tt awesome that Pakistani chefs are finally getting the recognition they deserve and not being mis labeled as "Indian" chefs. One objection to Tapu's misguided comment: "Our local cuisine is not fine dining" ?? Come on Tapu, you're kidding right? With all due respect, Pakistani Mughlai dishes are extremely sophisticated in taste and presentation otherwise they wouldn't be the dishes of choice in many 5/6 star restaurants in NYC, USA. A very famous and popular globe trotting American chef and TV host, Anthony Bourdain, gave a Pakistani Montreal based chef a 10/10 for his highly sophisticated and palate pleasing Mughlai dishes which went above and beyond a "fine dining" (per Tapu) category to a "platinum dining" category. And as many fans of Anthony Bourdain know, he's extremely discriminating and suffers no fools when it comes to "fine dining" standards. In fact, Pakistan's Mughlai cuisine is far superior to a traditional Indian/Hindu veg based cuisine ( ie, daal,dosa, sabzi, etc.) due to highly sophisticated ingredients such as saffron, cardamom, nutmeg, etc., which enhance the taste of meat based dishes such as Biryani, Nargasi Kofta, Shaami Kebab, quail, partridge, etc. These highly evolved Persian/Mughlai fused meat dishes are no longer part of the today's veggie Indian cuisine and are a lost art in India when it comes to correctly preparing and cooking these classic Muslim dishes. It's very difficult and rare to find Mughlai meat dishes cooked properly in India, with the exception of Hyderabad, India where Muslim chefs are more experienced vs their Hindu vegetarian counterparts. Having been to many Indian vs Pakistani restaurants around the world, I can say for a fact that Hindu chefs can never duplicate a Mughlai dish as well as a Pakistani Muslim chef. It's just not possible - sorry Indian foodies, not happening!

After man made floods in Sindh the poor peasants and farmers were forced to flee and vacate the inundated farm lands. These very farm lands were sold to multinationals years before the artificial flooding for six months on were created. This has been detailed in weekly column in this very daily paper by Irfan Hussain. So to boost their production, promotion and sales and bring in the manufactured and machine processed food industry, they need such cooking shows for their upscale market clients who have ill gotten money to spend left and right.

Hi! I would like to say that the auditions were poorly managed. The organizers informed contestants to arrange for their own heating and cooling systems to keep their dishes hot or cold which is absurd. How can anyone judge a dish which was made many hours ago while standing in line for a long time. Imagine someone making a sweet dish and carrying a fridge along to keep it edible. Auditions should be live and all contestants must be allowed to make the dishes on spot. Otherwise anyone can get it made from any place to enter the contest.

@FIZA, Soho: Picking on a small thing. It is Indian Chef not Hindu Chef.

Yaar. kabhi tau apne ideas lao.