Ahmedabad’s young master of all tastes

Walking into Pranav Joshi’s Cooking Academy feels like entering a cooking show on TV. Students stand at live stations that look straight out of a TV show kitchen, chopping, cutting and whipping up food, watching the chefs demonstrating the making of a dish on a special hob. These students range from youth to couples and even corporate executives. Explains Joshi, “While doing cooking shows on television, I realised that there is a large market for cookery classes that target those who have never cooked before or want to improve their cooking repertoire. For instance, picture a young 20-something woman who is affianced and does not know how to even cut vegetables, she wants to learn cooking from the basics to making elaborate dishes in a couple of months. Or a young man who is getting ready to leave for studies in a foreign country where he has to cook for himself. Even business people and executives, who have always wanted to follow their cooking passion but never had the opportunity to. This realisation led me to start this academy.” 

Pranav Joshi himself never planned on becoming a chef. “I went to Western Australia to train in hospitality management. I took a weekend job at a café. Working in the café’s kitchen, I found it exciting to learn about making the right blend of coffee and the snacks to go with different drinks. I came up with my own ideas to develop the ambience and presentation’’, he recalls, adding, “While doing various hotel jobs as a trainee, I realised that cooking is a passion I wanted to follow rather than do office work.’’ Having had much international exposure in Australasia, Joshi returned to Ahmedabad and joined the restaurant Tomato’s. “While in Australia, I had done some work on a TV show about how to go about opening a restaurant, with my colleagues. We could not succeed because of lack of capital but I wanted to pursue a show like that in India,’’ he explains. Thus, when he was approached to do a Gujarati language cookery show called the Rasoi Show series, he took the opportunity. “It was very exciting. It gave me a following among Gujaratis, not only in Gujarat but upstate Gujarati families and the Gujarati Diaspora in various countries.” The success of the show made me decide to do a national cooking show. This led to Food Food’s Budget Kitchen, a show that teaches inexpensive and easy, yet delectable and appetizing recipes.

“Having got the idea of starting an institute, it was necessary to give it the upmarket design and ambience that would appeal to his clientele. For this, my wife Darshini, a graphic designer, came up with the logo and designs.’’ Once past the reception, you come to Café Flambe, which is opening in a month or two, on the first floor. The second floor is the main teaching area. “What sets my cooking academy apart from others in India is that we have 20 fully-equipped work stations where 20 students can cook at the same time, watching me or one of our qualified chefs demonstrating their cooking in front of them. “For  those who want a one-on-one session, say a couple or an individual who wants dedicated lessons, the third floor has a state-of-the-art training kitchen. This facility has drawn big industrialist families, designers and other prominent people to my academy,’’ says Joshi. While the cooking academy is a business venture, Joshi says, “I have also started the Pranav Joshi’s foundation that has been built to help underprivileged people by teaching them cooking skills and helping them stand on their feet in this world. Our cooking academy will train people every year and will help them to get a job.”