The Dish: Chef Maneet Chauhan

chef maneet chauhan was born and raised in India it's there that her love of food was born as well as a young girl she would eat dinner at home and then head to a neighbor's house and eat there but many Chauhan wouldn't just eat she would head to the kitchen and ask the cooks about the ingredients they were using it is that curiosity and love of food that has served her well during her career today maneet Chauhan is the executive chef and co-owner of the Chauhan ale and masala house Nashville where globally influenced Indian cuisine is served alongside their own Indian spice infused microbrews she is a regular judge of the Food Network's hit show chopped and she is a James Beard Award of Excellence winner her first book is titled flavors of my world a culinary tour through 25 countries we are pleased to welcome maneet Chauhan to the dish so much for having me I love those old pictures they're fabulous I know I was like oh my god yes they're dark and embarrassing but love to check out the TV it's exactly tell us what you've brought here because it looks smells delicious so what we have over here is a tour around the world with an Indian flair so of course we start off with the most important thing which is the drink it is a lemon cello and a rose drink which is absolutely delicious then inspired from Greece we have a saag paneer spanakopita we have a delicious roasted beet salad with a yogurt and a coconut dressing we have a Chile Singapore crab over here inspired from Brazil we have rice cakes and then finally from France we have pot de creme but this has a little bit of yogurt in it ah nice what prompted your interest in food we talked a little bit about about how you were really interested in the beginning but I know you used to go on Sundays you go to the market with your father yes in India my dad used to have a scooter or a two wheeler and a Sunday tradition would be both of us going to the farmers market yeah and it used to be amazing because we knew each and every winter over there had a relationship with each and every vendor and my dad would say the same joke he would go to the guys who get the potatoes and the onions and my dad and he would tell my dad shall I pack 5 kgs for you and my dad would be like I'm not cooking for her wedding only 5 kgs for my wedding really so it was the same joke same answers but such endearing memories when you look at your profile though you didn't sort of in hotel management yes so what made you cross over wealth cooking was always my first love my parents say I was born with a ladle in my hand which is pretty much what it was and in India to become a chef you had to do Hotel administration and that's what I did and then when I was in school over there they asked me you know what do you want to do next and I asked my instructor which is the best Institute in the entire world to go to and without even batting an eyelid he said the Culinary Institute of America so I applied I came here and my fascination at that time was baking in pastry because in India you really didn't have those amazing pastries that I went through in books but when I came over here I was I was so fascinated with the fact that the perception of Indian food was so different in America than it is in India so that's where the journey into Indian food started how did you settle in Nashville good question my local partners approached me to open a place in Nashville and my first reaction was who goes to Nashville know everyone and I decided I'm like let's check it out and literally it was love at first landing I I found the answer to who goes to Nashville it was me who goes to Nashville and it's amazing I mean the southern hospitality is it's charming the TSA agents are such a pleasure we joke every time the food scene is amazing it is it's it's a booming booming and an exciting city to be in but we love watching you run chopped and I'm always excited to have a fellow Indian here as I hand you this dish to get your signature no we want to ask you if you could have this meal with any person past or present who would that person be oh my god I have to say with my two biggest critics my son and my daughter and my husband yes chef maneet Chauhan thank you very much for more on the dish please head to our website at CBS this morning calm chef maneet we'll also be answering your questions on our CBS this morning Facebook page just go to facebook.com slash CBS this morning to join

Channel: CBS Mornings

Views: 9,680

Keywords: video, cbs, news, Chef, Maneet Chauhan, dinner, meals, Chopped, book

Id: mechvvJdeXU

Length: 4min 43sec (283 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 09 2016