Himanshu Sitlani is the Co-Artistic Director of Nautanki Bazaar - a brand new South Asian Theatre company based in Toronto. He is also the star of the company’s debut virtual theatre production Stories of a Dish, presented at The Next Stage Theatre Festival in Toronto from January 19-30, 2022. I spoke with Himanshu about his love of food.

I know you have a big presence online, with Stories of A Dish on Instagram, and with Mustard Tempered Dreams on YouTube. Are you aiming to get a TV show on The Food Network?

To get a show on The Food Network would be a dream come true for sure. While that dream is definitely on the radar, as of now it seems a bit farther. But we are definitely working in that direction.

I love to cook. If I wanted to experiment with Indian flavours, where would I find some of the less common ingredients?

Most South Asian grocery stores stock a wide variety of native Indian ingredients. While the common ones like cumin, turmeric, etc make it to the front shelves, other lesser known items linger in the back shelves and corners. For example Kokum also known as Garcinia Indica is used as a souring agent. Also fresh Moringa leaves make for a great stir-fry or when cooked with lentils.

Anything you can recommend for those seeking out amazing new flavours? 

Take a break from Butter chicken, LOL. By that I mean try other Indian cuisines like South Indian, Maharashtrian, Bengali, North-east Indian, Kashmiri etc. Best would be to invite yourself to your Indian friend's home for a meal cooked by their mother or grandmother.

Is there a legendary great chef you particularly admire?

While like most people I admire chefs like Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsay, there are a few Indian Chefs I swear by. If you want to ever cook an Indian dish and need a foolproof recipe, I would suggest looking up Varun Inamdar, Harpal Singh Sokhi and Ranveer Brar.

A favourite local restaurant?

This one would be steering away from Indian food for a bit. Because we cook so much Indian food at home we usually prefer to eat different cuisines when we dine out. One such cuisine we only discovered after moving to Canada was Ethiopian and we just love the food at this amazing Ethiopian restaurant in our Regent Park hood called King Solomon and Queen Sheba.

Are you concerned about gaining weight, or have you found a happy medium?

While food is a big weakness, as I'm growing older I have found a pretty ok balance and mostly eating home-cooked meals makes it much easier to follow a healthy diet. Except of course when I am in the company of Gulab Jamuns!