What does Masterchef Australia and The Whitefield Baking Company have in common? - Kate Bracks!!!

Masterchef Australia can be credited with starting a revolution that completely altered that way that anyone approaches food. It has within the span of three years turned the nation (and I mean India here) into a completely food obsessed one. Not that we were not connoisseurs of the good stuff already, but the appreciation and knowledge of a variety of cuisines and techniques definitely stems from there. The regular dal-chawal eating home was now attempting to get a perfect crust on their pie!  Dinner time (the holy thread that bonds us in an Indian family) was moved to an hour earlier, so that we could all sit down to watch Masterchef at 9:00 PM. Who ever heard of a food show being given a prime time slot?

Masterchef Australia Season 3 was one of my favorite seasons.  I don’t think I missed even one episode. I knew each and every contestant by name and followed their escapades in the kitchen closely.  And Kate Bracks - Dessert Queen and  mother of three, took home the title with a sweet flourish! For people like me who live and breathe food – these are our celebrities! So do you think I missed a chance to meet Kate when she came down to Bangalore – no freaking way!!

Smoke House DELI in Bangalore! (Indiranagar, Bangalore)

I don’t want to be biased…no I really don’t. But I couldn’t help doing cartwheels when Smoke House Deli finally opened in Bangalore a week ago. I remember driving down 100ft road and doing a double take in Feb, when I saw the huge glass façade with the black and white writing that said ‘Smoke Hou’ (the rest of it was covered, but I knew in my heart, that it was Smoke House Deli). For all practical purposes we are going to refer to it as SHD in the rest of the post!.

“Smoke House Deli is an all-day café and delicatessen. This award winning brand serves everything from pancakes to noshes, pasta to burgers and dessert to cocktails.” - SHD

After wowing patrons in Mumbai and Delhi SHD decided to grace Bangalore!! I was invited for a Bloggers Table a day after it opened (yes, I have some perks) and boy was I raring to go, even though it was a Wednesday night. And what a night it turned out to be –chatting with the owners Riyaaz and Kiran, being lavished with an awesome menu from chef Glyston Gracios, gossiping with my fellow bloggers and downing cocktails like there was no tomorrow. (Unfortunatley there was a tomorrow… and a hangover crashed the party as well, but that’s a story unfit for a food blog!)