Follow Rick Stein's Indian Food Footsteps

Follow Rick Stein’s Indian food footsteps to discover how spices, age-old recipes and little culinary twists passed down the generations can make some of the world’s tastiest foods! Temple food, colonial legacies, flavorful spices and expert local cooks are the ingredients for a new multi-part BBC show that travels across India to learn Indian cooking from those who invented it.

Rick Stein, UK’s popular chef who runs a bunch of excellent sea-food restaurants in Cornwall, has taken on a challenge. He’s begun traveling around India to deconstruct the Indian “curry” and prove to the world, or at least his UK audiences, that there’s more to it than pork vindaloo and a crate of beers on Saturday evenings.

He arrived in India to discover the infinite variations and subtleties of Indian “curry” and began with stopovers in Kolkata and Chennai, both important seats of the former British empire.

Stein was surprised to know that Calcutta is now Kolkata, and Madras is now Chennai!

In Kolkata, Stein busied himself preparing a prawn dish, some fish and fried eggs, and exploring the city that we believe has a nook for every traveler!

Stein then explored Parsi cuisine in Mumbai, taking a jab at Sali Murgh, a Parsi chicken dish, before taking off all the way South to the quaint French town Pondicherry.

By the third episode, Stein had stopped at the bustling temple town of Madurai, another former British stronghold under the Madras Presidency. He took to the road on a lovely journey through plantations and along the spice route in the Western Ghats, similar to a journey many of our guests have enjoyed, till he dropped anchor in the port town of Cochin.

Stein’s base is a luxury houseboat anchored in the magical backwaters of Kerala. He traverses the country learning about local variations to popular Indian “curries”: for instance, women in a refuge he visited in Kolkata add a dash of vinegar to their preparations.

Rather than follow instructions to re-create the same dishes, Stein however, heads back to the houseboat and innovates to make his own variation of the dish.

For further inspiration about Indian food, read our article Masala Magic! Indian Spices Explained.

We’d love to host you on our very own version of a culinary adventure through India as you follow Rick Stein’s Indian food footsteps with us!

Check out a small sample of what we can rustle up for you, on two of our favorite food adventures: A Taste of Rajasthan and a Southern Wildlife and Spices Tour.