Cooking shows in India owe a lot to the charismatic chefs and hosts that took the genre outside its stuffy prescriptive formula, transforming it from a domestic chore to an industry that was suddenly glamorous. It’s beginnings were, of course, on Doordarshan.
The first was Dawat, aired in 1991. It was hosted by Jiggs Kalra, a restaurant critic and food journalist. He would bring on a unique chef and guest for each of the 32 episodes. A full year of research went into the show. A Reddit user remembers Kapil Dev being a guest, in tears