near Singampunari are experts in cooking Chettinad cuisine. They always used to cook in bulk orders for marriage functions, political functions, etc. though manapatti cooking is portrayed as madurai cuisine because it is located near to madurai district, it comes under chettinad cuisine only and it also comes under the chettinad region of sivagangai district. The entire village people is famous in the art of cooking.
Vikas Khanna is an Indian chef, restaurateur, cookbook writer, filmmaker and humanitarian. He is one of the judges of MasterChef India. He is based in New York City.
Sanjay Thumma popularly known as Vah-Chef, is an Indian celebrity chef, entrepreneur, restaurateur and television personality. He is the founder of the cooking website, vahrehvah.com. He is especially popular among the Indie-expatriate communities in mainland India. He became known for his online recipe channel on YouTube, which he started in 2007, with over 750 million views. He is one of the three judges in the first season of MasterChef India – Telugu.
Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni, popularly known as "Chef Jacob", was an Indian celebrity chef born in Uthamapalayam, Tamil Nadu. He was known for his authentic South Indian cuisines. Aruni was a visiting chef at several hotels, and a consultant chef. He was also a food historian, spice collector and promoter of South Indian cooking.
Tarla Dalal was an Indian food writer, chef, cookbook author and host of cooking shows. Her first cook book, The Pleasures of Vegetarian Cooking, was published in 1974. Since then, she wrote over 100 books and sold more than 10 million copies. She also ran the largest Indian food web site, and published a bi-monthly magazine, Cooking & More. Her cooking shows included The Tarla Dalal Show and Cook It Up With Tarla Dalal. Her recipes were published in about 25 magazines and tried in an estimated 120 million Indian homes.
Manjunath Mural is the executive chef of The Song of India restaurant in Singapore and has won several awards as a chef and for The Song of India. Mural's specialty is modern Indian cuisine.
Ranveer Singh Brar is an Indian celebrity chef, Masterchef India judge, author, restaurateur and actor. He is well known as the host of popular Television food shows and as a judge in four seasons of MasterChef India, alongside fellow chefs Sanjeev Kapoor, Vikas Khanna ,Vineet Bhatia, Garima Arora and Pooja Dhingra
Kitchen Super Star is a 2013-2015 Indian-Tamil language Cooking reality show that aired on Vijay TV from 2013 to 7 February 2015 on every Saturday at 8:00PM (IST). The Show is hosted by Tamil Film Actor Suresh and Chefs Dr. Dhamu and Venkatesh Bhat are the judges of this show.
Arusuvai Ithu Thani Suvai is a Tamil-language Indian television series featuring Revathy Shanmugam cooking simplified recipes that everyday-cooks and viewers can try. Revathy Shanmugam, daughter of renowned Tamil poet and lyricist Kannadasan, specialises in cooking traditional authentic South Indian cuisine.
Harpal Singh Sokhi is a renowned celebrity chef from India. Today his style is mimicked by the country for his famous quote ‘Namak Shamak, Namak Shamak, Daal Dete Hain’ as a host of the most popular culinary show Turban Tadka on FoodFood channel on Indian television, he’s already bagged the title of "Energy Chef of India" and made people all charged-up and passionate about cooking!. He is the real multi-talented Chef who has opened up doors and streams for all aspiring chefs not only in the field of Hospitality but also in the field of Acting, Movies, Dancing and much more. A Chef with most Memes in India using his tag line #namakshamak. The real Salt Man of India, the tags that he is popular for #happydancingchef #dancingchefof India #energychefofindia and much more. His recent debut as an actor in the top 10 fiction shows of Indian #channamereya has garnered quite an eye balls across genre.
Mallika Badrinath is an Indian food writer, chef, cookbook author and host of cooking shows.
Damodharan K., professionally known as Chef Damu, is an Indian celebrity chef. He has hosted numerous cooking shows and reality cooking competitions on various Tamil language television channels, most notably as a judge on Cooku with Comali on Star Vijay. In 2010, he received a Guinness World Record for the longest cooking marathon by a single individual. He also became the first Indian chef to receive Ph.D in Hotel Management and Catering Technology, which was awarded by the University of Madras in 2004. Furthermore, he has made a few appearances in Tamil films.
Suresh Pillai, commonly known as Chef Pillai, is an Indian-born British chef and restaurateur. He worked as chef de partie, sous-chef, and chef de cuisine at various restaurants in London for 14 years, including Veeraswamy and Gymkhana. He holds British citizenship. In 2017, he contested in the British reality TV show MasterChef: The Professionals on BBC Two. He returned to India to become the corporate chef and culinary director of The Raviz. He also started his own restaurant chain branded Restaurant Chef Pillai.
Cooku with Comali, also known by the acronym CWC, is an Indian Tamil-language comedy-based cooking competition show aired on Star Vijay and streams on Disney+ Hotstar where the contestants are paired each week with comedians (comalis) who are amateur cooks. The first season premiered on 16 November 2019 and ended on 23 February 2020. The second season was premiered on 14 November 2020 and ended on 14 April 2021. The third season was premiered on 22 January 2022 and ended on 24 July 2022. The fourth season was premiered on 28 January 2023 and ended on 30 July 2023. The contestants along with their comalis are challenged every week and judged by Chef Damu and Chef Venkatesh Bhat.
MasterChef India – Tamil is an Indian Tamil-language competitive cooking reality show based on MasterChef Australia and is part of MasterChef India. Produced by Innovative Film Academy and Endemol Shine India, it is broadcast on Sun TV. The show is hosted by Vijay Sethupathi. The show was originally supposed to be aired in May 2021; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India, the show was pushed back to 7 August 2021. The debut season of the Tamil version of MasterChef made the MasterChef format surpass 500 seasons worldwide.
Cookku with Kirikku is a Kannada-language comedy-based cooking competition show aired on Star Suvarna and streams on Disney+ Hotstar where the contestants are paired each week with comedians (Kirikkus) who are amateur cooks. It premiered on 10 April 2021. The contestants along with their kirikkus are challenged every week and judged by Sihi Kahi Chandru, Chef Venkatesh Bhat and Chef Adarsh. The Show is a remake of Tamil reality show Cooku With Comali.
Cooku with Comali is the third season of the Tamil reality cooking TV show Cooku with Comali, that was launched on 22 January 2022. This season is hosted by Rakshan, and judged by Chef Damodharan and Chef Venkatesh Bhat.
Cooku with Comali is the fourth season of the Tamil-language reality cooking TV show Cooku with Comali, that launched on 28 January 2023 on Star Vijay. Over four years, Cooku with Comali has rolled out three seasons and Rakshan has officially once again been appointed as the host for the fourth time. Chef Damodharan and Chef Venkatesh Bhat as the Judges. Actor Suresh appeared as a guest judge in lieu of Chef Venkatesh Bhatt's absence. Manimegalai has re-joined as the co-host. Mime Gopi won the title on 30th July 2023.
