Affable Hardeep
is no turban myth
Re-visiting Rosehill Theatre Whitehaven, on September 24, is Glaswegian raconteur, broadcaster, chef, columnist and film-maker, Hardeep Singh Kohli with his spicy new show “Masala and Chat”. Here our editor Chris Breen spoke to him about his forthcoming visit to Whitehaven’s Rosehill Theatre
Hardeep Singh Kohli is not a man who is easily surprised, but he readily admits that the direction his career has taken in the last three years has amazed him.
He studied law at Glasgow Uni, after being privately educated from the age of eight, at a Roman Catholic school in central Glasgow. He managed restaurants before joining the BBC production team and went on to direct children’s TV and news and documentaries and is currently on an extensive and exhausting national tour with his chat show.
Of his recent re-direction of career Hardeep told me: “It has been quite remarkable,” and he credits it, to a large extent, to his appearance on the first series of Celebrity Masterchef, on BBC television, in which he won through to the final.
“I never expected that I would be doing what I am doing”; it’s quite remarkable.” he said, but he is thriving and feeding off the atmosphere and feedback of live audiences. “It’s so different from working at the BBC or other work I’ve done."
Hardeep has always loved food and cooking from an early age and was greatly influenced by his gran and his parents. Formal family meals were an important part of his upbringing and the cooking followed on, naturally, from that. “I used to cook for my brothers and meals were a social occasion. I just love to eat and talk. Chatting around a table brings a kind of equality to everyone who’s dining,” he said.
And that’s basically what he will be doing in his Chat Masala show at Rosehill Theatre, Moresby, near Whitehaven on Saturday September 24. It’s a sort of chat show with curry. Combining his first true loves of cooking and chatting in his own unique, articulate and utterly charming way, Hardeep will interview guests while cooking up a curry that some lucky audience members will get the chance to sample.
“I try to create a sort of mini-community, getting everyone together, as if we were all round a table,” Hardeep told me.
I also asked if he thought it was important that children learned to cook and he’s a strong believer in the importance of learning to cook at an early age.
“I would suggest we make cooking mandatory for all children from the age of 14. There’s an absolute link between those who cook and those who eat healthily. You become aware of the different nutritional components to food and you can make informed decisions about what you choose to eat. Also, I don’t think we’re patriotic enough when it comes to British produce. We’ve got some of the best food in the world, and we’re still bringing in products from other countries. I don’t see the logic in that. So when you’re teaching kids to cook you’re teaching them about their communities.
As for his favourite foods he says they are too numerous to mention whereas the foods he hates don’t really exist...and when asked about one traditional Scottish favourite Hardeep told me: “Yes, I have had a deep-fried Mars Bar... and I enjoyed it!”
He’s a very witty man but he told me: “I wouldn’t call myself a comedian; other people call me that. If I can tell my stories through my newspaper columns or a book or a blog I’m happy. It’s about connecting with human beings.
Musically he’s a jazz aficionado who is working his way through the back catalogues of the greats such as Miles Davis and John Coltrane “but I’m also in a female singer-songwriter phase at the moment,” he said and I like to try keep abreast with musical trends but time is always against me.”
Rosehill’s celebrities for the night are award-winning writer and TV presenter, Stefan Gates, (from BBC2’s Cooking in the Dangerzone), locally-based and world-renowned singer/entertainer Cathy Marcangelo and managing director of LLW Repository and Whitehaven Rugby League Football Club chairman, Dick Raaz.
“I’m looking forward to coming to Rosehill again; you have such lovely audiences.”
The event takes places in association with the Taste Cumbria Food Festival.
