“You never really finish”: Sarah Todd on her culinary journey across India, its regional flavours and more

Masterchef Australia alumni Sarah Todd may be best known for her multiple appearances on the popular food franchise through the years but her passion and joy for Indian cuisine cannot be looked past. The restaurateur-entrepreneur and has spent more than a decade discovering India through its regional cuisines, local ingredients and the people who bring its food traditions to life. In conversation with HELLO! India's Associate Editor Dayle Pereira-Alemao, Sarah reflects on the flavours that surprise her, the memories that shape her cooking and how her culinary journey continues to deepen through DEWAR’S Discoveries.

(Also Read: “Food is a powerful archive”: Chef Sanjeev Kapoor)

HELLO! India: Which lesser-known regional Indian dishes have you discovered during your travels that stayed with you?

Sarah Todd: There are so many: kalari cheese sizzling on a tawa in Jammu, eating ros omelette with fresh poi on the roadside in Goa, and now discovering ragi, avarekai and Bengaluru’s military-hotel cooking. These are the experiences I wish I could take friends from Australia along for, because they show you just how extraordinarily regional India really is.

HELLO! India: Are there any unexpected Indian flavours that you think work well with Scotch?

Sarah Todd: I’ve loved discovering how ingredients like kokum, gondhoraj lime, jaggery, saffron and even chilli work with Scotch. You take a sip after something sharp and citrusy like gondhoraj, and suddenly the fruit in the whisky comes alive; something smoky or caramelised brings out the oak and sweetness. I love that little moment of surprise.

HELLO! India: Do you believe the best food experiences are about more than just what is on the plate?

Sarah Todd: Always. I remember a bibi grinding masala in her kitchen, the chai someone insists you stay for, the noise of the market and the family who has just welcomed a complete stranger to their table. The food becomes the doorway into someone’s world; that’s the part I fall in love with.

HELLO! India: What is one Indian food memory that has stayed with you long after the meal was over?

Sarah Todd: Walking into Chandni Chowk for the first time eleven years ago is something I’ll never forget. I grew up in a town of around 2,000 people, and suddenly there were horns, smoke, people, spice and food everywhere. A family I’d barely met gave up their day to feed me their Delhi, and I think that generosity changed my relationship with India as much as the food did.

(Also Read: HELLO! India Exclusive: Big 'Banng' theory, the Garima Arora way)

HELLO! India: DEWAR’S Discoveries brings together regional storytelling and craftsmanship. What does the idea of ‘discovery’ mean to you personally as a chef?

Sarah Todd: After more than a decade in India, I love that this country can still completely surprise me. One week I’m holding tiny desert-grown ker berries in Rajasthan, then smelling Gondhoraj lime in Kolkata, tasting kokum in Goa and discovering avarekai in Bengaluru. DEWAR’S Discoveries has given me this incredible opportunity to return with fresh eyes, dig deeper and realise how much I still have to learn.

HELLO! India: How do you walk the line between respecting traditional recipes and bringing your own perspective to them?

Sarah Todd: I never want to take a traditional dish and change it while still calling it by its original name. I’d rather sit with it, understand why it tastes the way it does, then take one little spark, an ingredient, a technique, a memory, and create something completely my own. Tradition stays tradition; inspiration is where my creativity begins.

HELLO! India: If you could design a culinary road trip across India purely around regional food, where would you begin and where would you end?

Sarah Todd: I’d begin in Kashmir before sunrise with a steaming bowl of harissa, travel through Jammu, Punjab and Rajasthan, across Bengal and the Northeast, then wind my way south through Karnataka and Kerala before finishing in Goa with a fish thali by the sea. Although that might take me a while, the wonderful thing about India is that you never really finish; someone will always tell you about another village you absolutely have to eat in.

(Also Read: Inside Hollywood's favourite dining spots in India)