Dehradun: If the age old adage, ‘the way to a man’s heart his through his stomach’, this 11-year-old from the ‘Queen of Hills’, Mussoorie, though she has many years to go before entering wedlock, can be assured of a happy married life, courtesy her cooking skills.
For Khyari Hari, a student of class VI of Waverly Convent in Mussoorie has made it to the top ten of the TV show Amul Junior Masterchef being aired on Star Plus. She hopes to win the title eventually, though this will eventually be decided by votes.
Her father Vikas Hari claims that his daughter showed her interest towards the kitchen at the tender age of six, and here interest was further honed by her grandmother and mother, who imbibed her with all their knowledge of cooking. She, however, was talented enough to mix the traditional with the modern and develop her own culinary skills.
That she was a talented chef became ominous when she along with her mother, Smriti, participated at cooking contest organized at a food festival by Lioness Club, Mussoorie. Needless to say, that the duo emerged at the top of the chart.
Participating in the Junior Masterchef, she cooked an apple cinnamon cake in the first round which took her to the 86th place amongst 15000 child participants. There was no looking back ever since and her Punjabi dish ‘katlambi potatoes platter’ took her to the top 15.
She claims that the Punjabi dish, which is now very rare even in the households in Punjab, was taught to her by a family friend aunty, and hopes now that the dish has figured on the television reality show, it will again become popular in its home state.
For a place in the top 10, she made an Italian cheese platter, which had four layers of garnish. She claims that the dish is normally garnished with three sauces, but she tried to do it differently and as such used a fourth garnish by adding another sauce, which perhaps did the trick.
A journalist with over 40 years of experience, Jagdish Bhatt was Editor, Hill Post (Uttarakhand).
Jagdish had worked with India’s leading English dailies, which include Times of India, Indian Express, Pioneer and several other reputed publications. A highly acclaimed journalist, he was a recipient of many awards
Jagdish Bhatt, aged 72, breathed his last on 28th August 2021 at his Dehradun residence.
