My Experience at the "Greatest Food Tasting Internship"

When I first saw Internshala's Greatest Food Tasting Internship post, I was intrigued to see what it was. Never in my wildest dreams had I thought, that I would end up getting selected. That too from 10,000 applicants since who wouldn't want to apply, right? It had free food, travel and obviously, the experience that came along with that.

I had done many internships earlier, mostly technical but this was something unique so I decided to apply and give it my best shot. In my heart, I knew that in the end people having culinary, hotel management experience would get selected, that made sense too. Since I had previously worked with The Akshaya Patra Foundation so I had some knowledge of food and I think that gave me an edge. The Akshaya Patra Foundation is the world's largest NGO that provided mid-day meals to over 1.8 million children in India every day and has been an integral part of Covid-19 relief feeding programme.

First was the written round that followed three telephonic interviews by different managers of Internshala. The results were finally declared and I got selected! I double-checked, just to make sure. I was really excited and surprised. I had put all my experience, enthusiasm and efforts in writing the SOP and clearing the interviews.

I was then asked to come to an Airbnb in Safdarjung, where we 3 selected interns would meet each other and the Internshala team. We received a warm welcome from the lovely Internshala team and started getting to know each other. Our first task was to prepare a three-course meal for everyone. We were provided with some ingredients and then we three got to planning. We decided to make deconstructed tacos for starters, white sauce pasta for the main course and strawberry chocolate cream for the dessert. We divided the work and started preparing the dishes. After 2 hours of chopping, mixing, boiling and frying, we finally served the dishes. Everyone was already hungry so we just dug in, shared stories and had a sumptuous dinner with interesting conversations. That marked the end of day one and now we had to be ready for the next day that included travelling all over Delhi while trying its authentic street food, cafes and luxury restaurants.

The next morning we were all set to experience the wide variety of food that Delhi had to offer. Our first destination was the street food paradise, Chandni Chowk. There we met Mr Anubhav Sapra, who is the founder and foodie in chief of Delhi Food Walks. He helped us discover several hidden gems of old Delhi. He took us to our first stop, Jain Coffee House in Chawri Bazar. Interestingly, the coffee house was established a year after our independence and we tried their refreshing fruit sandwiches with a very peculiar saffron sauce and also their fruit shakes for which it has a cult following. They prepared everything right in front of your eyes and maintained full hygiene while using fresh ingredients.

Our next destination was Shyam Sweets, also an age-old shop started in 1910 and is widely loved by folks since then. We had to try its Nagori halwa and Bedmi puri sabzi for which it's madly popular and it was worth the hype. Interesting thing was that every shop owner and even local people knew Anubhav sir as if the place was his second home, he conducts his food tours there almost every day. We also met an interesting uncle there who told us that he was best friends with the current owner's grandfather and also sang a sweet old song for us. We took care to not stuff our bellies at one place as we had to try dishes at other places as well but the food was so scrumptious, it was almost difficult to resist.

We weren't told about the places we would visit beforehand by the Internshala team that helped to keep the mystery and excitement alive and they managed everything very well. 

Then we went to Karim's, a place that needs no introduction. It's one of the most famous places there for non-vegetarian food, started in 1913. Although I only tried their Sheermal being a vegetarian, I could see my friends savouring the delicacies of Karim's.

We then took to the streets of Old Delhi and encountered a vendor selling Daulat ki chaat on a cycle. It's also called Malayi Makhan in UP, Malayo in Varanasi and Nimish in Lucknow. It tasted like a cloud in my mouth, that is how light it was. It’s basically a mixture of milk, cream, sugar, saffron and khoya that underwent a lot of mixing and whisking and cold treatment. 

We had to try Kuliya ki chaat next at Hira Lal Chaat Corner. It was a different type of fruit chaat made by hollowing out pieces of fruits and vegetables and filling them with spices and chickpeas, pomegranate and magic. It had wholesome quirky freshness in every bite. 

Then to conclude our flavoursome Old Delhi tour, we went to our last stop to taste some lip-smacking kulfi ice cream at Kuremal Mahavir Prasad Kulfiwale. They had the most sensational kulfi that I had ever tasted in my life. The variety was insane too. They had turned every fruit into a succulent stuffed fruit kulfi. Mangoes, pomegranates, apples and what not was hollowed out and their scrapings were used to create organic fruit kulfi stuffing. I personally liked the Falsa kulfi the most as it had an eccentric tangy flavour that one doesn’t experience very much in ice creams. It was the perfect place to end our Old Delhi tour and it was my personal favourite out of all the locations that we explored in this internship.

All these eateries that we visited in Chandni Chowk were more than 100 years old. They all had a story behind their food, how it came into existence and is still popular after all these years. One falls in love with these stories that add up to the taste of the food to make the experience worthwhile and fulfilling. I would like to thank Anubhav Sapra for making us discover these fantastic old gems of Delhi and making the whole tour extremely fun and interesting by his knowledge and stories of food and life, in general.

After trying street food of Old Delhi, we then headed to Imperfecto in Hauz Khas, South Delhi. It had such an out of the box, interesting ambience with chairs, umbrellas, tables, wires, pipes and other artifacts hanging from the roof. We also got the opportunity to interact with the chefs and saw them working live in the kitchen. Chef Heera told us stories about how he decided to make cooking food his profession, how he spent his childhood days and his dreams. They gave us a brief tour of the kitchen and prepared cheese calzone for us from scratch. It was exquisite to watch those chefs making food for us with such happiness. We had some mocktails and saw the bartender do his tricks with glasses and bottles. We played some games, had nice conversations and set out for our next expedition. It was already 5 p.m by then.

Even the car ride with everyone was fun, filled with jokes and amazing music (obviously my playlist). We all had become good friends in such a short period. We then arrived at Aerocity where we had to meet Mr Saurabh Nirmal at Plum by Bent Chair. Plum is India’s first true retail restaurant means that one can eat and shop at the same time. And one can take anything home from paintings to furniture to crockery to decorative pieces. It was started by Mr Neeraj Jain and Ms Natasha Jain. It feels like one is eating at an art gallery there, such is the ambience of the place. Saurabh told his stories about how he became a food blogger after doing engineering and then an MBA. We had a lot of delicious dishes there like chocolate caramel brownie with marshmallows, avocado and honey ice cream, charcoal dumplings, hamachi nigiri, tiger prawns, mushroom bao, cheese broccoli karaage, chilli oil noodles and tropical fruit citrus cheesecake. We were also introduced to the manager there who gave us a tour of the kitchen and we tasted a variety of different flavoured sauces used in cooking.

Now, we were already full but there was one last destination on our list and that was Courtyard by Marriot in Gurugram. It was a stunningly beautiful restaurant. We were greeted by the manager who took us around the hotel and introduced us to executive chef, Chef Balvinder Pal Singh Lubana. Chef Balvinder took us to the kitchen where all the other chefs gave us a thumping welcome by banging plates and other utensils and told us that this is how they welcome their guests by their “kitchen band”, it was really fun. We were told about the different departments for different types of cuisines in the vast kitchen and how they are prepared. Then we went outside to see the live grill and had a very interesting conversation with Chef Balvinder where he told us about his engineering days, his defence family background and why his passion guided him to be a chef instead. We then went inside and all of us sat with the hotel manager on a beautiful table specially arranged for us and the dishes kept on coming one after the other. First came dahi puri, then kebabs, chicken dishes, cheeseballs and spring rolls for the starters. We had cheese and eggplant, chicken salad for the main course. And then came the desserts, in such a diverse variety including different types of chocolates, red velvet pastry, strawberry cake, blueberry cheesecake, white chocolate cake, cinnamon cheesecake and all sorts of other cakes.

I had never eaten such an enormous variety and amount of food in my entire life that I did in one day. I got to know a lot about different aspects of food. Food dishes have plenty of technicalities behind them and it’s the story of their existence and humble beginnings that makes them loved by the masses and not just the taste. I wholeheartedly want to thank the whole team of Internshala: Unnati, Kashish, Mahima, Disha, Avani that made this possible and executed everything in such a wonderful manner and our mentors, Anubhav Sapra, Saurabh Nirmal and Chef Balvinder Pal Singh for sharing their knowledge and experience with us. Overall it was quite an enriching experience, I went there just to have a good time but ended up learning a lot...while having a good time.