A chef spends years perfecting a recipe. Someone walks into the restaurant, takes a video, adds trending music and posts it online. By the next morning, the dish has gone viral. The chef? Not everyone knows their name. It is a familiar story in today’s food world. Chef Jugesh Arora believes something important is getting lost along the way: the recognition of the people who have spent decades mastering their craft.
“Earlier, chefs became famous because of their work. Today, sometimes their work becomes famous before their skills are fully established,” he says. A tempting food reel might take a minute to shoot, but getting a dish right every single day, managing a kitchen team and delivering consistent quality to hundreds of diners takes years of practice.
Tadka with a purpose
This belief is what inspired Arora to start Tadka by Chef Jugesh Arora, a platform dedicated to sharing the stories of veteran chefs. The idea grew out of years of meeting talented professionals whose experiences extended far beyond their signature dishes. Behind their careers were stories of struggle, sacrifice, mentors, mistakes and lessons that rarely made it into the public domain. “I felt that if we do not capture these stories today, we risk losing an invaluable part of our culinary heritage,” he says.
Many chefs have spent 30 or 40 years refining recipes, preserving traditional cooking techniques, training younger chefs and raising standards in professional kitchens. Yet their stories rarely reach the audiences celebrating the latest food trend.
Through Tadka, Arora hopes to give senior chefs a space to talk about their journeys, while offering young culinary professionals a chance to learn from the people who came before them.
More than a pretty plate
Before Instagram reels and viral food challenges, chefs built their reputations the traditional way: through hard work, consistency, word of mouth and the respect of their peers. Recognition came from satisfied guests, professional achievements and the young chefs who learnt under them. “The kitchen was our classroom, and experience was our greatest teacher,” Arora recalls.
Food Conversations
There is also a practical reason to preserve these conversations. Many traditional recipes and techniques have been passed down through hands-on training rather than written records. When experienced chefs retire, some of that knowledge risks disappearing with them.
For Arora, Tadka is about more than nostalgia. He also wants to encourage conversations about the realities of working in professional kitchens, including long hours, chefs’ health and work-life balance.
A Perfect Blend
Arora admires the confidence, creativity and technological awareness of young chefs, and believes they have much to teach the older generation, too. The challenge, he says, is to bring the two together. Veteran chefs can pass on their experience, patience and understanding of ingredients, while younger professionals bring fresh ideas and new ways of sharing food with the world.
In a world where the next food trend is always around the corner, Arora wants the industry to remember that good cooking has never been just about presentation. It is about patience, practice and the people who pass their knowledge on.
And if a few more people discover the stories behind their favourite dishes through Tadka, that is all the better. Because sometimes, the most interesting thing on the menu isn’t the food itself, but the person who spent a lifetime learning how to make it.
The kitchen was our classroom, and experience was our greatest teacher.”
Chef Jugesh Arora
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
