Rick Stein's India

Rick manages to capture the essence of Indian culture and cuisine in its truest form. Being of Indian origin and having visited many times, I feel Rick manages to express my own sentiments in the most beautiful way. His travels and quirky explorations remind me very much of the guided tours given to me by my late dad. I'm so grateful to have this series. Thank you.

For the non-Indian, he provides practical adaptations of the various real Indian recipes to recreate his version of the same dish, whilst maintaining the element of authenticity. Wish I could have tagged along or there was a holiday package that provided the culinary experiences shown on the series.

I have to say I enjoyed the show very much. 6 episodes was plenty of time to cover the huge country properly. The range of food on show over the programme was impressive as was the social context of how it was eaten, from humble food for the masses to the finest restaurants in the area. You meet quite a range of people over the show and get to to see some of them again in episode 6. There's a bit of history that's covered but it's really mainly about cooking and definitely makes you feel like a prawn or chicken curry afterwards. There's no escaping the heat and madness of the country at times, the show isn't super polished but feels instead quite raw and natural capturing all the moments other programmes might edit out.