Think about the first time you watched someone eat their way across India on television and felt genuinely hungry, curious, and a little envious. Chances are, it was an NDTV show. Long before food became a lifestyle category, a social media aesthetic, or an investor pitch, NDTV was already in the thick of it, telling the stories of Indian kitchens, street stalls, dhabas, homes, and restaurants with real passion and credibility. From the dusty highways of Vinod Dua’s journeys to the gleaming trophy stage of the NDTV Food Awards 2026, this is the story of a platform that did not just cover Indian food, it helped shape it.
It Started Long Before The Food Content Boom
When the rest of the world was still figuring out what a food show could be, NDTV was already on the road. Vinod Dua’s Zaika India Ka took viewers to corners of the country they had never seen on television, exploring local flavours and forgotten recipes with a journalist’s eye and a true foodie’s heart. It was honest, curious, and deeply Indian.
Around the same time, Highway on My Plate, featuring Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma, turned the Indian highway dhaba into prime-time television. These were not cooking shows. They were road trips, discoveries, and love letters to a country that eats extraordinarily well.
Then came Foodistan, a culinary battle format that brought competitive cooking to Indian screens before MasterChef had fully arrived in India. Chakh Le India went a step further, uncovering hidden gems and regional champions that mainstream food media had often overlooked. Each show added a new chapter to the same story: India’s food culture is vast, diverse, and endlessly worth exploring.
Kunal Kapur And The Era Of The Indian Celebrity Chef
No conversation about NDTV Food is complete without Kunal Kapur. His show My Yellow Table was part of a new wave of food television that put the Indian chef front and centre, not just as a technician but as a storyteller. NDTV helped an entire generation see food as something more than what was on the plate. It became about travel, memory, identity, and discovery.
Kapur, with his easy charm and genuine love for cooking, became one of the most recognisable faces of that shift. These shows did not just document India’s food landscape; they helped shape it, inspiring millions of viewers to travel farther, taste deeper, and celebrate the incredible diversity of Indian cuisine.
The NDTV Food Awards: Recognition That Was Long Overdue
In 2010, NDTV took its commitment to food a step further with the launch of the NDTV Food Awards, one of the country’s earliest and most respected celebrations of culinary excellence. At a time when India’s restaurant and hospitality industry had very few formal platforms for recognition, this was a significant moment.
The awards gave chefs, restaurateurs, and food professionals a stage. They gave the industry credibility and offered diners a trusted guide to the best of India’s food landscape.
Over the years, as India’s food scene evolved from a handful of iconic restaurants into a vibrant ecosystem of chefs, entrepreneurs, regional champions, global innovators, and investors, NDTV remained at the heart of the conversation. The awards grew alongside the industry, adding new categories, spotlighting regional cuisines, and recognising the full range of talent that makes Indian food so exciting.
2026: A Platform That Has Only Grown Bigger
The NDTV Food Awards 2026 marks the latest chapter in a legacy that stretches back more than two decades. This year’s ceremony brought together some of the biggest names in the business, from Kunal Kapur and Manish Mehrotra to Manu Chandra, Doma Wang, and Chef Seefah, for a night that was as much a celebration of Indian food culture as it was an awards show.
What NDTV Food has built over more than two decades is not just a media legacy, it is a movement. For millions of Indians, NDTV Food has not merely reported on the country’s food culture; it has helped create it, preserve it, and inspire its next chapter.
The chefs it has celebrated, the shows it has produced, and the awards it has presented have all contributed to a food ecosystem that India can genuinely be proud of.
