The Bitter Southerner is happy to launch our Summer Voices guest editor series with celebrated chef Maneet Chauhan. Indian by birth and culinary heritage, Maneet is Southern by choice, now making her home in Nashville, where she owns several popular and wildly creative restaurants. At Chauhan Ale & Masala House, for instance, the current menu includes an appetizer of artichoke pakoras — featuring fenugreek, chaat masala, eggplant, and coconut chutney.
A longtime judge on Food Network’s “Chopped” and (spoiler alert!) winner of the recent “Toughest Culinary Competition Tournament of Champions II,” chef Maneet and her business-partner husband, Vivek Deora, moved to Nashville to open Chauhan Ale & Masala House in 2014. Since then, their hospitality group has launched three more restaurants, enchanting Nashvillians and tourists alike with contemporary Chinese dishes at Tansuo, modern-diner fare at The Mockingbird, and craveable Indian street food at Chaatable.
Maneet’s cookbooks — Flavors of My World and Chaat: Recipes From the Kitchens, Markets, and Railways of India — reflect her “global fusion” cooking style, which expresses a deep pride in her Indian heritage while incorporating the cultural and culinary influences of her journeys around the world, including in the American South.
For her weeklong takeover of The Bitter Southerner, Maneet has put together a package of stories exploring the powerful mingling of foods, flavors, and cultures that give the South its complex and ever-evolving identity. Maneet also shares her recipe for Black-Eyed Pea Tikki — a delicious croquette that seamlessly melds Southern and Indian flavors. It’s “sweet and tart and spicy and salty,” Maneet says, “ ... everything good in the world.”
We are delighted to share Maneet’s goodness and bounty — of food, generosity, and spirit — with y’all. Enjoy!
