An evening of science, cookery and history all rolled into one!

A fantastic evening was had by all in Cambridge when Pankaj Bhadouria told all about her love of food and her rise to victory, as well as performing a demonstration of the skills that resulted in her being announced as the very first Winner of Master Chef India.

To compliment this Dr Susan Jebb explained the science behind how our diet affects our health and Dr Sumantra Ray guided the audience through some of the science behind the ingredients being used, along with a few facts on the history of the spice trade.

The evening showed how South Asian food can not only be healthy, but that it is also very easy to prepare and is absolutely delicious! Pankaj (assisted by HNR’s Kirsty Trigg) showed the audience how to make Egg Kebabs (patties) with a mint sauce for starter, followed by mains from 4 different regions and finished with a Fruit Sandesh with no added sugar for a sweet.

The evening was made possible due to the help of a large number of volunteers from MRC HNR, and through the Cambridge-India Partnership funding Pankaj’s travel to the UK. We were also pleased to be able to use this evening as an opportuntity to invite the Arthur Rank Hospice along to promote their work and hold a raffle, with some wonderful healthy prizes.

The audience also all took away with them a goody bag, with a taster pack inside, which included a wholemeal baked samosa and a baked spicy corn fritter kindly made by a team at HNR. Recipes for these and all the dishes demonstrated are at the bottom of this page, underneath photographs from the evening.

To read more about Pankaj, the Cambridge-India Partnership and the Arthur Rank Hospice please visit their websites at:

• Pankaj Bhadouria website
• Cambridge-India Partnership 
• Arthur Rank Hospice

Recipes:

• Egg Kebab
• Chicken (No) Butter Masala
• Fish Moily Not Oily
• Gatte ki Subzi
• Rainbow Poshto (Vegetables in Poppy Paste)
• Fruit Sandesh with No Added Sugar
• Wholemeal Baked Samosa
• Baked Spicy Corn Fritter

Sizzling Science with Added Spice also took part in Newham Healthy Food Festival. To read about this event please click here.

Sizzling Science is a Knowledge Exchange and Transfer (KET) activity devised by the Nutrition and Health Communications team at MRC HNR and started in 2009. Since then we have teamed up with different chefs and partners to deliver this format to a wide range of audiences.

For Sizzling Science with Added Spice we had the pleasure of joining forces with Chef Pankaj Bhadouria to help communicate our messages to the South Asian community in particular. This event was co-ordinated by Dr Glenys Jones at MRC HNR, with Dr Sumantra Ray from MRC HNR/University of Cambridge and his wife Dr Minha Rajput-Ray (University of Cambridge) having conceived the idea of bringing Pankaj to the UK during a recent trip to India, and then being fortunate enough to obtain a grant from the Cambridge-India Partnership fund to make her travel to the UK a possibility.